SP101 Sticky Trigger

[TwoNiner]

I had the opportunity of taking my brand new SP101 2" 5-shot DAO snubbie with Hogue grips out for a few rounds last weekend. The 38s were quite pleasant to shoot. To my surprise, the gun held up to the magnums rather well. I had anticipated getting kicked to the ground, but instead the gun jumped in the air a foot and I managed to pull off 50 rounds without any soreness in my wrists. It seems I manged to crack the Hogue grips from the recoil, so I've sent them in for replacement. I also learned that my ear muffs aren't up to the task--at the end of 50 rounds from the snubbie and another 50 from a GP, my ears were ringing.

One issue I did encounter with the SP is a sticky trigger. The very first round fired clean, then the second or third stuck, whereby I pulled the trigger partially back and then the trigger refused to budge until I put about 2-3X the pull on the trigger. I experienced this a few more times also with 38 ammo. Generally I'd get about two sticky trigger pulls per reload. I was using Federal 38 fully jacketed ammo, and Federal 357 JSP. My first guess was that the gun needed a few shots to break in, but it seemed to still be doing at the end of 100rnds. I'm wondering what may be causing this? The gun dry fires just fine. Has anyone experienced this problem? I was considering putting some empty shells in the gun to see if the casing is some how running interference with the gun, but I'm not sure if that is bad for the gun. Thanks.

 

[Whole Hog]

Are you sure you were allowing the trigger to fully reset? I tried a lighter main spring in my 3 inch SP101 and it became almost unusable for double action shooting because the spring couldn't quite overcome the pressure from my finger at the very end of the reset, and the trigger would lock up solidly. I could avoid the problem by conciously removing my finger from the trigger after each shot, but I fixed it by going to a heavier spring.

Next time it happens, try releasing the trigger completely instead of pulling harder.

 

[Peakbagger46]

Your bullets may be jumping the crimp and partially binding your cylinder. Just a thought.

 

[TwoNiner]

Hog thanks for the advice I will try that next time around, however, the sticky part of the trigger pull is about 1/2 way in, its not right away after the trigger reset.

Peak, what do you mean by jumping the crimp?

 

[CJ]

'Jumping the crimp' would be that the recoil from shooting one round might force the bullet(s) in other round(s) to pull out of the case slightly.

It's the whole Newtonian physics thing, with the heavier bullet trying to stay in place while the recoil is forcing the cases back...if the energy pulling the case away from the bullet is greater than the strength of the crimp, the bullet will pull out slightly.

The net result in this case would be, when pulling the trigger, a bullet protruding slightly forward of the chamber might catch on the frame or forcing cone (please correct my terminology if needed, I'm mostly a semi-auto shooter) could make the trigger pull more difficult as it catches.

 

[Ben Shepherd]

High primers? Thick case rims? Possible cylinder to frame fit out of spec? Burrs somewhere in/on the trigger mechanism?

And, as mentioned above- Are you SURE you allowed the trigger to fully reset between pulls? If it's not returning smartly, check the trigger, frame, and lockworks/trigger mechanism for slight burrs.

I've got 2 sp101s, and both had some small burrs here and there on the frame and action. Cleaning them up carefully improved trigger pull considerably.

 

[WNC Seabee]

the spring couldn't quite overcome the pressure from my finger at the very end of the reset, and the trigger would lock up solidly. I could avoid the problem by conciously removing my finger from the trigger after each shot, but I fixed it by going to a heavier spring.

Next time it happens, try releasing the trigger completely instead of pulling harder.

I had this same issue with a GP a while back. Is this common among the Rugers?

 

[Whole Hog]

I read somewhere (probably here) about false resets of Ruger triggers. I never noticed it on any of my older Security Sixes or my GP 100 though, only on the SP 101 with a light main spring.

I should mention for TwoNiner that you can check for this problem while dry firing an unloaded gun, and when it happens no amount of pulling is going to move the trigger until you release it to reset all the way. Burrs, high primers, or the other things mentioned might be cause of your problem.

 

[TwoNiner]

Thanks for the response

Is dry firing the SP101 with empty casings bad for the gun? That might help me find out if the case rims are too high and running interference.

 

[GP100man]

summitin under the ejector star???


GP100man

 

[TwoNiner]

Nope the cyl/ejector was clean.

 

[TwoNiner]

One other thing I noticed was that the ejector rod was very hard to press to remove the 5 rounds after firing. I about wrecked my thumb and I had to really force it a few times to get the shells out.

 

[jfdavis58]

Got one that did the same thing; did the gun feel particularly hot? Did you dis-assemble and clean/lube before shooting it the first time?

Take it home, make it empty and start with a complete tear-down and cleaning. You don't need to completely disassemble the trigger group, but you need to remove it to get to the cylinder and remove that. You have frame and barrel, trigger group, cylinder and it's hanger when you go far enough---it's in the owners manual. Removal of the cylinder happens as it's 'hanger' comes out of the frame-take care.

When clean, drizzle a generous amount of oil onto the shaft that holds the cylinder; be less generous with lubrication as you get further along on reassembly.

Back at the range: shoot slower for the next few sessions. Repeat the tear-down,clean, re-lube after each session. The 'problem' generally disappears as parts wear in. Brand new SPs seem to sell with far to little lubricant, they seem to be somewhat heat sensitive and they definitely benefit from good care and a slow break-in.

 

[Whole Hog]

Dry firing with or without empty cases won't hurt your gun at all. Maybe all it needs is a good cleaning and an hour or two of dry firing.

 

[TwoNiner]

Upon thoughtful inspection I found the problem. The ejector rod.

The rod has two stars on it--for lack of a better term, one that fits inside the cylinder with two pins for alignment, and another that appears to be press-fitted on top of that. The bottom star is not aligned perfectly with the chambers, it appears to be machined too much, and the top star is rotated a few degrees with respect to the star below it and the 5 chambers, which is causing interference with the brass. When all the rounds are loaded, they have to be mashed into the chambers, which causes the ejector to have difficulty to do its job after firing. When firing, the kick of the gun probably dislodges a round sightly (or I didn't notice and it never was in completely), and since its hard to fit back into the chamber, it locks the trigger. I actually did some test dry firing and repeated the problem.

Thanks everyone. Guess I'll be contacting Ruger tomorrow

 

[TwoNiner]

My card reader decided to hide itself but I uncovered it so here we go...