Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns There's a lesson here somewhere....Ruger Single 7

So I bought one of the early Single Sevens that came out in 327 Federal Mag last year and dropped it off to Alan Harton here in Houston to do an action/trigger job. When I got it back I didn't get a chance to shoot it right away, other projects came up and the pistol sat in the safe for a few months.....Finally took it to the range to shoot and huh?- it is impossible to load a cartridge into any of the chambers, they go in about halfway and then get stuck.
Sent the revolver back to Ruger and after sitting on it awhile they of course insist on sending me a new one, so will be out the cost of the action work and now need to start the process over again. My bad for not shooting it first, but still hard to believe it left the factory like that. And according to Youtube, there were at least a few that were sent out with the same problem.
Rant over.

I have one and was told that it was a design issue basically and that there was a technique for loading it. I have to concentrate, but as in some of the youtube vids and forum conversations it works, but not like my old blackhawk. I was ready to send it back before I found this out.

Do you happen to know what Ruger did to address the issue if they are sending you a new one?

Geno

Legit rant. Ruger is well known for un-doing custom work if you send a revolver in for warranty work. Sounds like someone cut the chambers but forgot to run the finish reamer through them...oops.

Valsdad, would be interested to know what the technique for loading is, I could not get a round to chamber anyway I tried?

Tim

Yeah, I can't fathom sending a gun of for any kind of work without knowing that it goes BANG first.

Lesson learned.

I learned long ago that when cutting SRHs down, one always shoots a cylinder full first. There were times when 1 in 3 either had ignition problems, wouldn't extract, or both with the 454s. And when you cut them down and put the front sight back on guess what, no more warranty.

That's my policy. Some actions are pretty good as is.

What I would want to know, is how do you proof a gun at the factory if you don't load and fire it?

I was told by a very cute young lady that had a job at Ruger in Prescott, AZ that they fired at least a full cylinder of proof rounds in each revolver and two clips in the pistols. Her job was in the reloading room where they made the proof rounds. I don't know if what she told me is true, but dang she was cute. Wished I had been 25 years younger.

When I first took it to the range I had to push a round into the chamber, it didn't slip right in as I expected. I ended up calling the shop I got it from, he looked into it and said there had been other "reports" and referred me to Ruger I believe.

What I was told (email? phone? I'm old and it was last year so don't recall particulars now.) was that I was not to load it the same as my Blackhawk. On that one I usually would let the cylinder rotate past the "click" (hand? pawl?, not familiar with the terminology) then rotate the cylinder back to the stop and load a chamber.

That WILL NOT work on MY Single Seven.

I was told to have the round ready to slip into a chamber as the cylinder comes around and to let the round slide into the chamber before the cylinder comes around to the "click".

If not mistaken, Ruger person told me part of the problem lies in the "Seven" part of the design. They could not machine out the loading port quite enough for the rim size due to the design of the parts (again, not familiar with terms, think it was the hand) underneath, they had to redesign things inside for seven "stops" in the same space as six. Had they "hogged out" the port some more to the frame side, it would have left too thin a wall or even gone thru the wall.

Yours may have a different problem if you can actually get the rim past the loading port. Mine hung up on the rim while trying to slip in a round. Once the rim got past the loading port, they chambered pretty well.

Good luck with yours. Mine may eventually go to a smith to see if they can make it a bit easier to work with.

Tim, I think I would request Ruger send my S-7 back just like I sent it to them. It would be a pretty easy fix to have any competent gunsmith finish/ream the chambers.

That said, the single seven IS inherently difficult to load for the reasons previously stated in this thread.

I took mine in to a local gunsmith for an action job, and a "free spin conversion".

Power Custom does not yet manufacture the pawl to convert the Single Seven to free spin. My gunsmith took a part built for the single six and modified it to work on the S-7.

My single seven is much easier to load now that the ratchet does not interfere with cylinder to loading gate alignment.

First off, does Rooger ever make a gun that doesn't have to be shipped back a couple of times for their "excellent customer service" to "make it right"?

Secondly, if I was Ruger, I'd have a hard time warranting a gun that had custom work done. Evidently it's a known issue though, like with most Ruggers.

Thirdly, why didn't the gunsmith catch it?

1st, YES, I've never sent a gun back to Ruger and I have/had a few

2nd, Again, not like most Rugers

3rd, If you sent a rifle to a gunsmith to have him lap scope rings and install a new recoil pad, would you also expect him to fire it?

I wouldn't necessarily expect the gunsmith to fire the revolver in this situation, but it wouldn't surprise me either.

I've probably owned/fired as many Rugers as you have and Rugers being sent back is pretty commonplace. How many recalls are there right now?

No, not like most Rugers. It was sarcasm, something I'd expect you to be familiar with.

I like the fact that Rugers are made here. I used to like Rugers a lot. I got tired of them having nagging, little problems though.

they are not the only ones. many years ago i bought a smith model 48 .22magnum from a guy, with 500rounds of ammo for 150bucks. It was in the bankcor punta days.
I am sure that he thought he was sticking me, after having troubles getting spent casings out of the cylinder. Took a trip to a gunsmith to polish out the cylinder, and it worked fine. They had left them unfinished, the casings would swell and catch burrs which is where the problem came from.

I've never sent a Ruger back, though my M77 mk II 350 rem mag feeds like crap so should be tweeked by the factory. Never had a problem with a Ruger revolver or autoloader. Someone obviously skipped test firing these.

The question to the op is, would you be better off getting a new single 7 and then springing for another action job, or send the gun to a smith to properly chamber the cylinder on your gun with the action job. You might end up with a better gun, action job and nice tight chambers.

458,
Yes, you are probably right in that if I had to do it over I would ask them to just send mine back and get it fixed at my expense. But when I told the woman who called me from Ruger "customer service" that there are at least several videos on Youtube from other owners who had the same problem, and they seem to have fixed those, her response was " You can't give any credibility to Youtube, they also have videos of pythons eating people".
So I told her Ok, send me a brand new gun that you have supposedly worked the kinks out of, and I will get on the various shooting forums I belong to and report my experience with Ruger.
At least this time I will get Alan to make it a free-spinning cylinder.
Edit to add: Have owned quite a few Rugers over the years including a Single Six, Mark I, Security Six, but this is the first one that had to be sent back, although a M77 in 243 did need to get a Shilen barrel before it shot acceptably.

Try it out this time.

My SBH won't load if I spin to the 'click' either. Don't think the one I had 20+ years ago would either. I have to turn the cylinder to just before the 'click'. Aren't all newer Ruger SA's like this?

The only one I've tried that works that way is my Single 10 but I rotate that past a skosh so I can load two at once.

There was quite a bit of talk about this issue on the Ruger forum and, IIRC, the loading 'timing window' is rather narrow for the S7 but it just takes some practice and time to get used to.

Hope it works out for the OP. Been thinking about one of those for myself for small game plinking...

I bought my first new SBH in '70. Over the years to date I have accumulated probably a dozen or so. Only one has had an issue; not enough clearance between the cylinder and the frame wall and I cured that myself.. All the rest function perfectly and I've not yet had to send one back for work..

(knocking on wood here)..

well think im kinda glad the local shop found me a SP101 first.....told them to order whichever they found first in 327 Federal, a SP101 or Single Seven....SP101 showed up so its what i got...