LC9 Mag disconnect & LCI modification

[Jbabbler]

I have been practicing with my LC9 for the past few weeks and have finally gotten it to the point where I am comfortable carrying it. The gun has performed flawlessly since day one but I had to get some things out of the way before I trusted it. Since the gun is intended as a carry gun and will spend some time in a pocket I was very concerned with the magazine disconnect feature. I removed the disconnect and found that the trigger smoothed out a great deal with it gone. I could see where it rubbed against the trigger causing additional drag so this was an added bonus. Removal of the mag disconnect requires a complete disassembly of the gun but is pretty straight forward. I used these directions found on Youtube.

One other item I disliked was the configuration of the LCI. I have nothing against an LCI per se but the one on the LC9 sticks up almost as high as the front sight. It was a whole lot of overkill in my opinion. I have read about people disabling them but I really didn't want a giant bar at the top of my gun that read "LOADED WHEN UP" and have it inoperable. That sounded like a sure fire way for someone to get lazy and ND the gun one day. My solution was to sand down the tab that contacts the case enough that it still raised the bar but just enough to see the red on the side. It looks much better now and still serves its intended purpose.

Once again, removal of the LCI for modification was easy.

1. Drive out LCI roll pin with 5/32 roll pin punch. You dont have to completely remove the pin from the slide. Just drive it past the LCI. This makes it easy to reassemble.
2. Make sure spring doesn't fly off
3. Pull LCI from slide
4. Shave with belt sander or dremel tool. Polish with 1000+ grit sand paper.
5. Place spring and LCI back in Slide
6. Drive pin back in

This is a shot of the LCI. You can see that I shaved a little off the tab. The top one is obviously the "before"picture.



This shot shows the LC9 with the LCI up/down after shaving the tab down.



A closer look.

 

[1KPerDay]

Looks much better.

 

[JustinJ]

I did the exact same to the LCI except i also removed the red paint as well. That stuff is tough and i couldnt find a solvent that would dissolve it so i wound up cooking it with a heat gun until it carbonized and then removing with a brass wire brush.

I'll be doing the mag disconnect as well soon.

I bought a SW M&P .40 in like new condition with night sights for $300 bucks that was a dept trade in some time back. The problem is that it also has a mag disconnect safety so i need to remove that one as well.

Thanks for the link and info.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

The gun is your property to do with as you please. Just a word of caution: if you should ever send it back to Ruger for repair, it will come back with the missing or modified parts replaced.

 

[Jbabbler]

If i send it back to Ruger it better be real eff'd up. I ran the heck out of it to test for reliability before doing this. I can easily put the mag disconnect back if I needed to send it in.

 

[RightCoastBiased]

I would like to remove the mag disconnect as well, but my gun smithing skills are minimal. Perhaps in time, when I have another pistol I can easily carry and can afford to not have the LC9 "up and running". Thanks for the info however.

 

[Jbabbler]

I would like to remove the mag disconnect as well, but my gun smithing skills are minimal. Perhaps in time, when I have another pistol I can easily carry and can afford to not have the LC9 "up and running". Thanks for the info however.

It doesn't really require skills specific to "gunsmithing". If you can follow the video and perform basic mechanical steps it's easy and straight forward. Honestly, you can't really mess it up. Should take about 15mins with basic tools.

 

[RightCoastBiased]

It doesn't really require skills specific to "gunsmithing". If you can follow the video and perform basic mechanical steps it's easy and straight forward. Honestly, you can't really mess it up. Should take about 15mins with basic tools.

Well, I'll watch the video and see how I feel. And I'll give it a go tonight.

Anyone remove the thumb safety?

 

[RightCoastBiased]

Removed the mag and thumb safeties with great success. Not as hard as I thought.

 

[Jbabbler]

Awesome. I hadn't thought about removing the thumb safety.

 

[RightCoastBiased]

I had to get rid of the damn thing. It kept on getting engaged while in my holster. And I didn't want to train myself to switch off a thumb safety. Not that it is a great inconvenience. But because I find so many safeties on a carry pistol superfluous.