My dang rugers keep breaking

sequins · May 25, 2019

You know, for all this talk of Ruger building guns that resemble tanks I just don't get my luck. I also don't recall many tanks held together with glue though either, so who knows.

First we have my super blackhawk. I was firing it last night and the dang front sight popped off. Held on with glue. Wow, built like a tank? Maybe a Raytheon tank... I guess since it's just glued on there is no fixing this, can't pin it to the barrel I don't think or otherwise do the job right due to the design so I'll get it repaired and just expect to have to keep doing that from time to time. Range toy only moving forward...

Next we have my Redhawk- I was gonna clean it the other day and when I pushed the rod to extend the extractor star the whole assembly just popped out completely free of the gun... That can't be good! The cylinder won't shut, I'm not 100% sure why the parts popped free, and I'm sending it back.

In addition to the busted .44s above I also had to return an SP101 previously. It's possible I messed the SP101 up myself during disassembly (the issue was a failed trigger return spring) so I don't count the SP101 against them as it well could have been me, but the Redhawk and Super Blackhawk above are 100% on Ruger. To put it another way, 100% of my Ruger .44 Magnums have failed due to manufacturing inadequacies.

Now, I have confidence that Ruger will make this right and that I'll be happily shooting these guns again in no time. My experience and pleasure shooting Ruger, combined with my extremely positive customer support interactions in the past, have made me a Ruger customer for life; Don't get me wrong I love Ruger and I will continue to buy their products.

But when it comes down to it I view them a little differently after these experiences. I just think they should be held accountable for their really poor build quality these days. I wanted to shoot more .44 today and I can't because I broke BOTH of them. (I guess I need a third... Perhaps a freedom arms or something "built like a tank")

robhof · May 25, 2019

Wow, 2 lemons for one customer, I've owned Rugers for over 40 yrs, never had a problem, my son's friend bought a P85 for $50 because the safety was broke, gun looked like it had been drug behind a truck for miles, turned out they had been recalled for that problem, he sent it in and gun came back looking like brand new. Hope your luck with Ruger improves.

NIGHTLORD40K · May 25, 2019

Wow, that stinks, but Ive had to fix broken guns from probably every manufacturer under the sun at one point or another. My Sp101 would bind until I smoothed out a rough edge on the blast shield casting and my P94 had to have its slide replaced for jamming. Ive had Colts with broken triggers, a Beretta with a cracked barrel and N-frame Smiths with bad timing, among many others.

I guess the takeaway is that man is imperfect, as are all his creations. Guns are actually far more reliable than tanks, THOSE break down all the time! Lol.

Good luck getting them fixed, let us know how it turns out.

SharpDog · May 25, 2019

You should probably trade it in for a reliable pistol like a p365

Just poking fun at the myriad of p365-bashing threads. :evil:

sequins · May 25, 2019

Truth is they all make lemons, I've just been bit hard and often by ruger lately

skeeterfogger · May 25, 2019

Are these newly purchased or older new to you?

ClickClickD'oh · May 25, 2019

The front sight on Blackhawks and Super Blackhawks are silver soldered onto the barrel, not glued. They usually are on there for life, but from time to time there is a bad solder job. Ruger will fix it on their dime.

crestoncowboy · May 25, 2019

sequins said:
To put it another way, 100% of my Ruger .44 Magnums have failed due to manufacturing inadequacies.

Dont feel bad. I've had 3 of 3 smith and Wesson 44s fail. 2 of then didnt have 500 rounds total and only 50 magnums between the two. You and I are just Lucky like that. Like you I was satisfied with the company making it right, paying 2 way shipping (unlike the Sig mentioned above.....) etc. (No freebies from smith though. But that's ok)

Maybe we should buy Taurus.

