Ruger LC9 Magazine Problems

The Good Quality Ruger LC9 Magazine Made in Italy
The Good Quality Ruger LC9 Magazine Made in Italy

Here is a heads up about an issue with the Ruger LC9 or rather magazines made by Ruger. The original magazine that comes with the LC9 is made in Italy and there have been no problems reported so far with the original Italian made mag. For those who purchased additional magazines there have been numerous reports of failure to lock back after the last round and failure to feed. These problems are attributed to poor quality magazines made by Ruger in the US. Here are two representative comments by LC9 owners who have experienced the problem. The description of the issue also includes comments by Ruger service reps.

Here’s what I have noticed with my LC9. I purchased two LC9′s (one for me and one for my girlfriend). Each pistol only came with one mag. I purchased two additional mags made by Ruger from my dealer. Here’s what I discovered: The mags that shipped with the pistol were made in Italy and have been utterly reliable. The ones that I purchased are made in the USA, have a different, dull finish on the metal, and caused all sorts of problems, including not locking the slide to the rear when empty, either after firing or manually attempting to lock the slide to the rear, as well as some failures preventing a round from fully seating into battery. I brought the USA made mags back to my dealer and discussed this issue with him. He took several other USA made mags he had in stock and tested them in a different LC9. Most of those mags also failed to lock the slide to the rear. He informed me he would be discussing this issue with the Ruger representative that he deals with. Hope this sheds some light on this issue.

Here is a follow on comment that provides some additional information on the subject.

I’m having the same issue with the mag dropping out after firing the LC9. After carefully analyzing everything and ruling out hitting the mag release and other factors, I found that the notch on the mag is not fully engaged with the inner mag catch and we’re talking about a hair thickness in what holds the mag in,to it dropping out. I called Ruger, Delilah in AZ said to ship the mags that are faulty back to them, so they can simulate the issue. I personally get annoyed when they act like they don’t know exactly what I’m talking about and they give you those fake and insincere replies,”Yes sir, sorry sir, just ship it to us at your expense and then we’ll ship the solution back to you at our expense” And its not about the money but when you go cheap on the metal and manufacturing of your mags and don’t inform or recall those parts involved, you put our safety at risk and it irritates the heck out of me when people don’t own up to there willful mistakes! Because you may have a whole lot of LC9 owners that don’t shoot often enough to start to see this problem or never got additional mags(just the one Italian made mag that comes with a new in the box LC9) and like I said, it puts our lives at risk if it happens in the heat of the moment. Here’s the issue, the mag’s that say made in the USA are made right there in the AZ Ruger factory from what she said and as previously stated, the finish and overall feel is apparent when you put the US mag and Italian mag side by side. I told her the Italian mag felt thicker, sturdier, the spring felt more solid in it and it never dropped out of the LC9. So, here’s what I found out from our brief conversation, the body of the mag is made in Italy and then Ruger puts the same spring and floor plates in it as they do their factory made mags. She said you have to specifically ask for Italian made mags when ordering them from them or the other gun sites. Or just open the box when you’re at the gun shop and see if its Italian or not, the Italian made usually comes wrapped in plastic and well oiled up. And you’ll also notice that the Italian mag is not nearly as scuffed or scratched up with the slide out line as the US made, which seems to start forming a nice deep groove after putting the range time in. This message is to inform my fellow LC9 owners of the issue and to prevent a potentially dangerous situation in the event that you need that Ruger to fire those eight rounds seamlessly without having to worry about the mag dropping out, next round failing to feed and then having to push the mag back in and cock it when your life may be at stake.

This is only an issue with the additional magazines purchased from Ruger and suppliers. The original Italian manufactured magazine seems to be high quality and properly made. Read the original LC9 Review and additional comments that describes the LC9 magazine problem on the FireArm Blog.

3 thoughts on “Ruger LC9 Magazine Problems”

  1. I purchased a LC9 in Feb of this year.. After only about 35-40 cycles of the magazine what I see as a significant problem has shown itself.. When inserting the magazine, the magazine latch is rubbing along the metal and at first I thought was just removing a little finish… Not so.. The latch is wearing a groove in the metal from top to slot. As this groove gets deeper, and it will with use, the problem people have been experiencing with the magazine dropping out during firing will raise it’s ugly head. I’m in contact with Ruger via FB and e-mail about this apparent flaw. Can’t tell whether the magazines are too “soft” or the spring pressure on the Magazine Release Latch is much greater than need be. That groove sure formed fast. A Ms. Brown at Ruger suggested (and I was way ahead of her) that when inserting the magazine, depress the Release Latch to avoid having the latch mechanism scrape along the metal, causing removal of the finish and wearing a groove..She was not aware of the groove. To load a magazine in any weapon like this is pure nonsense.. I can’t hardly wait to see what Ruger does. Right now I’m dealing with the lower levels, hope I don’t have to go higher..

  2. I have the same opinion about the Ruger LC9. It is a great little pistol but the trigger pull is so long. Ruger built an excellent gun in the LC9

  3. I Had The Lc9 For Awhile. I Had No Problems With The Mag What So Ever. Its A Nice Weapon. The Only Thing I Had A Problem With, Was Getting Use To The Trigger Pull. Had About A Thosand Rounds Throught It. Was Getting Pretty Good With It. Never Had A Jam Or Anything. I had The Original Mag. Its A Great Weapon An Easy To Conceal. Never Bought Another Mag For It.

Comments are closed.