[jwh321]

I can only presume that this is from dry firing. THis is a new gun. Manufacture date is 11-19-2012. It has had approximately 600 rounds of 115 grain American Eagle through it.

I first noticed this problem when cleaning after the last range trip. The Firing Pin plunger did not hold the firing pin from moving forward so I took the pin out to see what was going on.

This is what I found. You can see the bent retaining pin, but its a bit hard to see that the firing pin is peened at the back of the slot. The slot is misshapen at the back and there are stress fractures on the surface of the pin along both sides of the slot. Very strange, but I am immediately adopting a policy of not dry firing the gun.

 

[moakes58]

I can only presume that this is from dry firing. THis is a new gun. Manufacture date is 11-19-2012. It has had approximately 600 rounds of 115 grain American Eagle through it.

I first noticed this problem when cleaning after the last range trip. The Firing Pin plunger did not hold the firing pin from moving forward so I took the pin out to see what was going on.

This is what I found. You can see the bent retaining pin, but its a bit hard to see that the firing pin is peened at the back of the slot. The slot is misshapen at the back and there are stress fractures on the surface of the pin along both sides of the slot. Very strange, but I am immediately adopting a policy of not dry firing the gun.

I have dry-fired mine 1000+times & have over 1000 rounds fired without issue.
Mine is about a year older than yours. I have never had the firing pin out. I spray the firing pin hole with GunScrubber using the red tube, just a quick squirt or 2. Have you contacted Ruger?

 

[mndoggie]

I can only presume that this is from dry firing. THis is a new gun. Manufacture date is 11-19-2012. It has had approximately 600 rounds of 115 grain American Eagle through it.

I first noticed this problem when cleaning after the last range trip. The Firing Pin plunger did not hold the firing pin from moving forward so I took the pin out to see what was going on.

This is what I found. You can see the bent retaining pin, but its a bit hard to see that the firing pin is peened at the back of the slot. The slot is misshapen at the back and there are stress fractures on the surface of the pin along both sides of the slot. Very strange, but I am immediately adopting a policy of not dry firing the gun.

Wow, 600 rounds thru a firearm manufactured two days ago!!!!

I'm guessing there is a typo in there somewhere.

Contact Ruger for new parts.

 

[jwh321]

MNDOGGIE, you're right, make that 10-19-2012. Never was good with numbers or keyboards.

As a followup, I installed a replacement firing pin and retainer and the gun is back to being good as new. It never did act strange. I could have kept on using it forever, probably. I just happened to notice the firing pin plunger was working strangely when I was cleaning it. I did call Ruger, and they do want to see the broken parts, and they offered to replace them for me. Good folks there.

I should also mention that this is my second LC9, and that I bought some spares with the first one since at that time, all of the internet buzz said they were having a firing pin problem leading to light strikes. I never had a problem with either gun doing light strikes so the spare pins were in the parts drawer. Its possible that this is simply a fluke with a bad retainer pin. I've not read of anyone else having this problem.

On the positive side, I can tell you that this is the easiest gun I've ever seen to service. I comes apart and goes back together in minutes. Most of its parts are available from the Ruger parts site, and the cost of most parts is just a couple of bucks (a firing pin is $8 and the retainer pin is $2). I come from a background where parts would be very hard to get, so I generally keep a few spare small parts on hand for all of my guns.

 

[DEKerr]

On the positive side, I can tell you that this is the easiest gun I've ever seen to service.

You should check out a fixed barrel, blow-back operated semi auto. My P232 is insanely easy to take down & service. Breaks into 4 pieces (inc. magazine) in about 10 seconds.

 

[JERGENSEN]

MNDOGGIE, you're right, make that 10-19-2012. Never was good with numbers or keyboards.

As a followup, I installed a replacement firing pin and retainer and the gun is back to being good as new. It never did act strange. I could have kept on using it forever, probably. I just happened to notice the firing pin plunger was working strangely when I was cleaning it. I did call Ruger, and they do want to see the broken parts, and they offered to replace them for me. Good folks there.

I should also mention that this is my second LC9, and that I bought some spares with the first one since at that time, all of the internet buzz said they were having a firing pin problem leading to light strikes. I never had a problem with either gun doing light strikes so the spare pins were in the parts drawer. Its possible that this is simply a fluke with a bad retainer pin. I've not read of anyone else having this problem.


On the positive side, I can tell you that this is the easiest gun I've ever seen to service. I comes apart and goes back together in minutes. Most of its parts are available from the Ruger parts site, and the cost of most parts is just a couple of bucks (a firing pin is $8 and the retainer pin is $2). I come from a background where parts would be very hard to get, so I generally keep a few spare small parts on hand for all of my guns.

I had a hell of a time getting my loaded chamber indicator roll pin out, when I removed firing pin for cleaning. Are you saying yours came out easily ?

 

[Sam1911]

It's not going to work like that. LOL! sorry you had a problem. That didn't happen as a result of dry firing. You had a misfire and or a jam that impacted the the firing pin I would say. You are lucky the firing pin survived. Contact Ruger they will either send you the part or have you send them the gun so they can check it out. I've seen this happen a couple of times in other guns. It could be that something is weak or to strong and it through the timing of the action off enough to cause this to happen.

At least that's my guess.

 

[jwh321]

I had a hell of a time getting my loaded chamber indicator roll pin out, when I removed firing pin for cleaning. Are you saying yours came out easily ?

Surprisingly easy. I had a roll pin punch the proper size, and it took only a few taps to move it to the side enough to remove the LCI. I didn't push it all the way out. I figured it would be a bear to get back in if I did. The little spring pops out easily, and the firing pin retained is under the spring. Turn the slide over and the retainer pin just falls out.

 

[jwh321]

It's not going to work like that. LOL! sorry you had a problem. That didn't happen as a result of dry firing. You had a misfire and or a jam that impacted the the firing pin I would say. You are lucky the firing pin survived. Contact Ruger they will either send you the part or have you send them the gun so they can check it out. I've seen this happen a couple of times in other guns. It could be that something is weak or to strong and it through the timing of the action off enough to cause this to happen.

At least that's my guess.

I would have thought the same thing, but I've had the gun since it was new, No one else has fired it except to get the shell casing that they send in the box. I've had only one or two failures to load, and one failure to extract. Neither type of failure locked anything up, and the firing pin is in perfect condition at the tip. There are no marks of any sort on the slide around the firing pin hole as I would expect if there had been some sort of misfire.

I've looked at the way the firing pin block works, and I agree that it sure seems unlikely that it could be damaged by dry firing. But the damage to the slot is at the back of the pin. I would expect a misfire or misfeed to damage the slot at the other end, wouldn't you? I've also looked at the timing of the action. It seems perfect. and its smooth as it can be and there's no evidence of any sort of "peening" at the edges of either the barrel or the slide. There's also no damage to the firing pin blocker. The only damage is to the retainer and the pin itself at the back of the slot. The firing pin hole in the slide is smooth, and the new pins slid in perfectly. Now that I think of it, its also kinda weird that the bent retainer pushed out as easily as it did.