The Ruger LC9

’m I beginning to lose count as I have already covered the LCR and LCP in previous issues. This particular CCW special is the latest winner. The "LC" stands for light carry, an updated, re-engineered version of the much larger and heavier Ruger P-Series. As the factory press release lingo says, the LC9 is a compact, lightweight, DAO, magazine-fed, recoil operated personal defense autoloader chambered in 9mm. Shunning link-locking systems, the LC9 utilizes a camming design.

Before firing, the barrel and slide are securely locked together. Upon firing, they remain together while traveling a short distance to the rear. After this initial movement, the barrel is cammed downward, clearing the way for full recoil of the slide to achieve extraction and ejection. The barrel stays out of the way, permitting the slide to begin a return to its forward position. During this trip, the recoil spring cams the barrel upward to resume lock-up with the slide.

Although 9mm +P ammunition can be fired in the LC9, a steady diet of the hot stuff could pound the pistol into a shorter service life. As for 9mm+P+, never use it. It’s not due to the LCP being somewhat a weak sister. Far from it. The unvarnished truth is there are no SAAMI or CIP pressure limits established for +P+ ammunition. Any use of it can result in serious injuries. You have been alerted.

Please pass the warning along to any and all LC9 owners, especially those who might tend strongly toward loading their own. Field Stripping I sometimes feel as though I’m required by some gun law to state what follows. The pistol is pointing in a safe direction, meaning at absolutely nothing it could harm. The magazine has been removed, meaning you can now see and confirm that it contains no cartridges.

The chamber has been checked by drawing the slide to the rear with nothing remaining in the barrel breech and the slide has been locked back. You’re wearing eye protection, meaning you really should be if you value your eye sight. No, I do not repeat the preceding to be a bore or due to fear of penalty of fine and/ or imprisonment by omitting it, but because it’s the best advice any gunsmith can offer to anyone who works on or with firearms.

Use a finger, or a soft tool such as a wooden or nylon rod, to depress the take-down plate (24). This exposes the take-down pin (41). Insert the internal lock key that comes with the pistol into the slot on the right side of the frame and push the pin out to the left. Lacking the factory-supplied key a proper diameter punch will do. Move the slide assembly forward and off the grip frame. Invert the slide assembly.

Compress the recoil spring assembly, disengage it from the barrel lug, remove it, move the barrel slightly forward, lift, then lower it, and take it out to the rear. The LC9 is ready for a clean-up. And something tells me I could have quit after spelling out slide/frame separation. A

Detailed Disassembly Certain college English Composition Professors call it "narrative flow." I call it "continuity." In its interest, I’m going to depart slightly from the format followed in most of my disassembly/reassembly articles. In those I added a wrap-up section headed "Reassembly Tips." With the LC9, the engineer providing the disassembly information jumped right into reassembly tips. After transcribing his instructions, the proverbial light went on in my thick brain house.

If making the swift transition was quicker and easier for him why wouldn’t it be the same for you readers? The slide. There’s quite a bit hidden under the rear sight (38). To get at it, loosen—do not remove—the 8-32 x 24 screw (39). Using a nylon drift, start the sight moving from right to left in its dovetail cut. Beneath the sight are the firing pin blocker (32), the pawl, hammer dog and crane latch plunger (36), and the blocker spring (37). Keep a finger over the right edge of the sight as you move it left.

Otherwise, that spring will launch that plunger on a non-stop trip to "The Land Of The Lost Parts." Once the threat has been avoided by your fingertip and the It adds an exclamation point by rising well above the slide to show off its bright, red-enameled sides if around remains chambered. Recommendations about its removal and reinstallation are made in the text. sight is out of its dovetail you can pick out or use a small magnet to remove the blocker, plunger and spring from their slide recess.

Also, before you get around to removing the firing pin retainer (34) a little later, a digit or short length of cloth tape covering the back end of the slide, which has no firing pin stop plate, will prevent the pin (28) and possibly its spring (40) from making independent exits on their way to joining the crane latch plunger. Now you’re faced with the loaded chamber indicator retaining pin (35). This a roll pin.

