I wrote not too long ago that Ruger (one of my favorite brands) had been having some quality control issues. This week I ran across another issue. A friend of mine bought a brand new 10/22 for his son. After taking it shooting he reported that it was not holding the magazine. While shooting the magazine would simply fall out.
I thought something had probably happened to the magazine spring, and that we could order a new one for about $2 and put it in with no problem. That was the first problem; no parts available. I checked with all my parts distributors and no one had any. By the way, good luck getting most any Ruger OEM part lately. More on that later.
Not to worry. I had an old Ruger 10/22 action sitting around. I decided to just take the magazine screw off of it and replace the one on the new 10/22. That was the second problem. There was no spring installed on the new 10/22. That is why the magazine was dropping out. It didn’t have a spring in the first place.
That’s bad, but this is what gets you. Ruger continually offers service to their products, but won’t pay for shipping to their repair centers. You foot the bill, and if it is a handgun you are out big money. If they deem your repair necessary they won’t charge for labor or return shipping, but you just spent money shipping a brand new gun to get it fixed.
One can only assume that Ruger is focused right now on making profits soar, and that is the cause of these poor quality control checks. I know that the LCP has been a big hit. I have one in my pocket from time to time, and I love it. The issue isn’t that I don’t love the brand. Overall it is rock solid, but I have been in the business for 10 years now, and I have never seen this many issues in such a short time. In fact, until this year, I had never had a Ruger in for repair, only customization.
So this is a plea; to the customer and to Ruger. As a customer, please fully inspect your gun before you buy it. You might notice something not exactly right at the store and save yourself the hassle. To Ruger, please step up your game to where it has been for so long. Everyone makes mistakes, but the recent run of quality control issues is not good. Next step up your game on how you treat your customers. I understand making them pay on the front end for shipping in case the issue is a customer induced problem. If it is your fault, please reimburse the customer for the shipping.
Finally get some parts out there and make them available. Release more parts to gunsmiths. Having them restricted is making everyone’s life harder. It would be great to get a new hammer dog without sending it to the factory! A $3 part that now cost me $35 in shipping and cost you $35 in shipping is unwise. We love your brand, now help us keep loving it.