disappointing accuracy from a Ruger MkII

[Kaylee]

I recently brought home a second-hand stainless 6" tapered barrel Ruger MkII. The rifling looked okay in the store, no noticable problems at the muzzle, but accuracy (while not abysmal) wasn't particularly good.. say at a nice close range where I'd typically get quarter-sized groups, I couldn't get better than half-dollar sized with it, and those from a rest.

I used CCI and Winchester... 50-100 rounds at a stretch.

Can anyone recommend ammo the Rugers particularly like, or am I better off just trading it?

 

[wally]

Since you bought it used, I'd take it down clean the bore really good. Had a really bad batch of Remington Thunderbolt ammo recently that leaded the bore badly after only 200 rounds! Accuracy went from very good to very poor in the space of two or three mags as the fouling built up. Accuracy returned after a good cleaning, More Thunderbolt repeated the execise. I shoot other ammo now.

--wally.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

That's the second person I have heard having issues with Thunderbolt in a Mark II. Beginning to think there's something to it, or at least enough for me to keep it away from mine.

I think a good, careful cleaning and some other ammo types should bring it up to speed. They tend to shoot pretty well in my experience.

Spring for a box of match stuff and see if that helps. If not, it might be better off in another home.

 

[cavman]

I haven't shot enough to know how accurate or inaccurate the green box Thunderbolt is. However, it failed to fire so many times that I have switched to other ammo to shoot with the Mark III Hunter.

 

[Kaylee]

Wally -- I think you were right. I took it down for a cleaning tonight.

Once I had it open..

"Good God! I've never seen so muck cack! I'm surprised the darn thing ran!
I don't think this think has ever been cleaned!

Once I started to put it back together ..

"Um.. now I think I know why it's never been cleaned.... "

-K

 

[creitzel]

I too recently had fouling and FTF problems using Thunderbolts in my Mark II. After about 200 rounds, the fouling was pretty bad, and accuracy took a dump. I've since switched to CCI mini mags, and no more fouling problems

Once I started to put it back together ..

"Um.. now I think I know why it's never been cleaned.... "

I was a little confused putting mine back togeter at first too. Once I figured out what they were trying to accomplish inside the gun with all the gyrations they make you do, it's was a snap. It might also help that my Mark II is my first gun, and I haven't yet been spoiled with the easier assembly methods of other guns

Chris

 

[gudel]

Once I started to put it back together ..

"Um.. now I think I know why it's never been cleaned....

yup yup I got that too

 

[Majic]

Number one with all .22lr firearms is to try all the ammo you have available to you. You just never know what ammo a particular .22lr firearm may like.

 

[sm]

Once done a time or two, pretty straightforward.

Blued ones to me are easier to reassemble, for steel that is why they make small rawhide mallets.

Given: Guns have THEIR own favorite ammo, that said -Across the board of various .22 guns, no matter if handgun or rifle, no matter the platform

Winchester X22lr always runs in any .22 semi, handgun or rifle. Accuracy varies from "pretty good to Awesome. This is readily avail here.
The Win.PowerPoints - are the HP version and again feed, extract and accurate as the X22lr.
The Winchester Dynapoints are standard velocity and are highly sought after. I have had great results in MKI and MKII

NEVER EVER use Win Expert.

CCI Mini Mags for ME are second to X22lr simply because of availibilty.

Federal Bulk Pack of 550 in the carton, a sleeper for plinking ammo that runs, and some guns really shine.

Remington - I do not do Remington rim-fire. Remington does not make their .22 ammo fwiw.

PMC , Zapper if still avail, have not looked for it, it was another great ammo for the price, and Marlin 39 all seemed to really like this ammo.

Kaylee ...psst...closer to monitor <looks over shoulder, side to side> Keep this a secret okay? Hard to find, but if you find it, try these -
http://www.fiocchiusa.com/cat_rimfire.php .

--
Now personally, once the gun has been gone thru, inspected, and <gasp> cleaned. Well I do not recall the last time I actually run a brush thru a .22 bore. I "might" hit the chamber only with one, I use patches, and by using a Otis pull thru or Patchworm.

Brakecleaner , dry and all ready. My secret is to use ATF [Dexron II or IIE]and only a wee bit.

Recently I was reminded of Ballistol by a friend of mine here, I had forgotten about it, since the older shops closed up and the new ones don't seem to have.

I cleaned a Ruger MKII standard for a guy, and used Ballistol to lube. His likes the Dynapoints and Fed Bulk. After a brick, with no failures at all, no additional lube, I didn't take down. Pipe cleaned the bolt face, q-tipped the breech, q-tipped chamber...any residue just wiped off. Using a needle oiler applied a wee bit of Ballistol, and repeated this again.

I have pulled thru one patch in ~1500 rds - I was cleaning the chamber and my Q-tip broke went into bore.

This is one of a few folks dealing with Cancer treatments, and wanting Non-Toxic gun cleaning, and his other gun cleaning stuff cmade him sick due to being sensitive now [treatments] to some things.

I use Ballistol liquid, he ordered liquid and spray, not only for guns, other household stuff. Already cleaned his revolver, using the spray to blast out gunk...gunk does not build up , easier to maintain.

Whatever you do - DO not try some Russian ammo in a yellow box [forget name, then I do not know Russian] with so much wax you could do a kitchen floor. Stinks! not reliable, and guarnteed to miss a target at two steps.

Great for malf drills, getting rid of skeeters, frustration...other than that...nope, not good at all.

