Ruger Mark II light firing pin marks, Help

[Randy1911]

I got a response from Ruger. All they would say is "Send it in and wait 6-8 weeks for return". I called UPS and FedEx both. They wanted $100 dollars to ship it. I can't afford that.

I went back to the range today after checking all of what you all have said with no change. The firing pin mark is deep enough, but it is just barely catching the edge of the rim of the case. I checked one of my other 22's and the mark they were making was catching a lot more of the case. I don't know if the firing pin is misformed or the bolt is mis-machined. Either way I guess I will just have to live with it. I think if the firing pin would catch just .010-.020" more the problem would be fixed.

 

[BBBBill]

Other possibilities are: (1) excess headspace, and/or (2) misformed firing pin tip. Rare, but I have seen it. If the firing pin tip is on the small end of spec, protrusion is on the short end of spec, and headspace on the long end of spec, might be enough to cause issues, especially with cheap ammo.
Go over to Rimfire Central. There's a wealth of information there on Rugers. Inspection, tuning, repair, and modifications for enhanced reliability and performance are covered in detail.

 

[Randy1911]

I just ordered a new replacement bolt assembly from MidwayUSA. That should fix my problem and it was about half the shipping cost of sending it back to Ruger. I guess I will never know what the problem is.

 

[LaserSpot]

I hope that does it.

Sometimes the toughest problem to troubleshoot is actually two problems with similar symptoms. When you try it with the new bolt, try a different brand of ammo too.

 

[stork]

Randy,
As soon as I saw the headstamp on your cases, I knew what a big part of the problem is. Remington has had a huge issue with poor priming for decades. They know about it, they don't care. I am also shooting MKII's in Bullseye competition and go through 5-10000 rds a year.

You will not find any competitive shooter that will shoot their 22 ammo (not including the Eley primed stuff). It will suffice for plinking as long as you know that you are going to get duds, a higher % than with any other brand. This is such a turn around from 40 yrs and more ago when they made excellent reliable ammo. Such is no longer the case. As was mentioned, if they go off when you rotate the case to a different point and it fires, you just had one with the priming mixture that wasn't spun into the rim.

Nearly every manufacturer has a bad round now and then. I've tried most of them. Rem, Win, Fed, Eley brown box and Eley tenex, Lapua, RWS, CCI, Aquila, and others I can't recall. I have had 100% firing with Eley, Lapua, RWS, and CCI. CCI I've shot 10's of thousands, Aquila over 10,000 with 1 dud (and that fired when I turned it), Eley-several thousand with zero duds, Lapua only a couple hundred (just got too expensive) zero duds, RWS-couple thousand, Winchester t-22 thousands but 2-5% duds, Winchester Dynapoints-10s of thousands with .5-1% duds, Federal several thousand but decades ago & I don't recall having any issues. I expect a small % of duds when using bulk packed ammo, that is the price I pay for economy, but there is no reason to put up with Remingtons high % of duds. There are too many other choices for about the same money.

For reliable, economy ammo I'd change to either CCI Blazer or Federal bulk packs. Both have good reputations.

FWIW

 

[Randy1911]

Stork,

For what it's worth, yesterday a friend and I went to the range to do sojme plinking. We finished off the box of Remington ammo that I had (about 400 rounds. He also had a MkII Target model. While I had numerous duds, he had none shooting the same ammo. When I would get a dud I would eject the round and look at it. It had a very light primer strike, so light you could just barely see the firing pin mark. Ocacasionally it had a good mark, but it was just barely hitting the edge of the rim. I don't think it was a ammo problem. Besides, I tried several brands with the same results. (Rem., CCI, Win., and Fed.)

When I called Ruger, they wanted me to send it to them. But after checking the shipping cost (which was a little over $100 and a 6-8 week wait) I just decieded to buy a new complete bolt assembly for half the cost of shipping it. With the firing pin just barely hitting the edge of the rim, I figured the bolt was mismachined). When I get it I will report back. It should be a couple of days.

 

[Kruzr]

Randy, there is one more thing I've run into that can cause that issue that you may want to check before sending it back to Ruger. With the upper off the frame and the hammer cocked, see if you can wiggle the hammer forward and backward a little. If so, you very well could have a broken pin that holds the hammer strut. You can't see this without driving it out but you will feel the wiggle if it is broken. You can also take the hammer out and push up and down on the strut.

I once had the hammer pin break and I had light strikes. It took me a long time to finally find the problem. I noticed that when the hammer was wiggled forward, the strut would come up a little from the mainspring housing.

Just something else to check.

 

[Sixtigers]

I want to thank you guys. I had ordered a Volquartsen extractor to fix some feeding issues, and due to having the same problem with light strikes, decided to take apart the bolt to verify the firing pin rebound spring. Sure enough, my Mark II rebound spring was toast...broken into five or six little pieces, being absolutely of no use to the gun whatsoever.

Going to order the spring here in a couple of minutes...I'll probably get the Volquartsen firing pin while I'm at it. I've never messed with these pistols before, other than to clean and shoot them...Now I'll have to go tear down my 10/22s and see how they're doing!

Thanks again for all the excellent tech help offered here.

 

[Randy1911]

Got my new bolt assembly today.

Well, I installed my new bolt assembly today and went to the range. I fired a little over 200 rounds. I had zero duds. I compared the two bolts as closely as I could and could see no difference. There had to be something. The new bolt put a larger firing pin strike on the case rim and it reached a little lower on the edge of the case (remember the old bolt was barely catching the rim with the firing pin). Maybe that was the problem. I don't know. All I know is that I am happy and I didn't have to spend $112 to ship it to Ruger and wait for 2 months to get it back.

 

[LaserSpot]

That's good news! Now you have some extra parts in case anything breaks.

 

[Clipper]

Sounds like the original firing pin channel might be shallow...

 

[Old Shooter]

Glad to hear you got your Ruger back and up running like it should, too bad you had to fix it on your dime though

But mayby now I can sleep at night, this problem and the suggestions to cure it were driving me nuts! My Rugers have been extremely reliable and I was wondering what on earth the problem could be with this one.

 

[Randy1911]

Old Shooter,

My guess is that the bolt was just slightly out of spec. The firing pin was hitting just a little too close to the edge of the rim to give me consistant reliaibility. The cure was cheaper than paying to ship it back to Ruger (and a lot quicker).