Ruger MK I, II, &III: Sittinng in Closet?

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SharpsDressedMan

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After helping a friend out with a "jammed" Ruger MKIII(that she started to disassemble and has been a box for a year or more), I am wonder just how many Ruger .22's are out there, across the country, in a similar condition? She started to take down the gun for cleaning, but did not make sure it was uncocked. This, along with countless other guns that owners probably had problems with regarding disassembly, reassembly, etc, might make for a large number. Ruger designed a great gun; accurate, rugged, a real workhorse of a pistol. But, Ruger was not John Browning, and user friendly or simplistic they are not. It takes close attention to the instructions, a little mechanical aptitude, and a little practice and luck to get a Ruger .22 pistol together or apart. Anyone else want to fess up to having cussed a Ruger, spent hours putting one back together, taken one to a gunsmith to get it right, or still have one sitting in a drawer or closet jammed or in pieces? :cuss:
 
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Nope. Although I can see how it could have been an issue in years past.

Thankfully, YouTube has made those sort of problems alot less common.
 
I almost lost my mind the first time I tried to put my MK1 (Standard?) back together. My uncle bought it back in '72 or '73, shot just a few mags through it during it's life and put it in a box in his closet. 35 years later (2008) he gave it to me......no paperwork. I have never had problems putting a gun back together until I met the MKI. It took me longer than I want to talk about getting it back together.......and I invented new curse words along the way.

I can now do it in a couple of minutes, but without understanding that one little step (owners know what I'm talking about) it's a bear.
 
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Years ago I had a Ruger Mk I and would take it apart for field stripping every once in a while. There was always a lot of cussing and oaths hurled around in the process. I sold it to a friend. Five years ago I bought a used Mk II and have shot it a lot but never disassembled it for cleaning. I just put a few patches down the barrel and then get one of those cans of WD-40 with the little red straw. I clean all the the exposed areas in the chamber and then go to town with the WD-40 and the red straw down the magazine well and in the area where the charging piece is. Its a messy job, but it works. In all these years I have had just 2 or 3 stoppages with thousands of rounds downrange.
 
The first time I was appalled at the need for a mallet on what was my first gun.
But a bit of re-assurance on the fact that it needed some serious bonking got me back in business.

I've since bought another mkIII, so MrsBFD and I could stop fighting over who gets to shoot the one, and I've installed upgraded extractors (easy), triggers (not so easy) and sears (not easy) in both, an addition to deleting the stupid magazine interlock (did it with the sear).
I've also taken my uncle's mkII down and turned it from a "piece of junk that wouldn't run right" to a great target gun, all with a handful of cotton swabs, a hammer/punch (actually a scrap of 2x4 and a chopstick fragment), a bottle of RemOil, a shoestring with a patch in a knot, and a rag. The poor thing had been run so hard and put away so dirty that the buildup of crap was almost filling the extractor groove (hampering return to battery) and there was grit in pretty much every moving part (I remember that the trigger plunger was almost seized).
After doing a few detail strips, I'm pretty immune to the "hurrrrr - deze Lugars are hard to werk on" thing.

But I have wondered a few times if I could set up a business refurbing those little pistols, I figure $25 to strip and clean, $40+parts to upgrade, and $50+parts to teach the unwashed masses how to do it themselves.
If it weren't for the BATFEIEIO's definition of "gunsmith" and requirements for who needs a FFL I'd be doing it every weekend.
 
I did full disassembly one time because I thought for sure I could return it to firing condition. I ended up taking a box a parts to my gunsmith who had it back together in about 15 min.

As far as putting the pin in the oval of the rear assembly lever thing...it was infuriating until I finally got the hang of it.

Now I just clean it with toothbrushes and a bore snake and don't tempt fate.
 
Ruger

I first disassembled and put back together my fathers' Ruger Standard .22 when I was about 14 or 15. I did read the owners manual first,but never had any problems or thought of it as being difficult.I must admit that I had experience with many other firearms at a young age.I will say the Ruger was a unique design,but still don't see what all the fuss is about....:confused:
 
I'll second the MkI comments, still have the one I bought 36 years ago, my first handgun. I still remember the first time I took it apart and reassembling it with great difficulty.
Didn't have the internet of course in those days to get help...;)
 
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Reassembling a Ruger Mk pistol is quite simply a matter of reading and understanding the instructions in the manual. Ignore the manual and give up all hope.
 
I'm glad most of the responders (so far) have had only moderate troubles and mostly success with the Ruger auto. I had never seen one totally locked up like the MKIII that this girl had after starting to remove the takedown lever without decocking. It was so stuck, we had to remove some pins and internal parts to free things up enough to disassemble.
 
