Proof Positive This Gun Is Rock Solid

The only other two small guns I had in the house were a Taurus .32 Magnum, and a Beretta .22LR pocket gun to take up the slack, but they were no comparison for my Ruger SP 101. We eventually had to use the two guns to defend our shop, and our lives against a robber, and his car. The Beretta was a bit more to pack in my pocket so I left it under the counter in a concealed drawer. That left me with only the .22, and the .32. After this incident I missed my Ruger SP 101 even more, it was what I needed to keep in my pocket. The SP101 was perfect for me it was small, compact, and delivered a lot of punch. I wouldn’t have to wait too much longer to be reunited with my Ruger.

Late one night I got a call from the Manchester Sheriffs office (a small town about 45 miles from my hometown) they had recovered my Ruger, and said I could come and pick it up anytime at the Sheriffs office. I asked them how they had recovered the gun, and was told it was found at the site of a car accident that was still under investigation. I got up the next morning and made the trip to the Manchester Sheriffs office to finally get my gun back. After proving who I was I was handed my Ruger, and it was a sad site. It had been shot repeatedly without being cleaned, and was scratched badly. I sat down with the deputy who worked the wreck where the gun had been found, and was amazed at the story.

On the previous night a car chase on highway 80 that runs through Manchester resulted in a horrendous crash. The car going in excess of 100 mph flipped end over end approximately six times, and on the last flip the gun was actually seen flying out of the window where it came to rest on the highway where the deputy picked it up, and took charge of the weapon. The driver of the car did live. He stated his son gave the gun to him for Christmas, and that his son bought it from a guy he worked with at a coal company strip job. The gun was only scratched up, and needed cleaned after being thrown around in the car, and then out of it in the crash now that’s tough.

I thanked the deputy, and left with my gun. On the way home I thought about what I would do with the damaged gun. I knew by the time I got home that I was absolutely going to keep the gun. I had done a great deal of thinking on the way home, and I decided the best place to start was looking the gun over inside and out then make a list of any problems. The action would barely move, you really had to strain to get the gun to cock. The finish of the gun was scratched everywhere. The front site was caked in mud. I dreaded what I would find inside the gun after I took it apart. I decided after looking the gun over that I would call Ruger with the information, and see what they recommended. I sat at a table covered with a newspaper and I started to disassemble the gun. It was a mess inside, the guy had to have taken it into the mines with him. I could think of no other way to get so much coal dust down in the action of a revolver. I cleaned for two days on the gun, and then I used steel wool to re-brush the stainless finish of the gun.

Surprisingly the gun was not in bad shape after I cleaned it up, I discovered that the action worked properly, and the finish looked close to the way it looked when it was stolen. I put the gun back together, grabbed a box of cartridges and headed to the range. It was nice to feel the familiar weight of the gun again. I shot a whole box of cartridges that day and the gun functioned perfectly, I couldn’t believe that all it needed was a good cleaning. When I picked the gun up at the sheriff’s office I just knew I would have to send the gun back to Ruger for a full re-furbish. That has been three years ago, and the gun has had a good many rounds shot through it since then, and it has never failed to function properly. The Ruger SP101 is a nearly indestructible firearm.

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