The indicator (30) is under some tension from its spring (33) and is easily seen or felt protruding from atop the ejection port when a cartridge in chambered. By now, you’re likely to be aware of how I recommend roll pins should be approached. Point one, always use a roll pin punch to Careful with the spring! Aremove or reinstall them. Point two, a flat-nose punch could peen over the ends of roll pins and should never be applied. Point three, whenever possible avoid drifting out a roll pin completely.

Move it only far enough to free the parts it’s retaining. By allowing a bit of the pin to remain installed you’ll greatly lessen possible damage getting it started back in where it was while assuring pin alignment within a given firearm. Have you taped over the rear of the slide? In that case, reach in on the right side where the roll pin used to be. A dental pick makes the perfect tool. Work the pick in under the top of the firing pin retainer (34) then carefully lever the retainer upward.

When the retainer and its contact with the milled flat in the firing pin part company the firing pin spring will react A

to propel the pin backward. If you have your hand over the tape on the slide you’ll feel a definite bump from a no-longer-restrained firing pin. Remove the tape and examine the pin. In reassembly, you must be certain the aforementioned flat is positioned to engage the retainer. It might take a few tries the first couple of times but you’ll know for sure you’ve made contact when you can’t withdraw the pin and spring after installing them. This brings me to the extractor (29).

It also brings back the dental pick and brings out a paper clip with one leg straightened out. (I keep a box of the loopy little things on my bench and use one of them frequently. Handy? You bet they are.) For example, the extractor plunger (27) of an LC9 has a little hole in it. You’ll see it after placing your dental pick behind the curved back end of the extractor and pushing it forward. That little hole aligns with an identical little hole in the slide.

Line those two holes up and insert the straight end of the paper clip to maintain alignment. Remove the extractor, then touch a magnet to the plunger and its spring (26) to remove them from their slideway. Return the dental pick to your stash of tooling and the paper clip to the box of its still-crooked partners for future use. Oh yeah, and hang up your magnet. What’s left is the front sight.

I understood it was retained in its dovetail by an angularly placed pin that ran through the sight body and seated in the slide. The pin isn’t shown on the A They both must be in place prior to reinstallation of the frame insert. schematic and, though I must have spent half an hour trying to locate that pin, I could not find any trace of it in the sight blade, or body, or the slide— not even under strong magnification. Well, no one is perfect. Least of all me.

Combine that truth with this truth: Sturm Ruger Factory Service technicians take in more butchered slides from which their owners have tried to drift out the front sight than they do any other LC9 repair. My bottom line on the front sight? If an LC9 owner comes in with a beat up front sight because the pistol has been dropped, run over by an ATV or bitten by a Grizzly inform the complainant it has to go back to Ruger. Slide Reassembly Tips Preassemble the firing pin and spring.

Install them in the slide with the flat in the pin positioned to allow passage of the firing pin retainer. Insert the retainer small end first. Place the loaded chamber indicator spring on top of the retainer, top it with the indicator, press down, then push the Inset shows a close up view. indicator pin back through the slide from left to right capturing the assembly. Press in and release the firing pin and indicator several times checking for sluggishness or hang-ups.

In with the extractor spring, in with its plunger. The dental pick helps push them to the rear and align their holes. Reach for the straightened paper clip and insert in the holes. Install the extractor, pull the clip and check for free movement. Unless what neurons are left in my brain cave have failed me, I believe I previously cautioned you not to completely remove the rear sight screw when removing the sight from the slide. You may have been wondering why.

In the following order, install the firing pin blocker, blocker spring and crane latch plunger in their slide recess. Start the sight into its dovetail from the left. Before reaching the plunger, depress it with the dental pick. Continue moving the slide in

just far enough to prevent the plunger from popping out. Withdraw the dental tool and drift the sight way to the right until both sides of the sight dovetail align perfectly with both sides of the dovetail cut. When they are, tighten the sight screw. Reinstall the barrel, the recoil assembly and set the slide aside. Frame And Insert If the slide didn’t test your ingenuity the frame and insert might and they don’t wait long to cast down the gauntlet.

