I dont know why this even surprised me. Sometimes you just want a gun right now. I’ve been wanting a Ruger LCR 9mm for a little while now. I saw one on Texas’ statewide gun sales and trading site. Guy has it listed as having 100 rounds through it. Said he didn’t like double action only. I emailed him. I text him. We talked on the phone. I drove to Dallas from Houston.
Gun looked good. I cycled it. Firing pin came through the hole it’s supposed to. Damn thing looked new. Had the moon clips, box and papers. Of course I didn’t put ammo in it, I would never let some one load a gun during a gun deal in a Mc Donalds parking lot,and I wouldn’t do it to someone. We chatted. He was a teacher, teaching from home, his wife also.
What he really is is a liar. He probably is a teacher. His wife too. What he isnt is someone that fires this gun. I went to the range as soon as I got back to Houston. Loaded up my clips and dropped them in the cylinder. Cylinder wouldn’t close. This gun was perfectly clean btw. I figured maybe I don’t know what Im doing. I tried again and again. Maybe the moon clip was bent? Nope. I looked in all the cylinders- clean and free of obstruction. ( like I hadn’t been looking at it for a few hrs driving back). I know from my extensive research that you can shoot it without the moon clips. Got two rounds in and third didn’t seat. So I gave it a little push. Then I gave it a big push. No deal. 2 of the 5 cylinders wont allow the rounds to seat. Nothing I can see. With a light. With my reading glasses. With a light, my reading glasses and a magnifying glass.

I am frustrated. Like tie him to a chair and put a hairdryer in his mouth for a couple of minutes. I have messaged Ruger. I’m sure they will fix it. Its not damaged. After shipping etc. not worth dealing with the teacher again, and to what end.

What weight were the bullets? I've seen LCR 9mms that wouldn't fully seat heavier bullets. Most prefer 115gr, IMHO.

They were 115 FMJ and I tried Gold Dot 147 just to see. Same result 3 good, two bad.

A word of caution of this revolver, you can verify in the manual.

We had one. Manual warned of the possibility of bullets "walking" forward, out of the cartridge case.

To test, I loaded five, fired four, then measured the fifth (unfired) one. The bullet had migrated forward at least .020" or more. Every time! Every handload, and every factory load that I tried.

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Ruger will take care of you. Did the guy lie about having shot the gun? It seems that was what you were implying.
Ruger always paid for shipping both ways on my guns.

Send it to Ruger. They are top notch on customer service.

I sent them a used Sp101 I bought, and it blew apart, they replaced it. I was very honest that I wasn't the original owner, not that they couldn't look it up. I was shocked, I was willing to pay for repairs and they didn't charge me a thing.

To answer if the guy lied about shooting the gun- the real answer is maybe. He obviously didn’t shoot from two of the cylinders. I guess its possible that he shot 100 rounds from the three working cylinders.

Do spent cartridges seat?

I'd run this through the Sig Armourer section.

Years ago I bought an old Security Six that had a cylinder that would bind up when you turned it, including when you fired it. I bought it for a steal figuring I could fix it easy enough and the owner didn’t want to deal with it.

It turned out to be a spring that cost me a few bucks and ten minutes to replace. But before I even looked at it I called Ruger CS to see if they would service it. I told them I was not the original owner and that I’d bought it broken. Their replay was that they didn’t care. They would service it for free, all I had to pay was shipping. They then said that since it was a discontinued model they couldn’t guarantee they had the parts to fix it, but if they couldn’t they would sell me the most comparable current model at cost.

Call Ruger. They will take care of you.

You bought it from a teacher. Most teachers are liberals, so what do you expect? hahahaa

The situation sucks, but sounds like in the end Ruger will take care of it...….

If possible I would at least leave negative feedback on the guy. No doubt the seller had to know the gun had issues but instead of contacting Ruger to have the gun repaired he chose to sell his problem to you.

I had a slightly similar problem with my Ruger .45 convertible when I tried some .45 ACP hardball after some SWC lead rounds. It seems that some of the lead had shaved off onto the chamber lips inside the cylinder and the rounds could no longer headspace deep enough for the cylinder to rotate. A good scraping of those lips fixed the issue and taught me a lessson...dont take cheap lead ammo from my brother. :-)

Your gun only has 1 cylinder. Those 5 holes are its chambers..savvy?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
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Ruger will take care of you. Did the guy lie about having shot the gun? It seems that was what you were implying.
Ruger always paid for shipping both ways on my guns.

Yep, I bought an LCP II on a good deal gently used. I figured out why it was gently used because when I took it out to shoot for the first time the mag dropped free after every shot. I called Ruger and they wanted it back. They fixed it and it works like a charm now. They paid for shipping and I had it back in probably a week or so.