Broke my SP-101!

[Peakbagger46]

Took my Ruger SP-101 .357 out shooting yesterday. After a couple of shots, pulling the trigger resulted in a miss-fire, or rather, the cylinder didn't rotate when the trigger was pulled.

This was followed by the hammer being almost impossible to cock by hand and the cylinder being very difficult to close (with or without shells in it). I brought the gun to a friend at a gunshop. He took one look at it and decided to send it back to Ruger for me to have them figure out what was wrong.

Not sure what broke, but nothing is apparent from the outside. I was using rather hot .38 handloads, but they weren't to .357 pressures. Perhaps something was just worn out (I believe this gun was made in the early 90's).

Disapointing for sure but it will be interesting to see what Ruger finds.

 

[GCBurner]

Sounds like one of the internal parts broke. I think Ruger makes them from powdered metal sintered together in a mold under pressure, instead of from forged and machined steel.

 

[chrt396]

I had the same experience my friend. I'm surprised the gun shop didn't reccomend this to you. Take a litle rem oil or ANY gun oil and drop a few drops in the trigger area and try working it in. I was firing mine off one day and the thing darn near froze up on me. A senior member came up to me..sensing my pissedofftisness..and suggested oiling the pistol. I didn't think it would work. Drip..drop..drip...presto-bingo..it started working!!

Oil..just simply oil! Let me know if it works!

We clean them and oil a few parts, but don't always tear it down to clean behind the grips and side plates to the trigger group. Oil is your friend in this case...I think. C'mon man..try it!! I'm really anxious to see if it works!

Seriously..you are telling MY story!

 

[Peakbagger46]

Hmm... Too late to try the oil, its on the way to Ruger. I did completely tear the thing down and lubricate it a little more than a year ago.

 

[chrt396]

Wow! Oh well. If it was a year ago since you oiled it, chances are..it was dry. I constantly wipe down and oil my guns to assure their performance and appearance. The one gun I ignore at times is my S&W model 686 .357. That was the one that froze at the range. FOR ME..the oil corrected the problem. When you get it back..or if Ruger responds to you..let us know what they said!

 

[Cosmoline]

I've never had a Ruger revolver part break on any of the dozens of Ruger revolvers I've owned over the years. I'd be interested to hear what the problem was.

 

[Rexster]

Sounds like it might have been a bit of debris, which could be as simple as something trapped under the extractor, which would certainly not require a trip back to Ruger. OTOH, it is already on it's way back, so major or minor, the problem should be fixed right quickly by Ruger's normally-excellent CS.

 

[gamestalker]

Sounds like it could have something to do with the timing hand spring, or the hand. If the spring breaks it will cause the hand to be out of time with the cylinder, which would cause it to interupt rotation, and also make it very difficult to open or close the cylinder.

 

[Peakbagger46]

Could it have been my reloads? The brass looked fine, but I've never broken a revolver before.

 

[GP100man]

the hand binding in the window seems to happen alot on these late model SPs.

 

[chrt396]

I shot some dirty ammo in mine...and THAT is when it jammed up. I did the quick fix by lubing it up for that day and when I git home...I cleaned the snot out it. Perfect since then.

 

[racky]

i had the same thing happen to my vaquero. when i dissasembled it i found that the plunger in the hammer was sheared in two and the spring inside the hammer was all bent up.

 

[Dogguy]

I had the same thing happen to my SP101 last year. I was shooting some of my ancient handloads and the thing froze up and the cylinder wouldn't close. I was planning on taking it to the local gunsmith. Then I thought to check something. The old handloads were dirty and carbon/unburned powder/powder residue/whatever had gotten under the ejector. This caused the cylinder rotation to hang up and prevented the cylinder from closing.

All it took was a good cleaning. If you had not cleaned the gun in a year, that would have been the first place to start looking for trouble.

 

[youngda9]

I'm surprised at how quick some people are to send things back to the vendor prior to checking things out completely themselves.

 

[herkyguy]

I had a bad case once from a box of winchester .357. the cylinder wouldn't close because of it though. never had a problem with the actual gun. it's a tank.

