It's a good gun! I bought one for my wife to carry; and, other than the annoying message to, '
Read the instruction manual' on the barrel, I have no complaints. I had a local smith do an action job on it; and the action is smooth enough for my wife to shoot decent groups with. Me? I shoot good groups with it; and, while the SP-101 doesn't have quite as responsive a trigger as an S&W factory standard, Ruger's trigger is NOT excessively difficult to work with. (You get used to it!)
What you have to watch with Ruger is the exact same thing you have to watch with a lot of brand new Smith & Wesson revolvers: ....... QUALITY CONTROL. I've heard rumors that Ruger has no quality control; they simply allow the customers to verify their pistols for them; and, based on samples I've handled at a local gun store, I'd say that, indeed, Ruger has no quality control; or, at least, no sophisticated quality control. So, initial inspection of a brand new Ruger (or Smith) before you buy it is particularly important.
Yes, it's true! When we set out to purchase a new SP-101 I found them with things like canted barrels, and excessive cylinder end-shake. In fact I was on my second brand new and factory replaced SP-101 BEFORE I called Steve Sanetti to complain. The third SP-101 I received was perfect, and has worked like a charm!
It's not uncommon for me to do a 50 to 100 fired-round range session with this pistol. Between my wife and myself we'll fire this smallish (but not little) Ruger until it's, literally, way too hot to touch with bare skin! So far, with less than 1,000 fired-rounds through the gun, it's never so much as hiccuped! The SP-101 we finally ended up with does shoot straight and well.
It's a 357 Magnum, and has never fired anything except hot, and mid-range 357 Magnum loads. I consider it to be an excellent 10 to 12 yard self-defense revolver - Which is especially important to me because, in a life or death CQB pistol combat situation, I train to engage sooner and at greater distance than what is usually expected. (In other words I try to prevent the other guy from stepping into his own, 'personal combat comfort zone' first, and before I do.)
As far as the trigger goes, I like the trigger on my wife's, now 9 year old (no MIM seams!) SP-101 better than I liked any of the factory-stock triggers on new Glock pistols that I've purchased; and this is especially true of the latest trigger bars that Glock is using on their more recently manufactured pistols - The trigger bars with the more severe (but safer) angles on their striker lug, ‘slip tabs'.
Personally I wouldn't own a small frame revolver with a 2 1/2 inch barrel. Why? Because such a short barrel is too difficult to shoot straight at the longer distances I prefer to engage at; and, whenever I'm not well practiced, the preceding statement includes me, too. On such a modest sized revolver I, far and away, prefer to use a: longer, straighter shooting, and easier to control, 3 inch barrel.
As everybody is learning: Nowadays the, 'mutts' tend to run in packs; and the first time you have to simultaneously engage more than one opponent you'll appreciate the practicality of having a longer rather than a shorter barrel. This is especially true whenever you become engaged by a second attacker who has the street savvy to further disadvantage you by hanging back, or to obliquely, ‘three-quarter’ you while his pal gets up close and personal, ‘in your face’. (This is exactly the same, ‘interview technique’ that many police officers use.)
A Ruger SP-101 with a 3 inch barrel is somewhere between a disadvantageous small frame, and a standard frame, ‘combat revolver’ - Which in today’s increasingly godless, increasingly violent, and increasingly confrontational world has become an obvious oxymoron. I like my wife’s SP-101 (Which I sometimes borrow.) enough that it’ll never be for sale.
Yes, an SP-101 is too heavy for comfortable pocket carry; but, then again, I’m never comfortable pocket carrying anything larger than a Beretta, ‘Tomcat’. What the SP-101 is NOT is either too light, or too ill-proportioned to adequately and effectively defend yourself with; and, really, when everything is finally said and done, isn’t versatile, more broad based self-defense the whole point to carrying a pistol in the first place!
