Just bought the Ruger MKIII 22/45 512 today

Just so nobody gets confused:

The exact model is the "512"

It is NOT a Ruger MKIII

It IS a Ruger MKIII 22/45 model 512 (technically not EXACTLY the same as just a regular MKIII)

Okay, anyway, so I already own two rifles (and I am a very solid marksman with them (I used to shoot competitively when I was age 10-11 (I'm 22 years old now)), but this was my first time buying a handgun.

So to buy it I had to take the 30 question multiple choice test (I was pretty sure I would get a perfect 30/30, but I managed to get a 29/30 (there was a question regarding gun transferring between a brother and a sister, and I thought this would fall into the "intra-family" category of gun transfer, but apparently parent-to-child counts, not sibling-to-sibling, so I got a 29/30 lol (you need to get a 23/30 or better to pass the test)).

So anyway there it was... a Ruger MKIII 22/45 model 512. Brand new. 5.5" barrel. Blued. Adjustable rear sights. 32 ounces. 9.5" overall length. 10 round mag. Supposedly will eat $10 550 round bricks of federals right from the getgo without a hiccup.

Cost: $269.99

I decided I HAD to buy it, obviously, lol.

So I did.

Anyway, so now begins the 10 day wait, and then next saturday morning I get to go in and pick it up.

So now that I have some time to relax and chill out (I was so pumped up about finally buying my first handgun (I've only shot handguns less than half a dozen times in my life, but I've shot rifles about 100 times (about 200 rounds per time (so like 20,000 rounds of rifle shooting, but only a few dozen shots of pistol shooting)) so although I've already seen and done quite a bit with the rifles, handguns are pretty much totally new to me, so I'm very excited about my first visit to the range with my very own handgun and a big friggin brick of federals to plow through lol.)

... I have had some time to think about the one maybe not so fun part about this gun....

... completely stripping it down, and putting it back together...


Now, I've been watching youtube for about the past 1 and a half hours, and I've seen a couple videos of people taking apart ruger MKIIs and MKIIIs or 22/45s and so forth (seemingly effortlessly) but when I read the comments under the videos, like half of the comments are usually along the lines of

"Nice to see it works for you... mine never worked again after I tried putting mine back together."

or

"I wish I'd never bought this thing. This video isn't helping. Nothing you show in the video works for me. I did it all, I even used the mallet. This thing is never going to be operable again. Bleh..."

or similar

So I'm a little nervous.

Does anyone here specifically own a Ruger MKIII 22/45 model 512?

If so, what has your experience been as far as disassembly/assembly?

Any advice? Any good vids or article or anything I should read? Do you think the gun shop I bought it from will show me how to take it down and put it back together when I'm picking it up? Do I really need to clean it after every time I go to the range?

I'm scared lol. Is this gonna be like a disposable camera, or is it actually possible that me, a first-timer dis/assembling anything other than a bolt action rifle, will actually be able to take the thing appart and put it back together, and use it again afterwards?

?

Getting the eff out of cali will be fairly easy, since I go to college in Arizona. (P.S. from what I understand, AZ is lax as heck on firearms rules compared to cali, so probably for my next couple guns I buy, I'll buy them in AZ. I'm thinking I'll probably be getting a couple home-D guns in AZ, since my appartment was apparently burglarized while I was here in los angeles, a couple months ago, and if they try to do it while I'm in my place in Arizona, they are gonna be looking at the wrong end of something nasty.)

I'm thinking about getting whatever the shortest legal length mossberg 500 pump action 12 gauge is that I can legally purchase in Arizona, as well as most likely some Glock 9mm which I'll fill up with hollowpoints. I'm not gonna be using either of those guns at the range though.

The Ruger is going to be my gun for the shooting range. The mossberg and glock would just be home defense guns, since I personally enjoy shotgun shooting at the range, for whatever reason (no it isn't the kick, I just don't like it nearly as much as pistols or rifles, it seems less about pure hand steadiness/control and more about reflexes and fast-pacedness which I don't like as much). and the Glock actually WOULD have been what I would have bought for my first handgun, but the problem is that 9mm ammo simply costs WAAYYYYYY more money per round than cheap as hell 550 round Federal .22lr bricks, so instead of spending $100 on ammo when I go to the range with a Glock, I'll be spending $5 on ammo instead. Pretty big difference. Thus the Glock would just be for a secondary home d weapon, and I guess I'd empty like half a clip per visit to the range on the Glock, just so I'd actually be able to use it if the **** ever hit the fan, and I for some reason needed to use it instead of the shotty.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

I think I'll probably be able to figure it out, using the website links you put up.

And as for AZ, yea, I'll be back there before January (which is when Obama will make buying guns all super duper illegal or whatever if he actually does that, which he probably won't (but might, who knows) so I'm gonna try to stock up on a couple of monsters over in arizona just for the hell of it most likely, just so then, worst case scenario, I'll already have them, and if they later become impossible to legally purchase, I'll never have to worry about it, since I'll already have conveniently legally bought them, and then accidentally lost all of them in the ocean while out on a fishing trip when my box of guns accidentally fell into the ocean accidentally according to me, hahaha.

Anyway yea, this ruger will probably be tons of fun to learn on. Plus it's just absurdly cheap. I mean, I think even after taxes and everything, 3 hours worth of online poker, at my longterm winrate in $/hour already more than pays for the gun. Whereas with some S&W i would have burned through a couple day's worth of profits. Plus this thing is supposed to be more accurate and reliable than most of the super expensive .22 pistols from what I hear, so should be awesome.