Sorry, I can't help, except to suggest to watch the videos on Ruger's website.
I don't have any trouble with mine.

 

Try it with the hammer cocked and the saftey off. (Showing red) Also be sure that the take down lever is down.

 

I had trouble lining everything up at first, but then once I got the motion right after a couple of times, it slides right back on easily. Unless something is out of alignment on yours, it just takes getting the feel of it, and then you should be good.

 

I had some similar issues at first. I was having issues getting the barrel through the front of the slide. Really had to shimmy the slide around to get the barrel to pass. I then came across a thread here that spoke of slide misalignment and found my slide was a bit out. Sent it to Ruger. Now I'm not noticing any difficulty getting the slide back on.

Check your slide alignment. Basically, look at the front of the assembled pistol (unloaded of course) and see if the slide is shifted to one side or the other of the receiver. You will also see a shift in the barrel alignment compared to the slide. There are threads here that describe this with pictures.

Also, make sure the bold securing the barrel is tight. The bold is located inside top of the trigger guard. Reference your owners manual for additional details.

 

My experience - with the stock recoil guide rod sometimes the slide would slip right on and off and other times it seemed to catch - with the stainless steel guide rod I installed the catching seemed to be more frequent and more severe. The main difference seemed to be that the stock rod has a limited amount of flexibility - but more importantly what I discovered - as far as I can tell - what is happening is that the recoil spring, depending on its position relative to the frame sometimes a coil of the spring catches between the rod and the frame and sometimes it does not - this mm or so difference can mean the difference between no interference and just enough to stop the slide on the top of the breach above the chamber.

As a test - when you get the interference - back the slide down and rotate the recoil spring about 90 degrees and try again - which is easier to do during reassembly than disassembly where you can only turn the end of the recoil rod by pressing your finger tip onto it and the spring, if capture, should move as well.

The first thing I did (prior to discovering all the above) - was to round off and polish the end of the stainless steel rod as I thought that might be where it was catching - made no difference.

The second thing I did was to take a file - not full round but not flat - and file off a small amount of material where the spring hits the frame - this is the area below the barrel and above the take down lever - the small pocket where the recoil rod and spring fit into. This helped a lot.

The third thing I did was to file off a very small amount of the top of the barrel above the breach face - basically taking the square edge and making it rounded - maybe half a mm.

The combination of the two has resulted in complete elimination of any hangs up during disassembly or reassembly. It is possible that one or the other modification alone might be sufficient - although it might need to be a greater adjustment than the two together.

FYI - your milage may vary - I am not a licensed gun smith - and modifying your firearm could void the warranty and could lead to injury or death - and all the standard buyer beware etc.

I have put hundreds of rounds through this gun since making the mods without issue - and the amount of material removed is small but once removed can't be put back.

I have also made some modifications to and added aftermarket parts and modified some aftermarket parts - on 4 other firearms - and all have been tested without issue - also just fired my first reloads without issue in both .45 and .223.

 

When you have the rod guide in and are trying to get the slide to go forward pull back the hammer at the same time. The slide should move freely into place.

 

Make sure take down lever is down
Hammer cocked
Align slide and recoil rod/spring
Slide the slide all the way back as if loading one into the chamber
Push down there will be some resistance from the hammer (requires you to push down)
Slide the slide forward
Reset the take down lever
You are ready to go!!!!

 

Thanks mcwsky, that is the exact issue I am having. I will look into it further as I am trying to reassemble. Not sure if I want to file the top of the barrel, but if that is what it takes it may happen. Thanks again.

 

Have you tried rotating your guide rod? My SR22 hangs up during reassembly sometimes. When it does I rotate the guide rod 90 to 180 degrees and try again. It works every time.

 

I took it apart several times this past weekend and the reassembly went smooth. Anytime it caught, it tried rotating the spring and guide rod and voila, went back together flawlessly. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Guide Rod + Spring

Galloway SS Guide rod assembly holds the spring captive which makes it a lot easier.
OGC5

 

I had the same issue and discovered that the problem was the guide rod catching the inner section of its exit hole in the slide. I found that by centering the rod from the muzzle end with a small screwdriver, the slide goes right on. I thought of filing the end of the rod but decided to contact Ruger who is sending me a new rod and spring.

 

No Ruger pistol should be such a hassle to reassemble! I loved shooting it, but it should not be such stress to reassemble a new out of the box pistol. I am very frustrated. Ruger is about to lose a customer if I can not get help with this!

 

Weighing in late on this but the rotating the guide rod trick has worked every time for me. It goes from seemingly impossible to easy.