Charlie Martinez · May 25, 2019

I shoot a 44 Mag Vaquero frequently & my issue has been the ejector rod. Once, the locking pin unscrewed out of the frame at the range & I was darn lucky to find all the parts (nut, screw & spring, all tiny as heck) on the floor. Also the ejector rod tends to spin around, jam against the barrel & refuse to eject empties. I now have the habit of keeping a close watch on the ejector rod when I'm shooting to make sure it's not coming apart on me again. Other than that I like my gun a lot & no other problems.

skeeterfogger · May 25, 2019

Taurus has been good to me. Reliable and I've never had one malfunction.
I also tend to only purchase very good shape older guns. I think manufacturing was better then. To many manufactures now a days corporate cronies will sacrifice almost anything to save a dime for their pockets quality and the customer be damned.
Use to be when something new came out it took 2-5 years for the total quality to show but now brand new can go to the dump from beginning to end. Recall after recall is genuine signs of short cutting.
I'll take a 1970s Single Six over a new Blackhawk any day. I'll take a 1970s Taurus over a new anything now. I only have one new. It's a Taurus and I put through an extreme breakin and in the end it shoots better and handles better than the xd9 I grew to hate. The Takrov 213 as old as it is is a better gun then most now a days. I would love to have a Desert Eagle but it would hve to be the original with the intergrated, not cut, rifling. Not sure that's best description but those that know the gun know what I mean.
Lemons happen but seems too many lemons in everything now.

sequins · May 25, 2019

skeeterfogger said:
Are these newly purchased or older new to you?

Factory new, both in the last 3 year via Davidson's.

skeeterfogger · May 25, 2019

Wow. If it was me. My reply to Ruger would be fix but expect warantee. If they balk demand refund. If it happens again I would demand full refund.
My opinion only that everyone should put all manufacturers on the spot. Stop the short cutting.

ThomasT · May 25, 2019

Yep. Send it back to Ruger. They should repair that no questions asked.

bannockburn · May 25, 2019

sequins

A buddy of mine bought a used .44 Magnum Vaquero which had the barrel improperly installed (front sight was definitely leaning quite a bit to the right). Gun shop he bought it from sent it back to Ruger and they agreed they messed up the barrel but had a problem in that they no longer had that barrel in their inventory. So they built a new barrel from scratch then polished the rest of the gun (it was stainless), so that everything matched. No charge for all of the work done and they paid for shipping both ways.

Definitely the right way to fix a gun that shouldn't have left the factory in the first place. I have no doubt that Ruger will make things right with your two revolvers.

skeeterfogger · May 25, 2019

That is good customer support.

bannockburn said:
sequins

A buddy of mine bought a used .44 Magnum Vaquero which had the barrel improperly installed (front sight was definitely leaning quite a bit to the right). Gun shop he bought it from sent it back to Ruger and they agreed they messed up the barrel but had a problem in that they no longer had that barrel in their inventory. So they built a new barrel from scratch then polished the rest of the gun (it was stainless), so that everything matched. No charge for all of the work done and they paid for shipping both ways.

Definitely the right way to fix a gun that shouldn't have left the factory in the first place. I have no doubt that Ruger will make things right with your two revolvers.

TTv2 · May 25, 2019

Yeah, I keep hearing about issues with Rugers and have lost confidence in the brand to the extent I decided when I buy my next .357, it's going to be the 7 shot Taurus 692 and not the 7 shot GP100. $150 less and the Taurus comes with a 9mm cylinder. Hard to beat that when the majority of what will be shot thru it is .38 and 9mm.

I'm done with Ruger's .327's, I had thought about getting the LCR in .327, but saw how good the 9mm is in the LCR and the price for 9mm LCRx revolvers is nearly $80 less than the .327 LCR/LCRx's are selling for and I expect the popularity of the 9mm LCR's will drive the prices lower over time as more people buy them. Not to mention finding a used 9mm LCR will be easier, as will selling one.

So, yeah, I'm not looking at any new Ruger wheelguns from now on. If I want a 7.5 inch Blackhawk in .45 Colt or a Bearcat, I'll buy an older used one that was made back when they were well made.

TTv2 · May 25, 2019

crestoncowboy said:
Dont feel bad. I've had 3 of 3 smith and Wesson 44s fail. 2 of then didnt have 500 rounds total and only 50 magnums between the two. You and I are just Lucky like that. Like you I was satisfied with the company making it right, paying 2 way shipping (unlike the Sig mentioned above.....) etc. (No freebies from smith though. But that's ok)

Maybe we should buy Taurus.

