Ruger LC 9 Chamber Question

[puggy]

Having just been introduced to firearms and recently purchased a Ruger LCP CTC with Laserguard, I was treated so fantastically by Ruger that I decided to buy another firearm that would also be small but would have some safety features since I'm very new at this. I haven't wasted time-that's for sure.

Anyway, I bought a Ruger LC 9 with CTC Laserguard and I had a few sticky moments of the slide not chambering perfectly after inserting a magazine. A few times, after retracting the slide and moving it forward, a bullet would just pop out of the slide onto the floor or there would be a jam where the chamber indicator wouldn't indicate anything in the chamber. I had some successful chambers and thought it had more to do with swiftly sending the slide back and forth but then a few setbacks occurred again. Finally, I took a break, loaded up all three magazines several times and went through about sixty chamber attempts - all of which were perfect. I don't believe it had as much to do with the force of the slide "send-off" as the smoothness of my movement. Now I'm batting 100. Any feedback would be appreciated. Will I encounter jamming when I go to the range next weekend? My ammo is decent quality. Thanks.

[STBear]

I have a LC9 and have had no issues. Not sure what was going on with yours.

[puggy]

Hmmm...also a few times the slide stopped about 1/16" short and had to be "wiggled" to seat the bullet so that the chamber indicator would lift up. Like I said, the last sixty or so attempts were all perfect.

[M&P Chris]

Are you riding the slide? Does it also do it when you release the slide using the slide lock?

[puggy]

That's a very good question. I didn't think I was but leave to a 67 year old newbie with some uncertainty and maybe that could have been it. i just ran three magazines of 7 again with zero problems so a total of nearly 100 perfect chambers. I can bet there was hesitation on my part causing the bullet not to seat properly. It seems fine now, happy to say. I changed over my three magazines to have the extended finger grip and the spring on one of them "escaped" yesterday. I reassembled the thing and thought maybe that was the issue but all three magazines are functioning properly. I'm thinking it was a case of newbie jitters. It's fine now (knocking wood). Range next weekend. I really like the LC 9. Nice addition to my CCW along with my LCP. Thanks for the responses. Yep, it was probably me.

PS: No, I never saw it come to a halt 1/16" short releasing the slide lock. I'm pretty certain it was what I caused.

[M&P Chris]

Glad you got it sorted out. Have fun shooting!

[puggy]

Can't wait to shoot! I wasn't half bad with the LCP. Going to see if one of my very experienced friends can go over the ins ands outs of cleaning as well as removal/install of the CTC Laserguard when I clean. I'm not wanting to take the laser off every time for fear of stripping the allen screws. A firearms sales person at Cabela's said some of his customers cover their laser with tape (on occasion) during cleaning to avoid having to do this every time they clean. Both my LCP and the LC 9 have the Crimson Trace. I'm also thinking covering the laser with plastic wrap and tape. BTW, did a load of one magazine this AM flawlessly so yeah, I had silly fingers yesterday. Works fine.

[puggy]

Post note here. I haven't been racking the slide right all along. And I have been riding it "Hollywood" style taking it back and forth as I loaded the chamber. Last night , maybe because I was a bit hesitant, the slide stopped again at about 1/16", short of loading the chamber. I gave it a little tap and it loaded just fine. I've been going both ways as I racked all along. Doing some reading and You Tube watching, I got it. You pull back and just let that slide go and it chambers smoothly and no problems. I guess we've all been newbies at one time. Thanks for the pointers.

[Livefire]

I'm by no means a firearms expert, however I'm going to give my 2cents on the matter. I carried the LC9 for a year and really loved it. However, on several occasions I encountered the same problem as you mentioned. A round would stovepipe as a tried to rack the slide. For that reason I always carry hot. I feared the gun would would jam if my ever found myself in a stressful situation and needed to chamber in a hurry.

This was my first pocket pistols and I really learned a lot from the experience. I learned words such as "stovepipe" and "limp wristing" . The Lc9 conceals well, especially in the pocket.

[puggy]

Having racked this properly, I've had no issues. When I posted the start of this topic, I WAS riding the slide and didn't have a good understanding of the issue and the potential for problems. I did correct myself early on- thanks to feedback here. I've taken my LCP and LC9 to the Heritage Guild Easton last weekend and shot around 50 rounds in each with no issues. The problems I had were my newbie fault. I guess we all have to learn at some point. I'm thinking of lessons as well. My aim is pretty good (have to admit) but there's a lot I will be needing to learn. There sure is more recoil on the LC9 than the LCP and my rotator cuff tear and arthritic thumb is a reminder but totally worth the aches. So much fun...