Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Ruger quality control question

Is Ruger quality control as good or better nowadays as it was back 20-30 years ago?

Any opinions?

(shopping for a Ruger GP100)

No, absolutely not.

I don't have a huge sample of more recently made revolvers to judge but have purchased dozens and dozens of them beginning in 1968, including several made in the last 8-10 years. Being an inveterate window shopper I've also examined multiple new Ruger revolvers of more recent manufacture.

I bought an SP101 made in 2016 and had to send it back, that was the start of sending back three more after that, two of them had to be junked by Ruger for being irreparable - remember, these were brand new ones sent by the factory as warranty replacements and they were junk. Finally, being either stupid or stubborn, I bought another one made in 2015. I had to lap the rough barrel and redo the atrocious crown before it shot anywhere near accurately, and the cylinder still comes off the crane when dissasembled which it is not supposed to do. But other than those three things it's okay.


If I had to put a date on it, I'd say those made in 2015 would mark the first year I really noticed the quality going downhill, but that's a ball park date. A .357 Blackhawk made in 2012 was a fine revolver in every way. Revolvers made in 2016 and beyond show a definite downhill slide - bad barrels, sights on crooked, a host of issues.

Revolvers made 20-30 years ago were made right. Doesn't mean there weren't some clunkers made then or some good ones made now, but the chances of finding a true POS Ruger from the 90's or before, even into the first few years of the 2000's are extremely slim, the chances of getting something made after 2016 that you'll have to send back for warranty work are very good.

I think almost everybody's QC is way, way down lately.

I bought a new Ruger Single Six Bisley .22 a few years ago, like five years, maybe. It was throwing bullets everywhere and spitting lead like crazy. The chambers were not aligned with the barrel. Quite visibly when you sighted down the bore with a light. I sent it to them. Now, they did fix it up right away, but stories like mine seem to be more and more common.

You have to think Bill Ruger would be kicking some serious ass if he were here to see this happening. What a disappointment. I haven’t bought a new Ruger for quite a while and doesn’t sound like I’m missing much.

from my experiences over the last 10 years with smith and wesson, the same is true there as well. I am beginning to think a taurus might be just as good a revolver as either ruger or smith. A possible board room comment at either company might be "the rubes cant possibly expect quality at that price" However it is across the board these days, almost no one takes pride in their work.

I’m afraid you’re right. I bought a new 5” S&W model 629 three years ago. The cylinder jammed the very first time I fired it. Did it with hand loads and factory ammo. They fixed it, turns out the primer bushing was recessed allowing the primers to back out just a bit when a cartridge was fired. But if they had test fired it even once it wouldn’t have shipped.

I'm a Smith & Wesson fan but absolutely would not buy one made after about 1996 with all their "improvements" ( read as cheapness ) and preferably 1982 or earlier. The J-Frames don't seemed to have suffered as much as the K, L, and N frames. Their current quality control is basically non-existent. I personally have recently seen two that had to go back to the factory before they were even fired. Don't know about Ruger as the only ones I have are pre 1985.

I've quit buying new Rugers, because I'm tired of being their QC department. Every single one of the last few Rugers I've bought had something wrong with it, either major or minor. I'm not the only one, either.

OTOH, older Rugers were pretty top-notch stuff. I wish I could find more of those.....

But no, I won't be buying any more Rugers, until they get a real QC department up and running again.

As an "old school" machinist, I see it every day and have to agree.

Ruger products show it too.
However, having purchased more than a few over the years they have all performed as intended.

Last Ruger I bought was 2 years ago. Zero issues in fit, function or cosmetics. I had bought another about 2 years before that (so now we're into 2019) - zero issues there as well.

Just my experiences which have been 100% good.

One was a 480 and the other 45 Colt.

A SS New Bearcat I bought about 10 years ago had to go back twice for just awful timing, and the first guy who worked on it actually broke the transfer bar. I bitched pretty loudly and it came back from the second attempt working perfectly, and was very nicley finished, and shot to POA. Like a dummy, I traded it when I bought my M63. A feller needs both….

