I have one of the original SP's in 9mm. I bought it used years ago and it looks to have never been fired. I'd say its as NIB as anyone will find. It's been put away ever since and I know I've never fired it. I have 2 unopened packages of the original Ruger full moon clips for it.

I REALLY like 9mm in a revolver, ammo is cheaper and more to choose from and easier to get than .38 +P. It's more powerful that .38 +P, yet controllable for a follow up shot compared to .357.

Don't confuse 9mm service sized auto numbers with snubby 9mm revolver reality.

Jimmy123x, your comments are consistent with my experience with the little 9MM revolvers. I've not chronographed any 38 +P ammunition that equals 9MM ballistics in 2" and 3" revolvers. The Ballistics By The Inch site lists some interesting comparisons between 9MM and .357 ammunition in 2 and 3" barrels. Their results are not what many might assume, and not always in the .357's favor....

Hmmmmm....

I have been slowly “standardizing” to 9mm on most of my handguns. Have a .357 SP-101, just may have to see about this...

I am assuming it uses moon clips?

It ships with three moonclips, but the blurb isn't clear as to how well it functions without them.

IlCattivo, Headspace on my older 9mm SP-101 is tight enough that it functions just fine without moon clips. My S&W 940 though, not so much. Without moon clips, headspace on the S&W is grossly excessive at .794". When S&W says use moon clips on their guns chambered for semi-auto pistol cartridges, they obviously mean it.

quote:

Originally posted by Ruger Redhawk:
I have one of the original SP's in 9mm. I bought it used years ago and it looks to have never been fired. I'd say its as NIB as anyone will find. It's been put away ever since and I know I've never fired it. I have 2 unopened packages of the original Ruger full moon clips for it.

Ya' know, I think you might be best served to keep it just like that. I hate to say that, because I shoot ALL of my guns (except my Ed Brown Kobra Carry).

That SP101 in 9mm is such a cool gun. I have a 357 2" (DAO), but I would love to stumble on one like you describe in 9mm one day.

quote:

Originally posted by Ruger Redhawk:
... I have 2 unopened packages of the original Ruger full moon clips for it.

Don't use them, or your gun will no longer appear NIB. The continuous outside rim moon clips will scratch the side plate when extracted. Most shooters will opt for other moon clips, like the S&W ones w/o the continuous outer circle of steel.

I’m thinking of ordering one and converting it to DAO.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
Don't confuse 9mm service sized auto numbers with snubby 9mm revolver reality.

9mm and .357 are about the same FPS out of a 2" and 3" barrel. Check the ballistics youself, .38 +p is seriously lacking in FPS (albeit a heavier bullet than 9mm).


Check for yourself at ballistics by the inch site.

While out for a fall drive a few weeks back, we stopped at a good size gun store I had never been to about 40 miles north of me (Skagit Arms in Burlington WA). I ended up buying a P320 .45 they had in stock (hadn’t seen any of the .45 P320 in other local stores) for a fair price and also took a look at one of the 9mm SP101’s.

I took a hard look at it and explained to my wife why I was thinking of replacing her .357 SP101 with it (ammo cost/availability and recoil). Even though she gave me the green light, I passed as they were a little over priced at $579.

They were willing to talk, but wouldn’t even consider the price from an online source. I offered $540, but the guy who would have to approve it wasn’t in.


Fast forward to today and I was at that shop again to do a transfer on a Glock I was selling. After finishing that I took another look at the 9mm SP101. They had come down to $569, still a little high when there were several online sources in the $500-$525 range (add in $5-$10 shipping and a $25 transfer really means $530-$560). Since WA state forces dealers to collect “use tax” on transfers, it has made buying online less of a bargain.

A little bit of google-foo and I showed them another store a bit farther north in Anacortes listed it at $535 on their website, not in stock but delivered in 3 days from the warehouse. I asked if they had two of them in stock, and would match their local competitors price I’d take them.

About 5 minutes later he came back saying he had two fresh in the box and the best he could do was $539. While I could have saved another $10 at Anacortes, not being in stock would have meant another 90 mile round trip drive so it made sense to just go ahead and grab them while I was there.

Added bonus, the tax rate in Burlington is 1.5% less than where I get transfers, so that saved me an additional $17 in tax.


Since I’ve been focused on trying to consolidate my handguns from 9mm, .357Sig, .40SW, .45ACP, .38, .357mag down to just 9mm and .45ACP. I figured I would get two of the SP101 9mm. One to replace my wife’s carry gun and one for me. My only other revolver is a SW 640 Pro, so selling the .357 SP101 and the 640 means I no longer have to worry about keeping .38/.38+P/.357 ammo on hand.

The Glock I sold was the last of my .40SW guns except for my beloved P229ST (which I recently picked up a 9mm conversion barrel for) so with the exception of a .22 Ruger Bearcat, I am officially all 9mm or .45 once I sell the old SP101 and the 640.