With the magazine out and the entire assembly upside down, back end facing away from you, a peek into the extreme rear of the magazine base plate (44) should reveal the hammer spring (8) still attached to its spring seat (54) via its anchor pin (53). The spring is quite strong. Unless your finger strength equals that of an industrial robot, the spring seat will at least have to be started on its way by having leverage applied. There were complications associated with the idea. The frame is polymer.

So is the insert (1) housing all the steel parts of the pistol’s firing system and the spring seat. Still, there had to be a method of getting that seat to let go of the base plate if I was to dismantle the insert. Perhaps I could strengthen the thin polymer walls of the magazine well.

This would have been most simple if I had the time to fabricate a hardwood filler but this article was facing a deadline which could not be extended and no ready-made hard wood magazine well filler block for an LC9 existed at any local retail outlets or was even being considered by my usual out-of-town sources. I considered cutting into a slab of high density plastic and forming a permanent one but the deadline reared its impatient head once again. I began to rethink the entire problem. Shazam!

In three minutes I gutted the magazine body (43) and inserted it in the well as reenforcement. The time being expired and the re-enforcement bucking up the well I chose my weapon, a lightweight screwdriver with a blade that would fit through the slot in the spring seat, reach all the way to its back end and have a slim shank long enough for me to rest it on the upper edge of the mag body which extended slightly above the polymer well walls.

Instead of prying I was able to place the driver in position and merely give it a twist. It worked like a bandit. The seat rose up to give me much better access to the hammer anchor pin (53) and hammer spring (8) to which the pin hooks. I removed the magazine body then reached for the trusty dental pick knowing the seat would never completely leave the frame as long as the anchor pin remain attached to it and the spring was holding on to the pin.

I reached in with the pick, moved the spring out of its pin groove and applied a little upward pressure. The spring released its hold on the pin, the pin came out of the seat and the seat popped into the air. With a sigh of extreme relief I caught it on the way down and broke a mild tranquilizer in two before chasing it with a large gulp of ice water. In retrospect, I believe what I did to lessen the pressure exerted by the spring played no small role in my success.

First, the hammer had to be in its fully cocked position. After a quick check to see if it could be further depressed with a finger, I inverted the frame and pressed it down on the bench. There was a slight relaxation of the spring. At any rate, with the seat and anchor pin accounted for the insert, still seated in the frame, is ready to remove and dissect. Now for the frame insert. Lay the frame on its side. Drift out both frame insert pins (45) in either direction.

Firmly grasp the insert (1), thumb on one side and index finger laid up against the opposite. Push up on the trigger (3) and slowly lift out the insert. The take-down plate (24) may escape. Make its freedom temporary. Until further notice, your work piece will be the insert. Examine the manual safety assembly. Overall, it’s a decent size to deal with. What lurks behind it are either small or tiny, namely, the manual safety puck (19), its spring (22) and spring guide (18).

Before moving the safety off its frame stud and out of the insert place the eraser end of a common lead pencil on the puck to retain it once the safety lever is lifted. Congratulations, you have just taken control over an assortment of tiny parts. I like to use an old gunsmith’s trick for not losing small or tiny things. It involves stapling a length of wide masking or packing tape, sticky side up, to a flat piece of wood. Hold the pencil eraser/frame combination very close to the sticky surface.

Back off with the eraser. Any parts that drop from their insert slot will land on the sticky surface. Those that don’t can be tweezed out and deposited on it. No small or tiny parts lost. Brilliant! Among other things on the insert’s right side is the trigger bar (5). The front of the bar unites with a stud on the trigger pivot (2). The back end rides on the hammer pivot (10). For the present, the back end undergoes no change but the front end is under pressure being exerted upward by the trigger spring (14).

Press the spring downward with the dental pick to disengage it from the bar. Lift the leading end of the bar off the trigger pivot stud and remove the bar from the insert. On the left insert side remove the slide hold open (4) and slide stop spring (23). Now focus on the trigger (3) and trigger pin (13) area. The pin can be pushed upward via the hole under the trigger. When it’s been pushed up far enough you can remove the trigger pivot to the right and free the trigger.