I bought a NIB .44 Spl. flattop on Gunbroker about 4 years ago. When I got it, the front sight was crooked and the base pin latch did not work well. Called Ruger, got a RMA, and had the gun back with everything fixed in less than two weeks. It was worrisome I had to send it in when it should have never be passed by inspection, but they were quick to make it right. They do have a great customer service department. Two years ago, I called them and sent in an old beater Single Six that had belonged to a family member since the 60's. I had in mind to get the transfer bar put in and get it refurbished. Three days after I sent it in, I got a call asking if I would settle for a NIB Single six at no charge in exchange for the old worn out one. That new revolver is the most accurate .22 revolver I have ever had, even besting a couple target automatics and an old K22.

I had my LCP fling a few parts (extractor assembly) off at the range once. I had owned the pistol for a couple of years at the time, but it went back to the factory at no cost and was back good as new within 2 weeks as well.

Ruger does seem to have a problem with too tight cylinder throats on their .32s (.310") and .45s(.449-450") and I had to get all mine opened up and uniformed. The .357s and 44s seem to be very consistent at .358" and .431''.

I have run into problems with new guns from S&W as well but their turn around time runs into months rather than less than 2 weeks, and they won't fool with an older gun. I don't buy new Smiths anymore.

I don't know about the other plants, but Ruger N.C. seems to be batting a thousand on returns.

I got an RMA number from them, & 11 working days later I insisted they lick the calf over. They gave me another RMA #. Would the numbers be sequential? That's something I don't know, but it's a natural or procedural thing to do IMO.

With that in mind, they issued ~3400 RMA's in 11 working days.

There used to be a little secret a person could do to get a hand inspected Ruger.

Send it back to the factory for some minor complaint - "sticky loading gate" or some such. They'd not only fix your specific issue but would go over it with a fine tooth comb and fix everything that could possibly be out of whack. Apparently they'd rather fix any future problems then and there than have someone send one of their products back multiple times.

Had a used stainless Bisley Blackhawk .45 that someone had done too fine of a trigger job on, the trigger was downright unsafe. I sent it to Ruger and explained quite clearly that it was not their fault but requested that they please replace the trigger and associated parts as needed to bring it back to factory specs.

Not only did they replace the trigger and hammer but they also replaced springs, a couple of screws and a few other parts that had nothing to do with the hammer/trigger interface. All at no charge to me.

But that was then - forget how much then, maybe 10-15 years ago? - and this is now. Sending one back for warranty work is no guarantee at all that they'll even fix the problem you send it back for.

I have bought two Rugers in the past 4 years, and had issues with both- the first was a Super Redhawk .480 Ruger, that had very hard extraction after the first couple of cylinder full of rounds fired. I tried polishing the cylinders and tumbling my spent brass, which has helped the problem somewhat.

The latest is a Super Blackhawk, 4.62" barreled .480. This revolver has no extraction problems, but had very visible tool marks along the length of the front sight. I ended up removing the sight, sanding it down to remove the tool marks, and rebluing it. The front sight is also off vertical by a half degree or so- not enough to fuss with trying to send it back to the factory, but I am always aware of it. Both of the triggers on these guns needed Wolf trigger springs to lighten the pull, and both are a bit creepy, more so with the SBH.

None of these problems exist with my FA or my BFR- guess you just get what you pay for.

Those of you who don't have any problems should not post here - this is a biitch thread.

To their credit they seem pretty willing to ship their defective guns back and forth. They trashed and replaced 2 Wranglers before getting one to me that was 1/2 way decent. That was after sending parts to try to fix the broken ones

They may have recently changed their return shipping policy. A Mini 14 I had that would fail to eject consistently was sent back for repair. They replaced something (can’t remember but I think it was the ejector). It was better but not all the way fixed. I ignored it for a few years. I recently called Ruger and they would ‘fix’ it for free, but shipping was on me as the gun was over 2 years old. No big deal, but I decided to order a new ejector (cheaper than shipping) and replace it myself. The gun has been 100% since my repair, but I don’t have a ton of rounds through it.

I don’t think this is a bitch thread, people are simply sharing their experiences. No one is whining, or crying, just pointing out the individual problems they experienced. A lot of people who don’t complain probably don’t shoot their purchase much but just take it out and admire it from time to time. I expect people who post on this forum shoot more than most, and by doing so find the problems instead of storing the problems in a gun safe. Personally in my opinion paying $900 for a new revolver, I expect it to perform as advertised, but that’s just me.

I feel uniquely qualified to respond to this thread. Ruger QC is goddam atrocious. They are using their customers as QC and seem quite content with that business model.

Uh huh. That's what women say when they "share" about their husbands.

You need a Bud Light.