 

[bpisler]

My wifes MKII 512 like the copper plated
remingtons in the bulk pack.It doesn't
like any federal bulk packs but the CCI
mini-mags work well.I had problems with
the remington thunderbolts a couple of
months ago.It was in S&W 18-3 which
became very inaccurate in 100rds or so.
I cleaned bunches of lead out of it,
more than i had seen in a long while.

 

[Clipper]

My MKII likes Rem Cyclone, but doesn't do as well with Thunderbolt. Hates Stingers, So-so with Federal.

 

[Kamicosmos]

Sounds like you already discovered the problem. I was just going to add that my Mark II gov't target prefers the copper coated bullets. Super X specifically. It will not feed the wax coated or bare lead bullet types reliably.

 

[Ala Dan]

Kaylee, try some of Federal's Champion ammo in the Ruger. It works
well in my Browning Buckmark. Good Luck~!

 

[Crosscut]

Kaylee

Your right about cleaning the Mark II's they are a pain in the drain to put back together. As with any gun you tear down for the first time it's always helpful to have a buddy there watching, two sets of eyes are better than one.

 

[Master Blaster]

Winchester x-pert is excellent ammo.........for practicing malfunction clearance drills, it jams reliably in every semi auto I tried it in. Don't know what they were thinking when they designed a short truncated cone bullet shape(that folks would only shoot it in a revolver??). Last year I had a bad batch of Winchester T-22, it split cases some at the rim!!!!! In years of shooting .22lr I never saw a .22lr round do that. I sent it back to them and they said there was nothing wrong with it

I use and like federal champion copper plated bulk pack, and Federal champion high velocity (waxed lead), which shoots very well in my MKIIs and 10/22s. Federal Gold medal for my anschutz rifle. The last 3 years thousands of rounds of Federal fired out of 15 different .22's with excellent accuracy and 0 thats right,0 misfires. I used to use remmington thunderbolt and copper plated golden bulk, but it got so bad, different report for every round, misfires, I gave up on it. I also used to use CCI standard velocity but they changed the bullet in the last couple years (from black lubed like their match ammo,to a cheaper siver colored bullet) and now it leads my guns and accuracy sucks so I am on my last brick in my model 41, the federal champion shoots better.

As far as reassembling the MKII goes, it should take about 30 seconds if you understand what you are doing.

Hold the gun level and pull the trigger to release the hammer and then you can put the bolt in. Tip the gun back and pull the trigger causing the hammer to release and pop up, making sure that the hammer strut (the little dangly thing) is free and visible in the opening for the mainspring housing., Put the bolt stop up through the hole in the receiver, while tilting the gun back, and making sure the little dangly thing, the hammer strut goes into the recess in the mainspring housing. If you have done this right there will be resistance as the housing closes, meaning that the hammer strut is depressing the main spring, if you missed with the strut, there will be no resistance. Thats the trick making sure the hammer strut goes into the housing as you close it.

I was shooting my MKII yesterday, mine is a KMK512.

Good luck.

 

[ccw007]

I have not read all of the post but try Winchester Super X in the silver box. It is 1.99 per 50 at Walmart. I have found it to be the best 22 ammo of anything I have tried. It shoots well out of my MKII also.

 

[wally]

At $7/500 from Academy, I like the Federal Champion a whole lot better! Works wonderfully in 4 of our 6 Rugers (3-22/45, 2-MkII, 1 Mk-I), Neos, Buckmark and S&W M22A. So its worth a try, but start with a single brick just in case your gun don't like it.

For some reason two of them ( 1 MkII and 1 22/45) seem to have 2 or 3 stovepipes per 100 rounds -- I haven't figured out why, switching the extractor and spring between a problem gun and a problem free gun made no difference so its not the extractor, must be slight difference in the bolt face and ejector. Remmington bulk pak works fine in the problem guns and at $9/525 its not too bad. Only thing I can figure is the rims on the Remmington are about 0.001" larger in diameter and seem to have a sharper shoulder at the base of the rim compared to the Federal.

--wally.

 

[Deanimator]

Buy a couple of boxes (200rd.s) of CCI Standard Velocity. If it won't shoot with that, it probably won't shoot with ANYTHING.

As someone else said, make sure the barrel and chamber are good and clean.

If you still have problems, have a gunsmith look the gun over, as there are other factors which can affect accuracy and reliability. Is the bolt closing fully every time?

 

[Owen]

Wolf rimfire ammo is excellent. It's made by SK Jagd, which also makes the Lapua match stuff.

It's a little messy because it's greased instead of waxed, but it has been super reliable and accurate in everything, for me.

 

[foghornl]

I don't run plain lead ammo in ANYof my .22 Rimfires.

Even my OLD Marlin 99 rifle does not like plain lead.

Really strange thing about .22's..one gun of any particular model may love a certain brand/style of ammo, while the very next gun off the same line chokes on that ammo...Go figure..

Example..I had a Rem Nylon 66 as a teen. It would eat anything, EXCEPT the Rem 36-Gr hollowpoint "Golden Bullet"..A Rem gun that hated Rem ammo....sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeshh

 

[JohnKSa]

Kaylee,

The secret to easy reassembly is following the steps in the manual EXACTLY. Most of the tips I've seen online for easy reassembly are directly out of the manual.

One thing that I've noted can limit the accuracy of the MkII pistols is a very rough feed ramp. I had one with a feedramp like a rasp. I couldn't understand the poor accuracy until I chambered a round and then ejected it without firing it. There was a flat spot rasped onto the nose by the ramp, and the force of the bolt jamming the cartridge forward while the nose was trying to stop on the ramp loosened the bullet in the case.

Good luck!

John