Ruger MKII 22 pistol - Two piece bolt question.

whatnickname · May 30, 2022

At one point, Ruger made the bolt for the MarkII 22 pistol in two pieces. The cocking ears look like they were silver soldered on to the bolt body. You can see a definite seam at this junction. Bumped into someone the other day that recommended having the bolt reinforced at this seam by welding the seam and then grinding the weld down so the bolt would function. This acquaintance claimed that the cocking ears would eventually separate otherwise.

I have a MKII target with a low round count. No problems so far. Would like some opinions on this point please.

Kp321 · May 30, 2022

I have seen Mk II pistols with tens of thousands of rounds through them but have never seen the cocking ears come off. If you are concerned, buy a Volquartsen bolt. I would hesitate to weld on a heat treated bolt unless the welder was a very experienced TIG welder and heat sinked the bolt.

MutinousDoug · May 30, 2022

My 1988 series Mk II was my .22 Bullseye gun through the 90s. My one piece bolt stops on the breech face of the barrel before the cocking ears touch the receiver.
I'm thinking this is a non-issue.

Blue68f100 · May 30, 2022

Ruger's warranty is good enough if it ever fails they will repair/replace it. Should not be an issue.

Shoot and enjoy the gun.

Frulk · May 30, 2022

Ive not read one sentence in almost 40 years that this was a problem with the MK 2’s. Think they came out around 82-84 as I had a MK2 Target from that time with the tapered 6.5 barrel that I put thousands of rounds through. Last I heard the coworker I sold it to was still shooting it with no issues.

I have a MK2 Government Slabside from the mid 90s I think that has had some heavy use and have had no problems as are mentioned.

Shoot that gun and don’t think twice about it.

Hey…just in case you have one…have your heard about the Remington 700 triggers??

earlthegoat2 · May 30, 2022

MutinousDoug said:
My 1988 series Mk II was my .22 Bullseye gun through the 90s. My one piece bolt stops on the breech face of the barrel before the cocking ears touch the receiver.
I'm thinking this is a non-issue.

This. If the ears are falling off then it is not because of returning to battery. I find it hard to believe general vibration could do it.

Blue68f100 said:
Ruger's warranty is good enough if it ever fails they will repair/replace it. Should not be an issue.

Shoot and enjoy the gun.

Ruger would probably scrap your MKII and give you a new MKIV in lieu of fixing it. :barf:

edwardware · May 30, 2022

whatnickname said:
Bumped into someone the other day

I see no reason that would be easier to do now than after it becomes necessary.

earlthegoat2 said:
Ruger would probably scrap your MKII and give you a new MKIV in lieu of fixing it.

Correct, so you would never send a MkII to Ruger.

Any minimally competent welder could fix this.

whatnickname · May 30, 2022

I had an engineer respond to this same question on another forum with this picture. If a picture is worth 1000 words this one certainly fills that bill. My guess is that the rate of failure is low. Some of the gun smiths have placed a pin in from the other side and secured it with a cross pin. Others have welded it. If mine separates I will have it silver soldered or will have some screws installed from the back side. If all else fails, I will simply replace the bolt with a MKIV bolt. Unless Ruger is willing to repair the bolt itself, I’m not sending an otherwise perfectly good MKII back for them to scrap out and replace my pistol with a current model.

Frulk · May 30, 2022

I'm not sure what model year that picture depicts. Since I don't have a MK1 or my early (84 MK2 model) in inventory to look at I went out and dug the Government model out. Haven't shot it in 5+ years.

Pic of the barrel nomenclature:

Pics of the bolt looking at it from the front and rear. There is no silver solder on that bolt....it's definitely one piece. So this must have been made after they changed the design.

Again, the differences in the bolts not withstanding I've never heard of or seen this failure...and I've worked in a high-volume retail setting selling and working on guns for almost 2 years. If you're that concerned about it failing, buy a replacement bolt from Ruger now, pull the original and start using the replacement.

AFTER posting this I did a little reading up on the issue and it seems the problem was centered around a period were Ruger used a 2-piece bolt in the MK2. There's a small cadre on a particular web site that was/is very attuned (if not somewhat fixated) on this issue. Reading on it was stated that Ruger is now out of MK2 bolts and if your gun runs into this problem they will ship you a MK3 bolt...which apparently has somewhat smaller ears than the MK2 original (that info was dated from 2019). As such I've edited my response above to reflect this info.