The latter will either fall or plucked from the insert. At the lower front end of the insert in a dovetail-type slot is the magazine disconnect (11). Slide it to the rear but watch out for its spring (12). This little guy has a home hole located under the disconnect in the insert. You may want to do any sliding just above your sticky small parts trap. What happens next can be testy. Consider bringing a clear plastic bag

to work in your act. Approach the hammer pivot from the left. As you push it to the right it passes through the ejector housing (15), hammer and blocker lever (9). The bottom end of the lever is seated within an insert slot. The top rear of the lever is involved with its spring (21) which also has an insert seat. Locate and reserve both seats for future reference. The dental pick will be pressed back into service in order to compress the lever spring.

Detach it and allow the lever to be lifted out once the hammer pivot has cleared the way. I believe it’s appropriate to digress and return to the ejector housing for a moment. Have you noticed the safety detent plunger (16) and spring (17) hiding within it? Anytime you’re drifting pivot pins or doing anything else in the vicinity of the housing do not overlook the use of the plastic bag or custom-made, genuinely ingenious, small parts trap. Back to the frame briefly.

You might have thought it had been totally stripped. I know I did at first. Then I noticed the hammer catch (50), hammer catch spring (51) and their retaining pin (46). All are black in color. So is the frame. Unless your bench has a good overhead light it’s easy to miss those parts sitting way back in the frame just in front of the magazine well. The pin is the standard variety, meaning it’s not a roll pin, but look closely at it on the schematic. There’s a recess in it.

The hammer catch spring rides in the pin recess. The pin drifts out left to right and is reinstalled right to left. Speaking of pins, before getting into reassembly tips take time to make two slave pins. One would substitute for the hammer pivot, sans ovoid end. Another might be needed for the trigger pin, sans tab. Traditionally, I’ve drawn on my supply of drill rod as the base stock for turning down and finishing off slave pins. Examine the manual safety lever and what lurks behind it.

The body of the lever is a decent size. The manual safety puck (19), its detent spring (22) and spring guide (18) sit in their insert slot just aft of the body. They are all tiny. Before moving the safety lever off its stud, place a finger over those tiny parts. Use your sticky part trapper and hold the insert close over the tape. Remove the lever from the insert and your finger from the small parts. If tiny parts drop out, tiny parts stick to the tape, tiny parts no get lost.

Among other things on the right side of the insert is the trigger bar (5). See the trigger spring (14) on the same side? Make notes of how it’s installed and where. When it comes to reinstallation, and your failure to do as recommended here, that spring will deliver great pain to a finger.

From where it sits as you look at it in the assembled insert, you have to get the spring out from under the trigger bar then swing it up, away from and over the bar, easing it forward to where lack of tension dictates it would rather come to rest. Right. Back to the dental pick. When you move to the left side of the insert the trigger bar might fall from the right side. No harm done. All that was retaining it was a small insert stud and a minimal portion of the hammer pivot.

Staying on the left side, remove the slide hold open (4) and slide stop spring (23). Change your point of focus to the area of the trigger (3) and trigger pin (13). The trigger pin can be pushed upward via the hole under the trigger. When the pin has been elevated far enough the trigger pivot (2) can be withdrawn to the right. This leaves the trigger free to either fall or be picked out. At the lower front end of the insert is a metal plate that seats in sort of a dovetail in the frame.

It’s the magazine disconnect (11). To remove it, slide it to the rear but watch out for its spring (12). You may want to do any sliding called for just above the sticky tape. Frame And Insert Reassembly First things first. Have a jar of Vaseline or small supply of white lithium grease handy. Use a toothpick to apply either substance to the parts and their recess within the housing. It will do much to hold them inside when you’re doing such things as working the hammer pivot back in and adding parts to it as you go.

The dental pick becomes your best friend when reinstalling the trigger bar. After you lay the bar into its insert recess the bar’s rear opening should frame the hammer pivot, the front of the bar should be engaged by the trigger pivot stud and the long leg of the trigger spring should be pointing away from the front of the bar. That spring can deliver a highly painful crack on the finger if not handled right.

You see, it has to be moved from where it’s sitting with its long leg forward to its working position in the small, narrow groove indenting the bottom edge of the trigger bar. A fingertip or fingernail can start the maneuver by raising the spring to an approximate 90 degree angle. At that point, avoid pain. Let the dental pick take over to press the spring back further, then under the bar, and guide it into that shallow, narrow groove. Reinstallation of the hammer catch and its spring requires special tooling.