Pretty much what I've decided from now on, Taurus and Charter. Price is lower, so when an issue develops, it's understandable, but when a Ruger or a Smith that's $150-$300 more has a problem, it's hard to excuse. Thankfully it looks like Charter is upping their game, coming out with new revolvers, the "Professional", target and plinking revolvers with longer barrels and better sights, and their customer service is as good as Ruger's, possibility better.

Taurus? Well... at least they have the Judge and the Model 85 and hopefully the 692 will be good.

WestKentucky · May 25, 2019

I got bit twice on the same purchase. GP100 blues guns about 10 years ago. The first gun I bought and didn’t really check out like I should have, but it’s a Ruger right? Barrel was visibly chattered. Looked like a drill had come loose and the button used to rifle it didn’t clean it up all the way. Returned it to the gun shop as Ruger didn’t seem interested in fixing it. Gun shop owner gave me the other one he had in stock... same. Sold it soon after. Still not a fan of Ruger DA guns because of that experience. I will buy Taurus before Ruger for DA. I know I’m wrong about Ruger DA guns but that experience totally turned me off to them.

Armybrat · May 25, 2019

Ain’t nuthin wrong at all with the Super Blackhawk, the two New Vaqueros, the Bearcat, the SP101 .327, the SR45, the two LCPs, and the Single Seven I’ve bought in the past 4 years.

Sorry to hear some of you are having bad experiences with your Rutgers.

Duster340 · May 25, 2019

Or you can trade them in and buy 6 or 7 Charter Arms Bulldogs and Pitbulls. LOL.

Seriously though, I love my old Rugers. All of them are 30 plus years old with countless rounds through them all. I'm sure Ruger will make it right.

Be well man

Riomouse911 · May 25, 2019

Armybrat said:
Ain’t nuthin wrong at all with the Super Blackhawk, the two New Vaqueros, the Bearcat, the SP101 .327, the SR45, the two LCPs, and the Single Seven I’ve bought in the past 4 years.

Sorry to hear some of you are having bad experiences with your Rutgers.

AB, I think your auto-correct bit you... very, very few Big Ten teams have trouble with their Rutgers :rofl:

Stay safe

Old Stumpy · May 25, 2019

I have never had any problems with the sights on any Ruger Blackhawk, Redhawk, Single Six, Vaquero, or Bearcat, and I've owned them all.
In fact, I've always liked that their fixed sight revolvers always seem to shoot very close to the point of aim.
While the odd revolver will have a manufacturing defect, I do not believe that any Ruger revolver model is made by gluing the front sight on, especially a .44 magnum revolver. I don't believe that at all.
Ruger has had some quality control problems in the last ten tears or so, but usually they have been minor. And lets face it, it is only those few guns that are going to get any publicity on a forum.

Still, I am not going to buy an inferior brand like Taurus or Charter Arms because of it. That's like saying that you are only going to buy High Points because you have given up on Glocks.

But, I suppose that if you have a vested interest in selling Taurus or Charter Arms revolvers that you might seize the opportunity to do a little advertising.

ray15 · May 25, 2019

In my experience, Ruger will kill themselves to fix any problem you run into with a Ruger firearm. You'll get it back fast, right with a Ruger cleaning cloth and a note apologizing you had an issue. My Rugers, new or used, have all been fine examples but when you run into a problem nobody supports a customer as completely and professionally.

alfsauve · May 25, 2019

All the major companies will make good on their product warranty and all have their lemons on occasion. You just pick your favorite and hope you only get the pick of the liter.

My beef with Ruger is the unfriendly design decisions. The M77 where the front and rear ring mounts are different heights so you have to buy special rings. The Mk IV sights that uses different tools to adjust windage and elevation. The different mag wells between the Mk III and the Mk IV.

Jonesy814 · May 25, 2019

The past few years, Ruger has produced a phenomenal number of guns. In 2013 or 2014 if I recall correctly they hit the 2 million guns manufactured per year mark and have kept that rate up at least until 2017. A thousand lemons per year isn't even 1%. Maybe they have more messed up guns per year than that, but statistically I bet you are way more likely to get a good one, but it sucks when you dont

My dang rugers keep breaking

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