1KPerDay · May 30, 2022

Blue68f100 said:
Ruger's warranty is good enough if it ever fails they will repair/replace it. Should not be an issue.

Shoot and enjoy the gun.

Caveat: if the gun is out of production they will (potentially) not repair or warranty the gun. They got rid of all MKIII parts for example. I doubt they have any for previous models.

whatnickname · May 30, 2022

Frulk said:
I'm not sure what model year that picture depicts. Since I don't have a MK1 or my early (84 MK2 model) in inventory to look at I went out and dug the Government model out. Haven't shot it in 5+ years.

Pic of the barrel nomenclature:

View attachment 1081637

Pics of the bolt looking at it from the front and rear. There is no silver solder on that bolt....it's definitely one piece. So this must have been made after they changed the design.

View attachment 1081638

View attachment 1081639

Again, the differences in the bolts not withstanding I've never heard of or seen this failure...and I've worked in a high-volume retail setting selling and working on guns for almost 2 years. If you're that concerned about it failing, buy a replacement bolt from Ruger now, pull the original and start using the replacement.

AFTER posting this I did a little reading up on the issue and it seems the problem was centered around a period were Ruger used a 2-piece bolt in the MK2. There's a small cadre on a particular web site that was/is very attuned (if not somewhat fixated) on this issue. Reading on it was stated that Ruger is now out of MK2 bolts and if your gun runs into this problem they will ship you a MK3 bolt...which apparently has somewhat smaller ears than the MK2 original (that info was dated from 2019). As such I've edited my response above to reflect this info.

My pistol is a MKII and you can notice a definite seam where the bolt body meets the ears. Yours does not appear to have this seam. I believe your bolt is a one piece unit. I’m not all that worried about it. My guess is that the failure rate is low.

I did call Ruger about a parts gun in was building and asked to buy a bolt. They said they would have to have the gun returned so they could fit the bolt. Also told me that any after market parts would require replacement. Fit a bolt to their MKII pistol? I’ve never had to fit one yet! I’m not going to go to the trouble of replacing the Volquartsen hammer, sear and trigger with the OEM parts to prevent Ruger from selling me replacements. If my bolt fails I will either have it repaired or I will replace it.

Frulk · May 30, 2022

Thanks for putting up this thread. Again, learned something today so it wasn’t a total loss getting out of bed. : )

AzShooter1 · May 30, 2022

You can always buy a bolt from E-Bay for about $30. That's a lot cheaper then sending it back to Ruger for service. I bought two bolts like that for my Mark IIIs.

I also bought a Volquartsen bolt for my Mark III 22/45.

whatnickname · May 30, 2022

Frulk said:
Thanks for putting up this thread. Again, learned something today so it wasn’t a total loss getting out of bed. : )

You’re welcome. I was completely unaware of the problem until I bumped into someone that shared this information. I had never heard of the problem so I put this thread up here and on another forum. The answers were good information. I’m not inclined to fix stuff that ain’t broken. If my bolt separates, I will either have it repaired or replace with a MKIV bolt.

BBBBill · May 31, 2022

Kp321 said:
I have seen Mk II pistols with tens of thousands of rounds through them but have never seen the cocking ears come off...

I have. Several of them. Normally I would agree about welding on a bolt, but in this case there's no danger of creating a problem unless you heat it so much that you warp it and cause it to stick in the receiver. The welding is at the rear, away from the breech face. Packed in heat control paste with only the area to be welded exposed, a skilled TIG man can knock it out with no issues.
I would not bother unless/until it did show a problem, but I would have no fear to do that if needed. Replacing with a Mk IV or Volquartsen bolt is also a good option at that time.

FROGO207 · Jun 3, 2022

I own several SS MK II Rugers. One that had half a million rounds through it had the cocking ears pop off it exactly like the picture shows. Just had a friend tig it back on and polish it flat again. I had to replace the firing pin and set of springs in it twice as well. Still shoots like a dream to this day.

Ruger MKII 22 pistol - Two piece bolt question.

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