QUESTION ABOUT RUGER?

[mchapman]

I don't really know for sure, but I had seen a post on fakebook that Ruger has halted production of revolvers. I don't know where this guy got his information or if there is anything credible about that statement, or if he was just talking about single action revolvers. Have any of you out there heard anything or is this all BS?

[Fishbreath]

Ruger has definitely stopped making Super GP100s of both flavors—the last ones came off the line in early 2021, according to the serial number lookup tool. They may also have slowed or stopped their single action lines.

 

Ruger is, however, still making 6-round .357 GP100s in various sizes. They may also be making SP101s. I assume that's a margins/priorities decision: they probably make more on the mass market wheelguns than on the specialty products like competition and SA guns, and demand is still high. I expect the Super GPs to return to production at some point.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Fishbreath

[IHAVEGAS]

I would like to think that Ruger is refining the Super GP100 and will bring it back as a phase 2. 

 

The one I had was mistimed on a couple cylinders from the factory, they fixed this (fitted new pawl) but apparently did not test the gun with moon clips after fixing the first problem and when I got the gun back the pawl would bind in the rear of the star/brass and not release, a little filing took care of the second issue. 

A couple more negatives, in my opinion. The cylinder chambers were very tight compared to every other 9mm I own or can remember owning, this made the gun very fussy about reloaded brass - passing a Hundo case gauge was not always good enough - some of what was plenty good for my 929 wouldn't work at all in the Ruger and I think it would hamper reliability of on the clock reloads. My last nit was that I could not get the trigger as smooth as I could for my 6 shot Ruger. I just think that they didn't do enough design work to get the trigger mechanism right for an 8 shot 9mm.  I also never got the trigger weight down to below 7.5 # with federals, but can't say that someone else might not be able to.

 

Am not anti Ruger, would love to see a Super GP100 come out of the box competition ready and possibly some issues with mine were not typical. 

 

 

 

 

[Fishbreath]

In re: chamber tightness, I went straight to a Lee U-die and haven't had any problems through about 500 rounds of practice. It is picky about bullet diameter/profile and OAL, however. I wanted to try the Blue Bullets 147gr, because they're the pointiest ones I could find, but I would have had to load them very short or use .356 in .3575" throats. I ended up with Bang and Clang .357 145s at 1.135, which is certainly an unusual load if you're used to 929s, but fairly ordinary by semi-auto standards.

 

For smoothness, I think mine are pretty good, although I don't have a tuned-up 6-round GP100 to compare to. One unexpected place that has needed polishing on both of mine was the hammer pivot pin. They were rough out of the box on both of my guns, and cleaning them up with my usual 1000/1500/2000/2500-grit sandpaper plus Flitz regime made the largest perceptual difference. Weight-wise, mine run the 11 and 12lb Wolff hammer springs, which translates to 6.5lb and 7lb measured at the bottom of the trigger, and >8lb measured from the middle, on my cheapo spring-based trigger pull scale. I can go lower, but I have to pay more attention to my reloading process if I do, so I've resigned myself to it for now.

 

Agree that timing on the Super GPs can be a little iffy, and annoyingly, Ruger calls the pawl a factory-fit part, and it doesn't seem to be quite the same pawl as on the Super Redhawk. (Maybe it's a Redhawk pawl, since that's where the 8-round .357 was in the Ruger lineup before? Ordering parts from Numrich and hoping they'll work is getting old, though, so until I have a third one to mess with, I don't plan on experimenting further. Alternately, maybe I'll call customer support and see if I can wheedle them into sending me one anyway.) My 9mm gun is timed pretty early on most chambers, and the .357 is right on the edge of late. The teeth on the ratchet are slightly inconsistent, on close inspection—some are cut deeper, with a correspondingly longer slope, and some have a shallower cut with a slope and a flat at the end, which seems less than ideal for repeatability.

 

A somewhat more refined phase 2 would be great to see, although I'm not unhappy with mine by any means.