Ruger Mark I, the lack of a slide lock cause damage the breech?

[shamus]

The thought of the bolt slamming home on an empty chamber after the the last shot is fired has me cringing.

But I had some thoughts:

• A centerfire auto pistol has recoil springs rated anywhere from 14-20#. I can see how the breechface could be damaged from that.
• I'm not sure what the spring weight on a rimfire pistol is, but it's certainly not 14#. Maybe the light recoil spring of a rimfire does not slam the slide hard enough to damage anything.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Drail]

I would not worry about. That a pretty massive bolt and a pretty light spring. I have personally shot many thousands of rounds through three of these and never seen any damage to the gun.

 

[wally]

About the only way to damage one of these Ruger MK series guns is to forget to install the firing pin retaining cross-pin in the bolt and then doing a lot of dry fire. Without the cross-pin the firing pin strikes the breech face and can damage it enough to make the gun stop firing reliably.

Most rimfire guns should not generally be dry fired, the MK series is an exception because the cross-pin prevents the firing pin from impacting the breechface.

--wally.

 

[TimboKhan]

You don't have anything to worry about. I have tens of thousands of rounds through my current MkII with not a single issue. I don't even really clean them!

 

[Shell Shucker]

Don't worry about it! My MOM bought my MK2 for me (I was to young) the year they came out. A gozillion rounds later no problems other than the bolt stop pin(?)( the pin that hooks to the take down lever that stops the rearward movement of the bolt) finally breaking after 20 or so years. Replaced it; runs like new.