Terry Vincent
Member
My SP101 came from the factory with unfinished cylinders, resulting in fired magnum loads hanging up and some refusing to eject unless tapped out of the cylinder. Ruger suggested I clean the revolver and try again, if that would fix the problem. Low pressure 38 spl +p ejected without incident, but high pressure factory ammo would require substantial effort to eject. Sooooo, an Internet Seach revealed many, as in dozens, of sp101 owners were experiencing similar issues. Data suggested sending the gun back to Ruger, or honing the cylinders because Ruger was merely boring the cylinders and not finishing the job with proper removal of the machining striations. Cost-cutting efforts at its best!
Referencing the Kitchen Table Gunsmith website revealed the cure. As suggested in the fix, I purchased two hones from Brownells..... A Flex Hone 400 and 800 grit and a quart of the Flex Hone oil. If you utilize this fix for your revolver, follow the directions explicitly. The job takes about an hour to complete. I went very conservative with the honing process and only honed each cylinder for six minutes, three minutes for each grit, and reoiled the cylinders every minute during the process. Full power magnum loads now eject effortlessly with accuracy remaining unchanged.
I replaced the hammer spring with a Wolff 9lb spring since I had the gun apart, and considered polishing the internals, but quit with the application of the new hammer spring. I think the recently introduced SP101 Match Champion has these issues resolved, however, I would like to see additional quality control applied across the board. Having said that, it was fun to undertake the problem and resolve it myself! The attached image demonstrates what the inside of the cylinder should look like.
Referencing the Kitchen Table Gunsmith website revealed the cure. As suggested in the fix, I purchased two hones from Brownells..... A Flex Hone 400 and 800 grit and a quart of the Flex Hone oil. If you utilize this fix for your revolver, follow the directions explicitly. The job takes about an hour to complete. I went very conservative with the honing process and only honed each cylinder for six minutes, three minutes for each grit, and reoiled the cylinders every minute during the process. Full power magnum loads now eject effortlessly with accuracy remaining unchanged.
I replaced the hammer spring with a Wolff 9lb spring since I had the gun apart, and considered polishing the internals, but quit with the application of the new hammer spring. I think the recently introduced SP101 Match Champion has these issues resolved, however, I would like to see additional quality control applied across the board. Having said that, it was fun to undertake the problem and resolve it myself! The attached image demonstrates what the inside of the cylinder should look like.
