Vetting Ruger GP100s for Carry/Defense Use

[gato naranja]

I have to wonder if maybe I should try my hand at a S&W 686 or 627… with all the GP100s I’ve bought over the past 2 years they’ve all developed some sort of thing going on with them. The 7 shot had dimensional issues but the two 6 shots have this one. But I don’t know. Just discouraged. I read frequently of people talking about having thousands of rounds through their old reliable GP100s with just regular cleaning.

An old classmate of mine said to me after he had split with wife #3, "Each one of them drove me nuts in a different way." I was like that with revolvers to the point where I sold them all off regardless of brand.

My limited foray back into wheelies involves Rugers simply because I am comfortable working on them. I am very tempted to get one of the new Lipsey's J-frames, but I'd rather have a root canal than take the chance on another aluminum-framed S&W revolver; everyone's mileage varies.

[SwampDweller]

An old classmate of mine said to me after he had split with wife #3, "Each one of them drove me nuts in a different way." I was like that with revolvers to the point where I sold them all off regardless of brand.

My limited foray back into wheelies involves Rugers simply because I am comfortable working on them. I am very tempted to get one of the new Lipsey's J-frames, but I'd rather have a root canal than take the chance on another aluminum-framed S&W revolver; everyone's mileage varies.

My only aluminum-framed S&W is a bog standard 642 no-lock. As it is, I only have 90 rounds through it, and I'm not even sure what suffices as a "vetted" round count for them. I hope it's good to go, cause I carry it quite a lot in my pocket, many times with nothing else.

I just remembered I have a guy local to me who works on Rugers. I'm going to have him take a look at my GP100 to determine if it's just a fouling/debris thing or if there actually is something wrong with the gun.

[SwampDweller]

Update: I don't know if it matters, but the issue presented itself after shooting a few cylinders worth of recent production Winchester Silvertip 145gr .357 Magnum. I had put off using that ammo for the range because of bad reports with QC issues, but the ammo went off fine, so I discounted that as a possible culprit. I think @JonInWA or @03RN had mentioned something recently about modern Winchester Silvertip being problematic, but if it fired fine, how could that have messed up the gun? Unburnt powder somewhere?

Before that, 1100 rounds had been shot of various other makers (mostly Magnum) with no stickiness issues anywhere, or any other type of issue.

I'd also like to reiterate that the problem is not currently presenting itself doing just regular handling/opening/closing here at home. It did it on the range, I cleaned it a little and it went away, then shot a couple of cylinders of Federal white box .38 Spl and it came back... now it's gone away again.

What reminded me of the ammo thing is a post by @S Jenks recounting years ago how a Ruger had issues but he found unburnt Unique powder in the internals and a cleaning fixed it.

[S Jenks]

Yeah it was lightly loaded FMJ with Unique. After a few range sessions without cleaning, the cylinder started to get sticky seemingly at random. Some trigger pulls were fine, some were ungodly heavy. Unburnt powder under the star seemed to be the issue and it hasn’t returned.

[SwampDweller]

Yeah it was lightly loaded FMJ with Unique. After a few range sessions without cleaning, the cylinder started to get sticky seemingly at random. Some trigger pulls were fine, some were ungodly heavy. Unburnt powder under the star seemed to be the issue and it hasn’t returned.

Maybe I'm misremembering, didn't you have to disassemble the gun to see the unburnt powder? Or was it just sitting under the extractor star?

[S Jenks]

Maybe I'm misremembering, didn't you have to disassemble the gun to see the unburnt powder? Or was it just sitting under the extractor star?

Had to search but found it! You’re correct, had to pull the cylinder out/off.


Being new to reloading and new to revolvers, a few years ago I ran about 2k soft reloads through a 3” GP100 in a few months’ time.

After a short break in period the trigger turned into something to behold. It pulled like warm butter, I was improving my 25 yard groupings and I was getting better at my reload times. The new Dillon 650 kept spitting out cheap fodder. My beautiful Tucker HF3 wore in to just the right amount of tension. Every range trip felt like sitting down to a plate of comfort food. Homemade biscuits and ham with family while it snowed outside.

If it weren’t for the Ruger’s capacity deficit, I longed to safe my PX4CC and start carrying her in all her matte stainless beauty.

