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So yesterday was my birthday. Today, my FIL gave me a card with a picture of an SR9c in it. He has been with me at the shows as I looked at the XD, M&P, Bersa 9, SR9c and others - so he knew I had pretty much settled on the SR. He said we could go the show next weekend (Hi Caliber @ GRB) and pick it up. I gotta say, I was pretty stoked - surprised and stoked!!

This was at about 1:45 today. I said "Hi Caliber is at Pasadena, we could go right now"!! So we went - pretty packed considering there were less than 2 hours left.

So anyway, I have never owned a brand new gun before.

I searched the forums for pre-range break-in drills for new guns. I don't recommend searching for "break in" on this forum - you get a lot crime related hits.

But from what I found, it looks like I should:

Wipe the preservative off
Lube the slide - a lot
rack the slide a gillion times

Does that seem about right?

Clean it, oil it (not too much), buy a holster, and shoot the heck out of it. After about 300 rounds of failure free operation start feeding it defensive ammo and when you hit 500 rounds total without a failure start carrying it.

terryg wrote: I searched the forums for pre-range break-in drills for new guns.

But from what I found, it looks like I should:

Wipe the preservative off
Lube the slide - a lot
rack the slide a gillion times

Does that seem about right?

No.

Break-in should go like this:

Put ammo in gun. Shoot until you are finished. Make sure gun is unloaded, wipe it off, put it away.

What's with all this "apply lube" and "fidget with preservatives" and stuff? If it's not "take gun out and shoot it", I'm immediately suspect of it's capability to function well as a carry gun.

If you still do Not know what to do with it just give to me. Seriously, ask someone to meet you at the range if you some tips.
Simply shoot it clean it carry it

You're real lucky to have this forum because the first time I bought a gun, nobody told me what to do. This was before there was internet forums. I did not even know that you're supposed to clean and lube them. Luckily, my first gun purchase was an AK. After I learned that guns are supposed to be cleaned and lubed, I took apart the AK after a years of shooting and I found that the thing was full of cosmoline! The Norinco AK-47 functioned 100% with zero failures after shooting thousands of rounds while full of cosmoline and powder residue! I shudder to think what would've happened if I tried to shoot a grossly dirty gun with zero maintenance if it was anything other than an AK-47. Anything else would've probably went "BOOM" and blew up.

So, yeah, clean it with Hoppes, a plastic cleaning rod, and patches. Oil it lightly with Breakfree CLP. Shoot at least 200 rounds through it (that's what the NRA gun testers do). I suggest 180 rounds of el cheapo ammo and 20 rounds of the good stuff that you'd carry. Then, clean and oil again before storage. That's it! Your gun is broken in.

Very simple, break the gun down and inspect every part, making sure you do not see any cracks in the slide or guide rod. Then clean it well, oil and lube then go shoot it for an hour or two. Get to learn the trigger and exactly where it goes bang, do not be in a hurry to put holes in paper yet, did I mention to learn the trigger? When you get home, clean and inspect it again, personally I use grease on my rails (slide glide) and after many thousands of rounds have virtually no wear. I would also mark the mags if you experience any initial failures to properly feed or eject...

I'm with the "clean it first" crowd. Any brand-new from factory gun will have some amount of packing preservative gunk in it, likely will also have its share of accumulated dirt and grime and other gunk. Field strip it, clean it to the specifications in the owners' manual, go run a few hundred rounds through it. Repeat. And of course before carrying make sure it's had hundreds of trouble-free rounds and that at least some portion of those rounds have been the same ammo you intend to carry in the gun.

All that sounds like good advice, but I'm too anxious. When I buy a new gun, I generally proceed directly from the gun store to the range to try it out. Then I take it home and clean it.
The "preservative" that's on it from the factory is a lubricant. Rugers, in particular, come from the factory so oily it drips off them when the dealer first picks the gun up out of the box. I'm sure it can handle a hundred rounds before cleaning. (And a hundred rounds is probably all I can afford since I probably spent my last pennies on my new pistol. )

You're going to love the sr9. I have one (not the c though) and it shoots great and very easy to conceal so I'm sure the smaller version will be even easier. I cleaned mine put a little lube on it and it's good to go.

I've bought a few new from factory guns before with the cosmoline packing grease gunk in it. I'm 95% positive it is not a lubricant. Absolutely no viscosity whatsoever, thick as molasses. It is almost a waxy substance.

I wonder if there is any correlation between people who buy new guns and take them straight to the range to shoot them without cleaning/lubing and people who experience malfunctions on their brand new guns that they didn't bother to clean/lube prior to shooting :P

Here she is:


I haven't had a chance to shoot her yet.

Heres a close shot of the factory lub condition:


That ain't gun oil - it very think. But it has been oiled. The slides are mostly dry, buy you can tell that they have been oiled. Strangely enough, most of the oil was collected on the take down pin.

I think I'll clean and oil it. I got time anyway - prolly can't make it to the range this weekend either.

terryg wrote:Heres a close shot of the factory lub condition:


That ain't gun oil - it very think. But it has been oiled. The slides are mostly dry, buy you can tell that they have been oiled. Strangely enough, most of the oil was collected on the take down pin.

I think I'll clean and oil it. I got time anyway - prolly can't make it to the range this weekend either.

Interesting. When I worked in a gun store, a year or so back, I never saw anything quite like that. Heard of it, but never saw it. Most handguns came in a plastic bag inside the pistol case. Rugers in particular were always swimming in oil inside that bag. We wiped them down and put them in the counter for sale. But I have taken a few apart, just to show customers how to do it, and they never looked like that inside. The only Ruger I've personally owned is a Mini-14 and it certainly had nothing like that in it the first time I took it apart.