Justin123 said:
I did full disassembly one time because I thought for sure I could return it to firing condition. I ended up taking a box a parts to my gunsmith who had it back together in about 15 min.
As far as putting the pin in the oval of the rear assembly lever thing
Click to expand...
You mean the hammer strut going into the mainspring housing?

It gets easier when you understand how the parts work together once assembled. For example the hammer strut must fit into the mainspring housing and compress the mainspring when the hammer is cocked, this is easier if you have the hammer strut entirely free to move in the hammer and then let it hang straight down. Hold the gun up to your ear before swinging in the MSH and you should hear the hammer strut dangling around if you jiggle the gun. Then swing in the MSH and you should feel a bit of resistance just as it goes flush with the frame and latches, that is the at-rest hammer-down tension on the mainspring you're applying by hand.
If you don't feel that resistance or feel a stop too early, the hammer strut is going somewhere other than into the MSH, back out and try again.

And it sounds like you did a field strip, not a full disassemble. Get a bare frame and stripped bolt on your workbench and you'll never take the field strip seriously again.
 
Eh, It's not THAT bad. It's sure as hell not like stripping a modern polymer gun, but if you know what you're doing, you can still do it in a minute or two..
 
I go so long between field stripping my old mk I, I always forget and have to re-teach myself. I always tell myself I won't forget next time and I turn right around and forget to pull the trigger or something.
 
The only REALLY bad part is the freaking hammer spring. And I do mean REALLY bad. My father has a Mark I and I have a Mark III. I've had his 1972 Mk I taken down more than a few times for troubleshooting. Seems like every time I solve one problem with that old gun, another one pops up. I finally get it to stop jamming (it was due to the magazine rivet rubbing the inside of the grips), only to start getting light strikes. During that disassembly, I also found the recoil spring assembly is shot. So that's that. It needs all new springs. UGH, I hate that old gun.

It probably didn't help the vintage recoil spring assembly that the gun is only accurate with Mini-Mags, and those also seem to feed the best. The front "legs" on it were actually bent. Oh well. I know new parts are designed to take the higher-velocity rounds, and a Mark III assembly will drop right into the Mark I. So I guess it's time to spend more money on it and field strip it AGAIN.
 
I really like my Ruger MKIII but it is the ONLY weapon I have that when I decide to strip and clean it, the first step is to find that owners manual, open it to the assembly/dissembly page and get it laid out on the table first. I usually don't have any problems after that and I didn't really have all that much trouble with my MKI and MKII Rugers. (Put magazine in or out, hold gun upside down or sideways, cross eyes, whistle Dixie, etc.)
 
I spent an evening with my Mark I trying to reassemble it. Finally I figured it out. During that evening there were few swear words that did not pass my lips. Very frustrating. :banghead:

Now I can strip or reassemble my Mark I, II, or 3 in under a minute without reference to a manual. :neener: It really is very easy. The problem is that it is easy to do, but difficult to explain. I agree with one of the previous posters that the YouTube videos are a great resource.

It is unfortunate that most local gunstores do not simply give new Mark buyers a 5 minute class on reassembly. There are just a couple of tricks, i.e.:

1. Be sure to dry fire the gun before opening the mainspring housing assembly from the grip.

2. When reassembling, the hammer has to be all the way forward before inserting the mainspring housing. Pull the trigger and push the hammer forward with a tool. Otherwise you get that awful syndrome where the mainspring housing de-inserts itself and will not close into the grip. We've all been there.

3. When closing the mainspring housing, the hammer strut must be hanging down (with the barrel pointed up). If you feel spring tension as you close the mainspring housing you are good to go. If not, hold the barrel straight up and tap the muzzle with a rubber mallet to knock the hammer strut loose so it will hang down. Then close.

With Mark IIIs, to perform 1) and 2) above, you have to have a magazine inserted due to the magazine safety. Common sense: the gun won't fire without a magazine.

It isn't hard to do, but it is a bit hard to explain to a newcomer to the pistol.
 
Reassembling a Ruger Mk pistol is quite simply a matter of reading and understanding the instructions in the manual. Ignore the manual and give up all hope.
Click to expand...


^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This.


As others have said with, the manual, Youtube and other internet help there is no excuse for not being able takedown and reassemble a Ruger MK series pistol.
 
I studied the manual carefully and found it easy. Key is understanding the hammer strut. I can break down and assemble mine very quickly.

I can't believe someone would just "give up" and leave a gun in a pile of parts in a box in a closet.
 
the trick to my "standard" is to lay it on it's right side, rear down...the hammer leg lines up best that way...most of the time i don't even have to look at it...gary
 
I confess that I have to consult the manual when reassembling my Mark II.
 
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