Ruger SR40c and Failure to Fire tonight - thoughts?

[Timothy Bryant]

I recently purchased a Ruger SR40c and haven't had a chance to put very many rounds through it yet but something happened today that has me a little concerned. I would say that all in all I have put about 80 or so rounds through the gun. The first 50 was a box of Federal Champions that I bought from Wal-mart and they shot without a single hitch. Today though I shot through around 20 rounds of PMC Bronze target ammo that I purchased when I first bought the gun and I had 3-4 FTF's in the lot. Upon examination the rounds were struck but they failed to ignite. I then fed them through again and eventually got these rounds to fire off. I was a bit concerned so I loaded up 10 rounds of Winchester White Box Hollow Points I purchased from Walmart and fired through all 10 rounds without any problems.

Do you guys think I should be concerned about carrying the Ruger at the moment? I would like to attribute the FTF's to poor ammo but until I run more rounds through it I simply don't know if I can trust the weapon. Your thoughts?

 

[fmfdoc87-92]

When a gun fails once, personally I'm done with it as far as trusting my life to it. All the handguns I currently own have never had a single failure of any kind.

 

[eXGee11]

Get yourself a Glock instead.

That wasn't the OP's question. Its not like he asked for a ccw badge!


On a serious note though, run more (and different brands) of ammo and see of you have similar results. Let us know what results you get. My wife just bought the same pistol and we haven't begun the breaking in process yet.

 

[Timothy Bryant]

When a gun fails once, personally I'm done with it as far as trusting my life to it. All the handguns I currently own have never had a single failure of any kind.

I agree wholeheartedly but the problem I'm faced with is that I'm not so sure it's the gun that is failing me - I suspect it's the ammunition but as eXGee11 recommended I'm going to run more boxes of ammo through it just to verify. So far I've shot Federal Champion (50 rounds no problem), Winchester White Box (10 rounds no problem), and the PMC Bronze (the aforementioned FTF's). Within the next few days I'm going to purchase another 50 round Winchester White Box, Remington 50 round pack (Walmart), and fire through another 50 Federal Champions I have onhand. If I can get through these without any hiccups I believe I can safely assume it was the ammo causing the problem.

 

[Cotillion]

I've been planning for the past 3 months to get the Sr9c but for some reason this morning, glock just popped in my head. For some reason the reliability of glock just completely took over the "neatness" I felt about the ruger. Has nothing to do with you sorry haha just saying!

 

[Purple]

It's the ammo and not the gun. I have guns that can't run some factory ammo, mainly because the primers are too deep for the firing pin to make good enough contact to ignited the charge. If the gun fails to fire multiple manufacturers ammo, then I would be concerned enough to send it back to Ruger for a once over.

 

[imrambi]

Personally I wouldn't put the blame on the firearm, I would put the blame on the ammo.

It could have been a bad batch or something. If I have multiple issue with a brand of ammo, I will move away from it. When I first starting with pistols, I bought a few WWB. I had numerous FFL/FTE, I even had one round that was mutilated and wouldn't even fit in a mag, let alone a chamber. If it did, it was an accident waiting to happen.

I then moved to Remington UMC mega pack and Federal boxes. A few weeks ago I had my first FTF after a couple of thousand of rounds of Remington UMC. I took a quick look at the primer, and instead of a nice circle, it was a rectangle.

Sometimes guns don't like one brand of ammo. If you can shoot other brand of ammo fine, stick with that brand.

 

[jtg452]

I recently purchased a Ruger SR40c and haven't had a chance to put very many rounds through it yet but something happened today that has me a little concerned. I would say that all in all I have put about 80 or so rounds through the gun. The first 50 was a box of Federal Champions that I bought from Wal-mart and they shot without a single hitch. Today though I shot through around 20 rounds of PMC Bronze target ammo that I purchased when I first bought the gun and I had 3-4 FTF's in the lot. Upon examination the rounds were struck but they failed to ignite. I then fed them through again and eventually got these rounds to fire off. I was a bit concerned so I loaded up 10 rounds of Winchester White Box Hollow Points I purchased from Walmart and fired through all 10 rounds without any problems.

Do you guys think I should be concerned about carrying the Ruger at the moment? I would like to attribute the FTF's to poor ammo but until I run more rounds through it I simply don't know if I can trust the weapon. Your thoughts?

Sounds like your Ruger either doesn't like PMC ammo or the PMC ammo you purchased had some REALLY hard primers. My suggestion would be to stay away from PMC ammo and continue running other brands of ammunition through the Ruger. If it proves reliable, then, I'd mark it down as an ammunition problem and just avoid that brand (been there, done that- that's why I refuse to allow ANY CCI Blazer ammunition to go through my guns).

