Help! ruger 95 reassembly failure

[akodo]

Okay I am a revolver man, not an autoloader kind of guy, but my friend has a p95 Decocker only, recent purchase, and we were messing around with it today. Feild stripping went fine, drop hammer, drop mag, rack back slide, push down decocker, let slide go forward until two - - marks align and you can remove slide lockback/slide release, keep on going forward and remove slide. Flip slide up, push back on spring shrouded guiderod an cam to allow it to go free from the notch on the back of the barrel, then lift out. Slide barrel back a little bit so you can angle it up a little and lift free.

Follow the same in reverse. Did it just fine a few times. One time we got sloppy, either because I let the slide slip on me, or he forgot to depress the ejector. Anyways the slide went forward when trying to get the slidelock back in, and upon reracking it, we couldn't get the slide quite far enough back to get the slide lock fully in, and of course, now the hammer is cocked and the ejector has been pushed back up or was up all along.

so the gun appears to look normal, except no slide lock, and 1 inch of barrel and guide rod are poking out the front.

with work I can wiggle the slidelock in, but that didn't help any
I can reach up with a bent wire and grab the ejector and pull it down into disassemble position, and then try and slide the barrel off, all I get is the following

umm...help?

 

[Red Dragon]

Are you saying you can't get the slide off now?

 

[akodo]

yes, cannot get it off, cannot get it back where it needs to be

 

[Outlaws]

I didn't quite follow your whole post, but a general problem while reassembling is the metal piece that needs to get flipped down into the magazine well accidentally came up. Pull the trigger and you might find the slide will slide forward and off. Then flip it down like it should be and attempt to put the slide back on.

 

[Apple a Day]

It sounds like the barrel and recoil spring rod might be jammed forwards, wedging the thing. Is the barrel tilted up from what you can see? Is there any wiggle to the barrel when the slide is back or is it stuck tight? Can you move the trigger freely?

 

[Chief-7700]

Don't know if this well help, I have a P-85 and have had the same problems take the grips off and you will see a transfer bar move that around. Did you take the slide stop all the way out of the frame? If so you have to realine the trigger and the barrel link back up. It is a bitch to do, so take your time and if needed walk away from it for a while.
Chief-7700

 

[FieroCDSP]

I know this won't help, but sometimes I wonder if Ruger hires a choreographer to write their disassembly instructions.

Besides, I didn't think the 95 has removable grips.

 

[rhubarb]

Sorry, I just tried to get my P95 into the state you describe and I can't. If the barrel and guide rod aren't in the correct position, I can't get the slide on at all. It starts on the front rail and jams up tight. If the slide starts on all the way, I can't get the barrel and guide rod to drop down until the slide is back all the way. Then, of course, the slide stop goes right in. If I don't push down the ejector, I can remove the slide stop but not the slide.

I thought the Ruger take-down was idiot-proof. You can't take it down with one in the chamber. You don't have to pull the trigger to take it down. Idiot-proof. Then there are some people...just kidding, akodo. You got me.

ETA: The P95 does not have removable grips like the P85 and P89.

 

[Apple a Day]

The only way I can get mine to do something like that is if I put the guide rod in upside down.

 

[Apple a Day]

F#!!! now mine is stuck!!! Yep, you put the spring guide rod in upside down!!!
[censored!] [censored!] [censored!]
It's a [censored!] good thing Art's grammaw can't hear me right now.
I had to take a pair of plyers and work the [censored!] guide rod forward while the slide was in the relaxed position and rotate it until I managed to get enough play to move the slide forward and off.
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER do that on purpose!
<Apple stomps around the room swearing at what a stupid thing he just did and swears never to try to help anyone else ever again>
I just damaged the spring. The first time I put it back on the right way the collar around the rod that retains the spring got stuck again and I had to work it loose all over again. It seems fine now but [CENSORED!]
<Apple swears at the cat who just wandered in and keeps meowing at him like the [censored!] thing knows that the [censored!] it's talking about. Everybody knows cats know rifles but don't know their furry little butts from the end of a pistol. [Censored!] cat!>

 

[strat81]

Sounds like Apple solved the problem.

 

[akodo]

if the guide rod is in upsidedown, how do you fix it?

 

[akodo]

okay I see your post now, which do you consider the 'relaxed position' picture one or two?

 

[pinstripe]

Take your biggest hammer........

 

[Apple a Day]

Picture one. spring relaxed= slide all the way forwards. Sorry, didn't express myself well as I was too busy yelling at the cat. It took some jiggling. And some cussing. Okay, it took a LOT of cussing.
I don't know if you did the same thing but it sounds like it. It was a cast iron pain to get loose again.

 

[akodo]

Okay, after seeing all that and not having a cat to scream at, i decided to take it to a gunsmith at http://www.joessportinggoods.com/ Mine wasn't upsidedown, it wasn't on really straight though I guess. The gunsmith fiddled with it for about 5 minutes by hand, then grabbed the hammer and started whapping on the guide rod. a few smacks and it went in. He racked it a few times and gave it back "no charge" so then I bought an armfull of unplanned excessories from the place, like shoot-n-see targets etc. So hats off to Joes.

Anyways, when i got it home I of course field stripped it, and there was a tiny sliver of black polymer on the part of the guid rod that sits in the barrel cam, so I figure it was in there just a tiny bit crooked enough to catch a little edge of the frame. Put it back together again, all good, took it apart again, all good, put it back together again, all good.