[Kalos]

Hey all. I'm a bit of a newbie to firearms--well, quite a bit of one, really :D--and wanted to see what you guys thought of this issue I'm having with my Ruger Mk II...

I took it to the range to fire it for the first time this last Saturday. I started out firing plain lead standard velocity American Eagle rounds, which worked fine for about two or two and a half boxes worth. After that, I started to have some trouble... basically, about once/magazine, I'd wind up with a spent shell not getting properly extracted--typically, it'd be pointing out of the gun, with another round half-chambered. On the advise of the guys at the range, I tried a different round (CCI Stingers), which were even worse--I had the same type of jam two or more times per magazine. I took the gun out (this is also where I bought it) and let one of the store people take a look at it and clean it. He said he didn't see anything wrong with it, and I went back to try another cartridge--Winchester Super-X, this time. Those ran fine until the last magazine, where I ran into a jam on the last or second to last round.

The guy who cleaned it up at the range, and a couple of folks over on a Mk II forum have all said it sounds like a breaking in issue--run some more rounds through it and see what happens. Would you all agree, or do you think there might be something more serious going on?

[Meowhead]

breaking in issueMaybe. These problems sound a little strange from my perspective - but I haven't had much experience with Mk. IIs. Only own one, though that one's digested every sort of ammunition I've fed through it, since day one. Except Winchester X-Pert.

Try different types of ammo. Winchester, Remington Golden Bullet, CCI, Federal and Federal match, whatever. If problem persists, you might want to consider calling Ruger about it.

[10-Ring]

Might be break in, might be the lead. My Mk II HATES lead. It'll shoot ANYTHING else w/o a hiccup :)

[Edward429451]

It's probably just a break in issue. Our MKII came real tight. lube it up and run an assortment of high velocity ammo through it like Stingers, Mini-Mags, and High-Velociters and it'll loosen up and get better. Ours did. I'd run at least two bricks through it without the problem clearing up before I suspected a real problem with the pistol.

Our MKII used to like Federals but lately it seems to like CCI's. Oh well go with the flow. :cool:

[Kalos]

run an assortment of high velocity ammo through it like Stingers, Mini-Mags, and High-Velociters

There's some advice I like to hear--I absolutely -loved- the feel of the stingers. :evil: I guess it's what I get for having a friends .45 Sig as my first experience with firearms. I'm tending to agree with you, so far as it goes--I know I can call Ruger if it comes down to it, but I don't see any need to rush there before giving the weapon a chance to settle down.

[Dorrin79]

Kalos -

I bought a new MkII 'target' model a few months back and had the exact same problem. I think Ruger is shipping them with an out-of-spec recoil spring or something; just racking the action on mine out of the box was a pain.

I solved it by shooting about 1000 rounds of "hyper-velocity" ammo through it (CCI Stingers, CCI Mini-Mags, CCI Velocitators)

Somewhere around the 500 round mark, this began loosening up the recoil spring and it seems to work fine now (I still get the occasional jam when shooting cheap bulk-pack ammo, but who doesn't?)

Hopefully this helps - I know how frustrating it can be to get a new gun and have it not work perfectly.

[Starpower]

This about the MK II is very interesting. I was given 5-6 hundred rounds of rimfire, that somebody wanted to get rid of. The ONLY way for an avid shooter to get rid of unwanted ammo? Shoot it all up!! Unfortunately, I don't currently own a .22, so I am in the market for an inexpensive pistol, and, naturally, the MK II comes to mind. I have found one in a pawn shop for $150.00 that I am considering. There are probably cheaper guns available, but this one feels good and my wife can shoot it and learn a lot with cheaper ammo. She does ok now with my 92 but doesn't care for the 357 Sig or .45, so maybe the relatively small rimfire will whet her appetite for more and bigger. (We are talking guns here!)


The only thing required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

[firestar]

Starpower,
That sounds like a good price on that MKII. Buy it, you won't be sorry for spending the little extra cash on the MKII. Maybe you can even get it for less since it is a pawn shop. Doesn't hurt to try.

500-600 rounds of .22lr is only about $8-10 worth but I am not going to say it is not worth getting a gun to shoot it in because everyone needs a good .22 pistol.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kalos,
Those problems don't sound too strange for a new MKII. I have had 2 MKIIs and a 22/45 that all had jams when new. Centerfire handguns are said to take about 200 rounds to break them in but I think rimfire autos take about 2000 rounds. If you want to speed up the process a little, you could keep the slide locked back when you are not using it. That may weaken the recoil spring a little and help with reliability. Also keep the extractor and the bolt face extra clean. Inspect the extractor closely for burrs or nicks.

I would give the gun a few thousand rounds and a few cleanings before I even messed with it. All three of my guns have worked fine once they were broken in. You may get the odd jam every couple of hundred rounds but that seems to be the case with most .22lr rimfires. The rim and the lead bullet doesn't help reliability. I am somewhat forgiving of a jam in a rimfire target gun like the MKII because it is designed to be accurate not reliable. They should be tight to get the most accuracy out of them. Still, I say, give it 2000 rounds and see how it does before you worry about it.

[762x51]

Mine had a bit of trouble extracting even after breakin. I bought a Volquartsen EDM extractor and spring from Brownells and installed it.....no more issues. IIRC it was only like 10 bucks and 5 minutes worth of work.