Looking forward to getting them to the range and do a side by side comparison with the .357.

quote:

Originally posted by stiab:

quote:

Originally posted by Ruger Redhawk:
... I have 2 unopened packages of the original Ruger full moon clips for it.

Don't use them, or your gun will no longer appear NIB. The continuous outside rim moon clips will scratch the side plate when extracted. Most shooters will opt for other moon clips, like the S&W ones w/o the continuous outer circle of steel.

I appreciate the info. I doubt I'll ever fire it but it's good to know about the Full Moon clips. Thanks

Update on my two SP101's in 9mm...

Got them to the range while on vacation around Christmas time and had a 50/50 experience. One fired and functioned as expected, no problems. I had forgot to grab the moon clips so I went ahead and fired it with loose rounds in the chambers. No problems extracting at all. Of course the ejection rod did nothing, but with each cylinder full 3-4 just dropped out on their own and the others would come out with a little jiggling of the cylinder. Out of 4 cylinders full (20 rounds) only one case needed to be helped with a push from the front of the cylinder with an ink pen.

I didn't bring the SP101 in .357 for a direct comparison, but the SP in 9mm seemed easy enough to shoot with very manageable recoil. I was shooting Blazer Brass 115gr FMJ.


The second SP101 had an issue. On the first round, the trigger hung to the rear and would not reset after firing. After some manipulation of the trigger (ie wiggle side to side and back and forth) it freed itself and reset. Open the cylinder, unload, check for obvious issues. Close cylinder cycle manually, dry fire. Everything seems fine, reload and try again. First round goes off fine, trigger rests. Second round failure happens again. Jiggle, jiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Trigger resets, open and unload and put it away.


Both functioned fine dry-firing so I was a bit surprised to get a malfunction from a revolver (so much for the revolvers are more reliable, they can't jam theory...)


Called Ruger and they sent me an RMA and shipping label for return. Being the holidays, they asked me not to send until after the new year. I was ok with that, got plenty of other toys and the SP is really for my wife anyway and she still has her SP in .357.


I finally got around to packing it up and dropping it off Sun 1/22 (along with my three P320's which I got notified Sig was ready to upgrade on 1/18) to go out on Mon 1/23. Got an email Sun afternoon that UPS would be visiting today with a package that required a signature.

Looks like the SP101 is returning with a 7 day turnaround, including shipping. Ruger received it Wed, sent it back out on Fri, pretty impressive (so long as they fixed the problem).


I was never contacted by CS so I am assuming the note I wrote made sense and it was a simple fix. I picked up a P320 X-Carry last week as well so will try to get to the range with both this week or next to check them out.

I'll make sure to bring the moon clips with me this time, and if the SP in .357 hasn't been sold (currently have it listed on Armslist) I'll bring it along for a direct comparison of 125gr .38 Special vs. 115gr Blazer and 125gr .357 vs my 9mm Hornady Critical Duty Carry ammo.

Once the .357 SP sells, I will have consolidated all my handguns to 9mm or .45 with just three exceptions. My P229ST in .40 (but have a 9mm conversion barrel for), my Ruger Bearcat .22, and my S&W 640Pro.

I am really not a revolver fan, and am torn about whether to keep the 640 or sell it as well. I bought it to have a snubby revolver for those times when they come in handy, but getting two of the SP101 in 9mm (one for me and one for my wife) it really is now surplus. Given how soft the used market is, I'll probably hang on to it for now...

Nice update Boss. Interested to see if the "fix" works. Sounds like it was something obvious with the quick turnaround (the beauty of the revolvers is they are fairly simple operators).

I put different springs in my .357, so have had an SP101 taken apart before. I was tempted to open it up and take a look at it myself, but decided with it being brand new though I should probably just send it in.

Clearly I am no mechanical engineer, but I am flummoxed.

Revolver was just delivered and paperwork says they replaced the ejector. How would the ejector cause the trigger to bind???

Will have to try and get to the range this week to wring it out and see what happens.

quote:

Originally posted by MagiaNera:

I'm not a revolver fan either. However, I picked up a NIB .357 SP101 with a host of accessories, including holster, extra moon clips, and ammo, for what amounted to $450 in chips, in a poker game last night! I'm a fan today!

357 with moon clips ???

If they replaced the ejector, maybe it was out of spec in some fashion? If the ‘ejector star’ doesn’t sit flush and stay clear while the cylinder rotates, it could easily bind things up.

As a revolver gets dirty, grit under the ejector star can easily ‘bind’ the trigger up, since the cylinder will not easily rotate.

Now with a new gun & no dirt of grit, maybe the clearance wasn’t proper? Just an idea, I’d think the Ruger smiths would know what to check. Hopefully it works fine now.

quote:

Originally posted by 911Boss:
Clearly I am no mechanical engineer, but I am flummoxed.

Revolver was just delivered and paperwork says they replaced the ejector. How would the ejector cause the trigger to bind???

Will have to try and get to the range this week to wring it out and see what happens.

I realize this is an older thread, but I'm considering buying one of these. Does the second gun that was sent back now work?