 

[goon]

I had one of my SP-101's start to bind up once on this really dirty Armscorp .357 ammo that a friend brought along to the range with us. It worked fine once I scrubbed some of the fouling from that ammo off of it, but I was surprised that fouling could bind a revolver up that fast. Never had even the slightest bit of trouble with the gun other than that.
When I clean my revolvers now, every couple hundred rounds or so, I always make it point to scrub under the ejector. Also, when reloading, point the muzzle skyward while working the ejector so the unburned powder residue falls out of the gun with the empties instead of getting down inside the mechanism.

 

[Strahley]

A good lesson for all of those that think revolvers run 100% all day every day. Anything can break. Glad it happened at a "good" time for you rather than in an emergency

 

[Bovice]

ladies and gentlemen, let this be a lesson that revolvers are not impervious to failure.

 

[gamestalker]

I agree that cleaning can certainly help, but if it's locking up in general, even with good house keeping, the timing hand or spring may be in need of replacing or tuning.
My experience determined that the spring wasn't creating enough forward tension which enabled it to drop away from the star, or allowed it to get out of time with the star actually.
Something as well to bear in mind, is if it happens to drop away at the wrong position to the timing star, the weapon could logically fire out of time by a significant degree. This could also result in severe damage to the shooter and firearm. My honest recomendation would be to send it into Ruger for repair.
Just from a personal perspective I wouldn't take a revolver to a gun smith that doesn't have a know repore with revolver's. I've had several very bad experiences with my S&W wheel guns. One that nearly destroyed a really nice 10-5. The guy had been in business for decades and I had known him for as long. But when my main spring broke I took the gun in with me to match the gun and spring he ordered for me. He offered to install it and by the time he was done my side plate had been warped, I had deep scratches in it because he kept slipping off the screws, and last of all he handed me the gun with the new spring and said he couldn't get it in, and I would have to send it in to S&W. If not for the fact that he took the gun in back to do all this I would have been able to stop him the instant I saw him removing the side plate. I was able to flatten the side plate enough that shimming it made it functional, but the scratches were horrible and S&W didn't have replacement side plate for me.
My next experience was with another well know smith who couldn't install my new hand spring in my 66-5. At least he didn't damage the side plate or scratch it too bad, seriously. But he told me the same thing, send it to S&W because there is something not right with the spring. I drove down the street to another smith that had a S&W certification, and he replaced the spring in a few minutes. Sorry for the life story with revolver smiths, but I just wanted to warn you about gun smiths, and their working knowledge, or lack there of, with revolver's.

 

[chrt396]

I agree that cleaning can certainly help, but if it's locking up in general, even with good house keeping, the timing hand or spring may be in need of replacing or tuning.
My experience determined that the spring wasn't creating enough forward tension which enabled it to drop away from the star, or allowed it to get out of time with the star actually.
Something as well to bear in mind, is if it happens to drop away at the wrong position to the timing star, the weapon could logically fire out of time by a significant degree. This could also result in severe damage to the shooter and firearm. My honest recomendation would be to send it into Ruger for repair.
Just from a personal perspective I wouldn't take a revolver to a gun smith that doesn't have a know repore with revolver's. I've had several very bad experiences with my S&W wheel guns. One that nearly destroyed a really nice 10-5. The guy had been in business for decades and I had known him for as long. But when my main spring broke I took the gun in with me to match the gun and spring he ordered for me. He offered to install it and by the time he was done my side plate had been warped, I had deep scratches in it because he kept slipping off the screws, and last of all he handed me the gun with the new spring and said he couldn't get it in, and I would have to send it in to S&W. If not for the fact that he took the gun in back to do all this I would have been able to stop him the instant I saw him removing the side plate. I was able to flatten the side plate enough that shimming it made it functional, but the scratches were horrible and S&W didn't have replacement side plate for me.
My next experience was with another well know smith who couldn't install my new hand spring in my 66-5. At least he didn't damage the side plate or scratch it too bad, seriously. But he told me the same thing, send it to S&W because there is something not right with the spring. I drove down the street to another smith that had a S&W certification, and he replaced the spring in a few minutes. Sorry for the life story with revolver smiths, but I just wanted to warn you about gun smiths, and their working knowledge, or lack there of, with revolver's.