Things were just heaven...before one chamber started to have a sporadic, incredibly hard trigger pull. As in 20+ lbs. heavy.

I pulled most of the gun apart, inspected every part likely to show wear, scrubbed and scrubbed the carbon off. The trigger components seemed fine. There were no burrs to be found on the ratchet.

I wept for what we used to have. I’d take her (mostly) apart, clean and lightly oil, sing softly, and gingerly put her back together. But the issue was still there. Honey biscuits on a New England winter’s night had turned into laying naked on the floor of a damp cell, being tossed rancid meat.

While getting ready to send her back to Ruger in disgust, deflated and betrayed, I decided to do a full strip. On the crane under the cylinder I found a number of specks of unburned Unique.

A quick wipe down and she was back to her old self.

So lesson learned. Revolvers require special attention, especially when you’ve grown up on Glocks. And low-power Unique loads can be nasty.

[SwampDweller]

Had to search but found it! You’re correct, had to pull the cylinder out/off.


Being new to reloading and new to revolvers, a few years ago I ran about 2k soft reloads through a 3” GP100 in a few months’ time.

After a short break in period the trigger turned into something to behold. It pulled like warm butter, I was improving my 25 yard groupings and I was getting better at my reload times. The new Dillon 650 kept spitting out cheap fodder. My beautiful Tucker HF3 wore in to just the right amount of tension. Every range trip felt like sitting down to a plate of comfort food. Homemade biscuits and ham with family while it snowed outside.

If it weren’t for the Ruger’s capacity deficit, I longed to safe my PX4CC and start carrying her in all her matte stainless beauty.

Things were just heaven...before one chamber started to have a sporadic, incredibly hard trigger pull. As in 20+ lbs. heavy.

I pulled most of the gun apart, inspected every part likely to show wear, scrubbed and scrubbed the carbon off. The trigger components seemed fine. There were no burrs to be found on the ratchet.

I wept for what we used to have. I’d take her (mostly) apart, clean and lightly oil, sing softly, and gingerly put her back together. But the issue was still there. Honey biscuits on a New England winter’s night had turned into laying naked on the floor of a damp cell, being tossed rancid meat.

While getting ready to send her back to Ruger in disgust, deflated and betrayed, I decided to do a full strip. On the crane under the cylinder I found a number of specks of unburned Unique.

A quick wipe down and she was back to her old self.

So lesson learned. Revolvers require special attention, especially when you’ve grown up on Glocks. And low-power Unique loads can be nasty.

Thank you for the recap. I'm going to have my local gunsmith GP100 guy take a look at mine because I'm afraid of messing things up, but it sounds like it might just be fouling or something. Dry firing right now, I'm having no issues, but that could change after a cylinder fired.

[gato naranja]

So lesson learned. Revolvers require special attention, especially when you’ve grown up on Glocks. And low-power Unique loads can be nasty.

Back when I would shoot other peoples' reloads, I'd get a batch of some real dandies that would lead the crap out of one of my revolvers and/or foul it to the point where I'd start cussing. Unique was a major culprit WRT the latter issue, but if there was one powder nearly everyone seemed to use in that time/place, it was Unique. Some guys would try and reload about any cartridge under the sun with the stuff whether it was wise or not.

To this day I remain impressed by the ability of one small bit of crap to get "under the star" of a DA revolver and tie it up.

[dannyd93140]

Thank you for the recap. I'm going to have my local gunsmith GP100 guy take a look at mine because I'm afraid of messing things up, but it sounds like it might just be fouling or something. Dry firing right now, I'm having no issues, but that could change after a cylinder fired.

Just go to Rugers web site or youtube and watch a video on breaking the GP100 down, it's one of easiest revolvers to clean and maintain. Ran one for about 3000 rounds before cleaning. Loaded quite a few rounds for the Rugers

[SwampDweller]

Just go to Rugers web site or youtube and watch a video on breaking the GP100 down, it's one of easiest revolvers to clean and maintain. Ran one for about 3000 rounds before cleaning. Loaded quite a few rounds for the Rugers

That's impressive. See that's what makes me wonder if it's not just a fouling issue, lots of people shoot thousands of rounds before cleaning without it causing any stickiness issues. But maybe it's just the way the burnt gunpowder settles in the gun?