You have to make it from auto ignition pliers. Standard long noses are too bulky to fit within the working space available. The tool is pictured here. Grind the lower jaw to match that shown in the close-up photo. Prep the catch (50) by laying it on a flat surface. It has a large and small hole in it. Insert the bent leg of the spring (51) in the small hole. The straight leg extends along the lower jaw of the pliers. Tool with catch and spring in hand, approach the rear of the frame from about a 90 degree angle.

With the lower jaw facing the mag well push the tool/catch down to align with the catch pin hole on the left side of the frame. Before reinstalling in the catch pin (46), look closely at it. See the indented area? The coil of the catch spring must ride inside that area after the pin has been pushed through the catch. What should happen when you let go of the catch and spring? The spring will snap back

against the front face of the mag well to apply tension to the catch. Check tension on the catch by lifting and releasing it a couple of times. The hammer catch, spring and their shared pin have to be in the frame and the slide stop spring reunited with the insert before the latter can be reinstalled in the frame. But before frame and insert are re-engaged, locate the small hole on the rear right hand side of the frame above the hammer catch pin. Pick up the straightened paper clip.

Swing the catch forward and insert the clip to hold it there. The moment Ruger LC9 (Specifications subject to change without notice) has arrived, finally. Press the insert down into the frame until it seats. Install the front and rear insert retaining pins. Pull out the paper clip and listen with no small amount of accomplishment as the catch snaps back under spring tension. You have to flip the frame upside down to reattach the hammer seat and spring.

Snap the seat spring pin back into the seat and the seat back into its original position in the mag well. You’ll probably have to pull the hammer to the rear so the spring tension is relaxed some again to do this. One more time, reach in with Schematic Notes ** Considered a serial numbered component and, therefore, a firearm by Federal Law.

Not sold as a component. * Requires Factory Fitting 1 Frame Insert** 2 Trigger Pivot 3 Trigger 4 Slide Hold Open 5 Trigger Bar 6 Hammer 7 Hammer Roll Pin 8 Hammer Spring 9 Blocker Lever 10 Hammer Pivot Pin 11 Magazine Disconnect 12 Magazine Disconnect Spring 13 Trigger Pin 14 Trigger Spring 15 Ejector Housing 16 Manual Safety Detent Plunger 17 Hammer Pivot Detent Spring 18 Manual Safety Spring Guide 19 Manual Safety Puck 20 Manual Safety 21 Firing Pin Blocker Lifter Spring 22 Manual Safety Detent Spring 23 Slide Stop Spring 24 Take Down Plate 25 Slide* 26 Extractor Spring 27 Extractor Plunger 28 Firing Pin 29 Extractor the dental pick, hold on tightly, hook the hammer spring, pull it up and over the pin and release it.

Assuming you kept track of the order in which each part was removed from the pistol and, unless otherwise instructed, replaced them in order. A function check will confirm that you have. Place your finger or a folded up business card over the hammer face to protect the insert. Pull the trigger three or four times. If no problems arise, join the slide assembly to the frame and congratulate yourself. You have just become well acquainted with the Pistol Of The Year.

AG 30 Loaded Chamber Indicator 31 Front Sight 32 Firing Pin Blocker 33 Loaded Chamber Indicator Spring 34 Firing Pin Retainer 35 Loaded Chamber Indicator Pin 36 Pawl, Hammer Dog & Crane Latch Spring Plunger 37 Firing Pin Blocker Spring 38 Rear Sight 39 8-32 NC Rear Sight Screw 40 Firing Pin Spring 41 Takedown Pin 42 Barrel* 43 Magazine-Complete, 7-rnd 44 Magazine Floor Plate – Extended 45 Frame Insert Pin (2) 46 Hammer Catch Pin 47 Guide Rod 48 Recoil Spring, Outer 49 Recoil Spring, Inner 50 Hammer Catch 51 Hammer Catch Spring 52 Grip Frame 53 Hammer Anchor Pin 54 Hammer Spring Seat 55 Magazine Latch 56 Magazine Latch Spring