Oh, and ignore the Glock trolls. Gaston Glock did not invent reliability like they seem to believe. Reliable repeating handguns were around for 100 years before he invented his ugly, ungainly (and unsafe, did I mention the 5 pound trigger with no real safety?) combat tupperware.

 

[rifleshooter474]

What you really should do is test it using the quality Ammo. you plan to use as carry Ammo. Now it it has problems then I accept it as a real gun problem
IMHO PMC Ammo. is not the type Ammo. I even would use at the range if the gun works with Win. White box then I think it's the PMC Ammo. at fault.

 

[rifleshooter474]

Sounds like your Ruger either doesn't like PMC ammo or the PMC ammo you purchased had some REALLY hard primers. My suggestion would be to stay away from PMC ammo and continue running other brands of ammunition through the Ruger. If it proves reliable, then, I'd mark it down as an ammunition problem and just avoid that brand (been there, done that- that's why I refuse to allow ANY CCI Blazer ammunition to go through my guns).

Oh, and ignore the Glock trolls. Gaston Glock did not invent reliability like they seem to believe. Reliable repeating handguns were around for 100 years before he invented his ugly, ungainly (and unsafe, did I mention the 5 pound trigger with no real safety?) combat tupperware.

Back off fellow forum member Glocks are great firearms, they do work and my Glock23 is a great shooting Glock.

 

[jtg452]

Yup, Rifleshooter, they certainly are. I don't own any because they don't point naturally in my hand. Every time I pick one up, it's pointed in a new and different direction.

BUT

They are not the be all and end all that some have been misled to believe. To hear them tell it, NO gun is worth having unless it's a Glock. I just find it hard to bear on occasion when the stock answer from several folks around here essentially boils down to 'If it's not a Glock, it's junk'. It ain't true. You know it ain't true, I know it ain't true and they know it, too, unless they've been saying it so long that they can't recognize the difference between the truth and their own vitriol.

 

[rifleshooter474]

I own and shoot two Kimbers 1911s 3"&5" two HKs USP compacts .40&.45acp one Para LDA 4" .45acp one Springfield XD-45 .45acp. one S&W Walther PPK/S .380acp two 38 Spls one Charter Arms 3" 5rd. one S&W 3" 5rd. And one Glock23 .40
I shoot them all and like them all, they all fit my hand and they all point at the target.
So if I am happy with a Glock so be it, I could care less what others think of Glocks.

 

[Feuerhak]

Before the this turns into too much more of another "All Hail the Mighty Glock" (and yes I do own one) - and back to the original question.

My opinion is its an ammo issue. And given you've only thrown 80 or so rounds through it, my guess would be you still have some break in time. Get a couple hundred through it and see how it goes. Good Luck!

 

[Glock Fan]

Yup, Rifleshooter, they certainly are. I don't own any because they don't point naturally in my hand. Every time I pick one up, it's pointed in a new and different direction.

BUT

They are not the be all and end all that some have been misled to believe. To hear them tell it, NO gun is worth having unless it's a Glock. I just find it hard to bear on occasion when the stock answer from several folks around here essentially boils down to 'If it's not a Glock, it's junk'. It ain't true. You know it ain't true, I know it ain't true and they know it, too, unless they've been saying it so long that they can't recognize the difference between the truth and their own vitriol.

Sounds like a "training issue". I've worked with many students over the years that would complain about various guns and once they begin to consistently pick up the firearm the same way on a regular basis, they find that their marksmanship greatly improves.

A large number of folks who complain about the "grip angle" of the Glock simply have marksmanship issues that they refuse to address.

Firearm choice is a personal issue. As long as the firearm is proven reliable, then the manufacturer is irrelevant.

 

[Glock Fan]

Before the this turns into too much more of another "All Hail the Mighty Glock" (and yes I do own one) - and back to the original question.

My opinion is its an ammo issue. And given you've only thrown 80 or so rounds through it, my guess would be you still have some break in time. Get a couple hundred through it and see how it goes. Good Luck!

I agree. Seems like an ammo issue. Before carrying ANY firearm for personal protection, test it out with various ammunition to ensure that it feeds properly and is compatible with your firearm. Some firearms do not operate well with a particular brand of ammo for whatever reason. Once you know what will work with your firearm, keep a record so that you will be able to quickly reference it if you need to in the future. In some cases the bullet weight makes a difference. I've seen firearms work flawlessly with a particular brand of ammo in a specific bullet weight, yet load a different bullet weight of the same brand and you get problems.

Good luck and happy shooting!

 

[Glock Fan]

And I am willing to bet that the ammo in question would function just fine had the OP been using a Glock.

Hard to say. I've seen military surplus ammo that needed a couple of passes through a Glock to make the cartridge fire. Anyone who's been shooting long enough will eventually encounter problems with their firearm or ammunition.