Ruger Mark Series Reassembly Fix

Cuz Ruger could make more money making Mark III's and Mark IV's after S&W released the Victory and Ruger panicked because the Victory was superior to the Mark III.

Never had trouble putting a MK back together.

I will look into that.
Thanks for the heads up.

I have read many articles lately about this issue. I didn't realize it was such a problem for folks to put one back together. I've never had any problems. Hope this helps some of the frustrated Ruger owners.

After you do it correctly a few times, it’s pretty easy.

If you know the hammer strut needs to be in a certain position, you already know what you need to know...for free.

I've got to think many of today's shooters are as mechanically inclined as a marble. READ and FOLLOW the directions and it works every time.

I had lots of trouble initially with a Mark III. Eventually I got tired of griping about it and just sat down and did it over and over until I could do it effortlessly. And I took a picture of the hammer strut in the proper position to make it easy.

jeepnik said:

I've got to think many of today's shooters are as mechanically inclined as a marble. READ and FOLLOW the directions and it works every time.

Click to expand...

Naw, real men try everything they know before they give up and read the manual.

I have a MK III 22/45 lite and putting it together is no problem. I'm to the the age where I tend to forget things I don't do fairly regularly and I don't break the the MK III very often. I do remember where the manual that didn't cost extra is and it works every time.

I still haven't shot my AR or RDB enough to remember how to field-strip them for cleaning without the manuals. It'll come, eventually. Now my RST and Mark II? Yeah, those are easy after 10 or 20K rounds.

I just bought the Hammer Strut Support after reading the ad in the NRA magazine. Installation was very easy on my Mark II. For $15 it is well worth the cost. I too wonder why Ruger did not offer this simple solution before they ever sold any Marks.

Seems like a great idea. While I really like how my MKII's shoot, disassembly and assembly have always been a pain. Disassembly, you have to knock the barrel forward, but since the attachment point is blind, about half the time, I start off trying to knock the barrel backwards. I am supposed to remember this? this pistol is not the only thing in my life, nor is it the most important thing in my life. If barrel removal is not intuitive, than that is a stupid design in my opinion.

Getting the hammer strut to align with the mainspring, now that is a learning process each and every time. It is even worse with the MKIII's because it has a magazine safety. You have to remember to put in the magazine, pull the trigger, and remove the magazine. When you are frustrated, because things don't line up, and assembly is so hap hazard, you can forget to either insert the magazine, or to remove the magazine. I do have small hook picks to pull the stupid hammer strut from out behind the cross pin, that happens virtually every time. And, the stupid hammer strut does not always line up the the mainspring. Can't count the number of times I have latched the hammer strut only to find the bolt is jammed, because the hammer can't move, and that is due to that blind hammer strut not lining up correctly with the mainspring.

I have to really push to get the bolt stop pin to go in the barrel assembly. Sometimes I have to find something to tap the thing because it is so stiff. I wonder if Ruger designed this pistol to be cleaned, or simply designed it to be cheap to manufacture and ignored the maintenance part. They should have fixed these problems decades ago.

I have seen MKIV's, they are a better design than the MKIII. A bud of mine has one, it shoots well, a lot easier to clean than the MK1's through MKIII's.

And notice, not a peep from for profit, in print gunwriters about the assembly/disassembly problems of Ruger MKI through MKIII till now. Now, however, with the introduction of the MKIV, well, if you read their current articles, is it not amazing that Ruger was able to sell any of the previous marks? One gunwriter claimed that readers actually sent him pistols they could not get together. Bad Ruger MK1, bad Ruger MKII, bad Ruger MKIII! Never read a peep of complaint from these guys for the last 60 years, and this just shows what shills these guys are.

My S&W M41, what a great pistol design. Disassembly is intuitive, and you can see what you are doing in disassembly, and assembly. No blind barrel hooks, hammer struts.