[mec]

The extractors have kind of a flimsy purchase on the rim but this doesn't necessarily cause any malfunctions. I've had enough MKIIs to know that they can be reliable right out of the box- not that they always are. If this persists past a few boxes of reasonable quality ammo, I'd let ruger see it. Every thing they've done for me has been quick turn around and good workmanship.

[yzguy]

many people on a Ruger MKII forum have seen the stock extractor give them problems. If not at first, then later in its life. It tends to be one of the first things to go.

I would reccomend 2 things

a trigger shield:
http://www.ontargetguns.com/otts.html
(keeps a lot of crud off of the trigger)

and the exact edge extractor (if yours continues to give you problems):
http://www.ontargetguns.com/veex.html

also if your interested in improving the trigger, adjusting the factory over travel screw in the trigger (installed but not adjusted at the factory) and a better sear does wonders:
http://www.ontargetguns.com/vts.html


and if you don't already know, here is how it all goes together:
http://www.1bad69.com/ruger/index.htm

[Kalos]

Thanks for all the advice--I'll keep putting rounds through it and see what happens. :)

[CB900F]

Kalos;

One aspect that's been touched upon, but not brought out, is the cleaning.
A lot of the lead ammo & the cheaper ammo has a lot of lubricant. Enough at times to literally gum things up. Clean the gun & lightly, repeat lightly, lube it. Then shoot copper clad ammo. Remington goldens, Winchester Power Points, Federal Hi-Vel, all come to mind. See if the problem isn't reduced. It may not cure it, after all the break-in comments are valid, but see if it doesn't help.

900F

[BevrFevr]

but it mostly happens with one of the two factory mags that came with the gun.

YZGUY. Thanks for all that info I'm gonna make use of it.

-bevr

[clubsoda22]

lead is your problem. My MkII hates lead. I can fire copper jacketed bullets all day however. clean your gun thoroughly and switch to copper jacketed bullets. They's a lot less messy and it's much easier to clean your gun.

[clange]

Mines been doing that too. I bought it and it had only had 7 rounds through it (yeah, you read right, 7). I've put like 50 through it and had a couple stovepipes. Hoping its just in need of breaking in.

[Kalos]

lead is your problem. My MkII hates lead. I can fire copper jacketed bullets all day however. clean your gun thoroughly and switch to copper jacketed bullets. They's a lot less messy and it's much easier to clean your gun.

I'll give this a try--it seems to be a pretty common theme as well. Though the Stingers were copper jacketed--but I switched to those after running 200 rounds of lead through it, without any cleaning between.

I would reccomend 2 things

<grin> I'm considering the Volquartsen accurizing kit at somepoint in the future... probably not until I'm able to do a bit better on my own, though. I seem to hit consistently down and to the left of where I'm aiming. But i'll consider adding those on as well... (or does the extractor come with the kit? I don't recall..)

[Kalos]

One aspect that's been touched upon, but not brought out, is the cleaning.

Oops. Ment to throw this into the omni-reply as well. I know, and I haven't had a chance to do this yet. Being the newbie that I am, I'm not quite sure where to begin (well, I know to disassemble the gun)... lots of things like how much oil, where to oil, how to get at all the places (the bore brush doesn't seem like it'd be a good choice), and so on leave me hesitant. Hopefully I can get in touch with my ex-mil friend this weekend, or a friend of another friend, and they can walk me through it.

[denfoote]

Did you clean the mags??
Mine were jamming bad, until I took the time to clean my mags!! Problem solved!! :D

[RON in PA]

If you use ammo with lots of lube there is a tendency for the front inside surface of the mag to build-up a layer of crud that causes jams. Easiest way to clean is a Q-Tip wet with solvent.

[yzguy]

no the extractor does not come with the Volquartsen accurizing kit.

this is what comes in the kit:

http://www.ontargetguns.com/volq31.jpg (http://www.ontargetguns.com/vak.html)

the most important of which is the sear, I also got the hammer, but I don't think it did much at all. I also tried the trigger, but did not care for it as it was even wider than the trigger guard, and was just to wide for my liking (so I put the stock one back in). I don't use the bolt stop as a bolt release (I pull the bolt back) so the extended bolt stop did not matter to me.

I had thought about the kit, but ened up buying the pieces I got seperate. If I were to do it again, I'd just get the sear, and if I wanted to lower the pull a bit, cut a coil off of the stock trigger return spring.

[Kalos]

Went out to the range today with every intention of following the advice I'd received here--walked up, bought two boxes each of CCI Velocitors and Stingers. Loaded up, fired about two or three rounds, and--jammed. Cleared and repeated. same thing. Cleared and repeated. Same thing. Got one of the guys that works there to come out and let him fire it--same thing. We went back into the store, he looked at it for a while, as did another guy there, who decided to try standard velocity--Remington Thunderbolts, I think (I've got the box upstairs somewhere). And... they ran fine.

I wound up running about three hundred rounds of that through it and had no more than the occasional jam--maybe one or two per box of ammo. So appearantly my Mk II just does not like high velocity rounds...

[Edward429451]

Or maybe it just dont like CCI's.

Was you running it dry or near dry? On new guns I like to be generous (but not overboard) with the lube until its broke in. Glasses a given.

Maybe try the CCI's again after a couple thousand is ran through it just to see? Good luck.

[Kalos]

Shouldn't have been, no. I'd just cleaned it last night and everything'd been breakfree'd...

[gogetumnow]

I had the exact same problem. Tried every kind of ammo I could get my hands on. Switched the extractor out to a Volquartsen EDM and not one jam yet after two full bricks. Give it a try.