There may very well be something wrong with it...but...keep it simple FIRST! Clean it..lubricate it....ask someone on the forum...whatever...but send it in as a last resort. He's without his revolver..which stinks! Especially if all it needed was a thorough cleaning and lube!

 

[David E]

The fact that the cylinder was difficult to close with or without ammo clearly points to unburnt powder under the extractor. If so, then ten seconds with a toothbrush and it's good to go.

If it happened between shots 1 and 5, (ie; not the first shot after a reload) then that points to something else. But the extractor should still be checked.

 

[oldfool]

yeah, that or simply an ejector rod backed out a tad
or even just residue on cylinder face, if he has a tight b/c gap

but I don't think we are giving OP much credit in this thread, he never said he didn't look for such things, and he did say it happened only after couple shots fired after cylinder was loaded.. and maybe/apparently misfired on one live primer (?) before trying to lock up
(and some 'friend at a gun shop' these days could easily be just some sales guy who doesn't know any better than to wrist flip 'em closed)

 

[Peakbagger46]

I should have made it more clear, I clean the piece well after it it shot, every time. I just haven't taken the thing fully apart in a year.

I don't think crud under the extractor could possibly have been the cause.

 

[gamestalker]

Peakbagger46, you asked if it could be your reloads. What reload recipe are you loading? It is possible and happens all the time that a reload, was too much for the gun, or more so the case, they were exceeding the SAMMI recomendations used to determine the maximum operating pressures for any given cartridge.
I was kind of criticised earlier on for addressing the possibility of some sort of damage having occured to your Ruger, because of the less complex solutions may not have been tried as yet. But in the OP, nothing was said about having, or having not, cleaned the firearm prior to or following the action locking up. So maybe if the OP would furnish us with a little more information we could further speculate as to what might be happening.
I just did the best I could from my experience and perspective and applied the knowledge of simular incidents I've experienced. A dirty revolver can become stiff and drag, and under extreme circumstances a lock up is certainly possible. He made refrence that he tried with some increased effort to open, close or rotate the cylinder which doesn't sound at all like a dirty revolver, in my opinion. He then indicates he did get it open and unloaded. I would think most shooters would start looking as soon as something of this magnitude happens for possible causes, such as debrie under the star or in the hand window. I wouldn't think it could be a build up in the gap, as this area is exposed to extreme pressures that would blast most anything clear that is capable of locking it up, not to mention it has been opened which would have allowed debrie to fall out of the gap. He also said that he was experiencing the problem with or without the firearm loaded, so a bullet seating problem causing the head to drag on the recoil face isn't a possible either. If sand or a large deposit of crud is inside the firearm, it is certainly possible and even a probable cause.
So unless Peakbagger46 is informed as how to remove the side plate for a more in depth inspection and cleaning, it should be looked at by Ruger or a good gun smith with some revolver experience.
One last check you can perform Peakbagger46. With the cylinder open and the firearm unloaded of course, use a tooth pick so you don't scratch or damage anything, and try to push the timing hand up or down lightly with the hammer fully cocked and fully down. It shouldn't be able to be move in either direction and should also have a good forward spring tension that keeps it in the window.
The OP also stated that the firearm is old, from the early 1990's and has had a lot of ammunition put through it. If you had already cleaned it prior to the malfunction, hen something likely broke or fell off from a weak spring. Most of the parts in there are quite strong and not very suseptable to breaking, I mean it's a SP101 and that says a lot. But a spring breaking can and will deffinitely lock that baby up, real quick and in a hurry.
Oh ya, did it show any signs of working up to this failure, like a stiff or dragging feeling. again, if this just suddenly went from normal operation and how the action felt when cocking it to a lock up that didn't resolve after working to try and get it back in function, it's needing some internal inspection.

 

[Peakbagger46]

Load was 12g of 2400 and a 158g LSWC in a .38 case. Hot, but not as hot as many .357 mag loadings (load was under what Taffin lists for 33/44 reloads).

There was no sign of anything wrong prior to the stoppage, and the gun is always kept scrubbed clean.