So, I was looking at my SP101

[SteelyNirvana]

I removed my front sight off my SP101 the other day, (gonna have a female friend paint it with red nail polish) and I was looking the gun over a bit without the sight. Got to looking the gun over a bit and looking straight down the muzzle end, I noticed my barrel is crooked (Yes, it was unloaded). The barrel is cocked to the right about an 1/32 of an inch, it's very noticeable that the barrel doesn't line up with the frame.

Is this normal? I don't know if the gun is off or not, haven't had it to the range yet (Planning this week, only shot it a few times in a friends backyard). Just curious if anyone else has come across this.

 

[stana]

I have two sp101's. Looking at the barrel flat and frame from the top both appear to match perfectly.

Some people twist the barrel in the frame slightly to adjust windage. Dose yours shoot to POA for windage? If it dose I'd probaly be happy.

Both mine shoot low with eveything. 125 to 158 grain bullets, 38spc and 357 mags. I'm unhappy. good luck.

 

[Eagles6]

Not an uncommon problem with Rugers. Call them up and they'll probably tell you to send it back for a fix.
How does it shoot as is?

 

[pezo]

Both mine shoot low with eveything. 125 to 158 grain bullets, 38spc and 357 mags. I'm unhappy. good luck

The front sights are high on them. I compensate by alighning the first lower notch not the top of the front sight with the rear sight. I may paint the spot of the sight that I align. some grind down the sight to point of aim.

 

[jggonzalez357]

That's a common problem with SP101s. During assembly they try to match up the flats on the barrel and frame, but guns often leave the factory like that. If it bothers you, contact Ruger. Some advise having a gunsmith turn the barrel to correct it, but I would advise against it. If I buy a gun and there's a problem, I give the factory the first crack at fixing it. If the local gunsmith makes a mistake, your warranty is now void.

I like Rugers and have two myself ( a .44 Redhawk and a .357 SP101). Both are great guns and the SP101 has a straight barrel and a good trigger out-of-the-box. I am disappointed, however, with their recent quality control. I went to a gun store last year intending to buy a new Mark III. The model I saw had machine marks all over it. It was a stainless hunter model, so the price tag was around $600 out the door. It was the only one in the area (I drove around and checked). I was leaving when I saw a little NAA mini-revolver. The fit and finish was excellent and the price was only around $200. I wound up buying it and it is a fun little gun to shoot.

 

[SteelyNirvana]

Not an uncommon problem with Rugers. Call them up and they'll probably tell you to send it back for a fix.
How does it shoot as is?

Not sure yet. Shooting at bottles and cans standing on my buddys porch, it did ok. Haven't had time to get it to the range and shoot at paper targets yet but I plan on doing that this week.

 

[Youngrevolver]

Here is a whole thread devoted to that problem over at the ruger forum.
http://rugerforum.net/ruger-double-action/8811-new-sp101-crooked-barrel.html

 

[wv67]

My SP101 is about 7 or 8 years old and it's barrel is ever so slightly crooked. I'd never noticed until I noticed the thread on the Ruger forum. Of course, now that I know it is, I can see it. Since the gun is very accurate and I think I paid less than $300 new, I'm not going through trouble of trying to get it fixed.

 

[OregonJohnny]

I just bought a brand new SP101, and mine looks very straight. But now I look for this issue when buying a new revolver, because I did have this exact problem with a S&W 642 about 2 years ago. I sent it to S&W, they mostly fixed the problem, and sent it back in about 10 days. They just made it a little less crooked. I don't know if screwing the barrel into the frame is something that the assembler just "eye-balls", but it seems like a pretty important part of the process, and an easy one to screw up.

 

[riddleofsteel]

It all depends on how it shoots. I have a custom Wegand SP101 "Tame the Beast" conversion with Hybraport, action job, hammerless, DAO ect.

When I first started shooting it I noticed it shoots a little low and to the left. That is if you aim at the center of a circle, let's say a pie plate, the group will all center at down toward 8 o'clock. This is shooting at around 25 yards even from a rest.

For a long time I wondered why a smith would spend all that time on a carry gun and ship it shooting off center. It starts to all come together when you do speed drills on a man size target. My ported SP101 will pump 5 full house 125 JHP's into the center of mass as fast as I can pull the trigger. The fact that it hits little off center doesn't amount to a hill of beans for the gun's intended purpose. Now if it was a target or hunting gun normally shot at 50+ yards I would have been mad.

To be honest I have never checked to see if the barrel if a little crooked of not. I do know if I can see you at combat range I can hit you.