Rohrbaugh Products and Accessories > Rohrbaugh Range Reports

New-To-Me R9 At The Range

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boscobarbell:
So, I finally got my R9 Stealth to the range...twice, as it turns out. 

The story starts with me taking my newly purchased and practically new late-issue R9 Stealth home and giving it a good cleaning while I patiently waiting while some good choices for carry ammo arrived from the e-stores from which I bought them.   I ended up going to the range with Gold Dots, ARX Inceptors, Federal HSTs, and Sig V-Crowns...but I never got to try them all.

I shot a couple of mags of the ARX rounds (which my previous R9 loved), but had a few FTF issues and moved on.

Speer Gold dots had a different problem: they would properly extract.  And the last of those failures was the worst still: it was stuck in the throat of the barrel so tightly that I could extract it at the range.  When I got it home I used a dowel to pound it out, and was alarmed to see that the case was not only badly swollen but also split longitudinally  Not good.

I spoke to a local gunsmith about it, and he feared the worst about my barrel, guessing that it was out-of-spec.  I feared that I a $1200 paperweight at this point, but I ended up talking at length with Eric Rohbaugh, who patiently went over what he thought may the possible causes, and what he recommended I could do moving forward.  We decided that the best course of action was to give the pistol a good cleaning and try it one more time at the range before throwing in the towel. 

So, today I got it out again.  This time I brought the Remington HST ammo, along with Sig V-Crown and Underwood Xtreme Defender.  As it turns out, I only shot the HST.  This time, it was because it cycled perfectly, and I was so excited with that success that I put 30 rounds downrange to ensure that all was well, and then quit while I was ahead and before I got the gun too cruddy and inviting failures. 

I can now only assume that I had a bad batch of Speer Gold Dots on my first trip...maybe week casings that lead to bulging/splitting?  Regardless, it's nice to know it was the ammo and not the gun.  Phew!!   

I've got more Speer inbound to give them another try, and next time out I'll finally test out the Underwood and V-Crown ammo as well.

Regardless, though, I've got a fully functioning R9 and a decent self defense round to feed it.  All is good with the world!   8)

MikeInTexas:
Gotta love a story with a happy ending :)


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backupr9:
Some would recommend that you shoot at least 150 failure free rounds before carrying for self defense, perhaps 20 rounds each time followed by tightening the grip screws and cleaning the weapon.  Your post reminds me that it is past time for me to take my R9 to the range!

ECR:
I'm glad everything worked out for you boscobarbell with a simple good maintenance cleaning and oiling. It was amazing how many "defective" R9 pistols we had to go over while we were in our heyday, and most of them were simply dirty and dry.
Nice work good Sir! Carry on now. . . . .

ECR

boscobarbell:
I managed to get in another range day to test out various ammos, and the results were....mixed.

My R9 apparently does not like any configuration of Gold Dots, be it 115 gr or 124 gr.  It also experienced malfunctions (a mix of FTF and FTE) with Underwood Xtreme Defender and Sig V-Crown 115 gr.     So I went back to the Federal HST ammo just to make sure that last time wasn't a fluke, and I put another 40 rounds or so through the pistol with no issues.  I also remembered that I had some Hydra Shoks in my range bag, and it also fired those just fine. 

So, while it's nice to have some ammo that seems to function quite well, I am less than thrilled that my R9 is so ammo-picky that only one brand of ammo works in it.  Given this, I may see about grabbing some V-Crown in 124 gr and see if that works, as well as the new Federal Punch and Deep ammos.  Because the more ammos it likes, the less likely that I may be stuck one day with no ammo for this little guy, since bullet manufacturers seem inclined to change out their offerings far too often.

Overall a disappointing result, but I intend to persevere......

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