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Bullseye:

Excuse me if you have answered this question a hundred times, but I can't seem to find a similar topic on the forum.

After a year of paying my gunsmith to disassemble and clean my Mark III (which I use for bullseye 50 foot competiton, coming up in May), I finally got brave and tryed to field strip my gun today. I wanted also to install a new firing pin (I have very light strikes).

I've read your detailed field strip instructions about 20 times, so I thought I could do it.

The mainspring housing and bolt stop came out with no trouble, but when I try to remove the bolt, it will pull back freely only 3/4 of an inch and then stops cold.

I put in an empty magazine and pulled the trigger, but no change.

I reinstalled the mainspring/ boltstop, but the bolt still refuses to move rearward past 3/4 inch. It was obviously not engaged after reinstalling the mainspring, and moved freely that short distance.

I repeated all these attempts several times without sucess.

Any idea what I did wrong?

Should I see my gunsmith again?

Thanks, as always, for your help.

I'm not bullseye, but, I did stay in a holiday Inn last nite!!

hold the gun in your hand and point the barrel down and pull the trigger.

This should make the hammer go forward, releasing the hammer strut which is probably stuck against the cross-pin.

You can see it by looking up at the hammer from the mainspring channel in the back of the frame.

The hammer strut is caught/hung up like previous stated.

When you remove the bolt point the gun up. This will keep the hammer strut from getting caught in between the pin and frame.

I see what both of you are saying, and the bolt is definitely hung up on something, but neither pointing it up and pulling the trigger or pointing it down and pulling the trigger makes any difference.

It's still stuck.

with the mainspring out, can you see the hammer lever?

is it free of the cross pin?

If not, you may have to stick something into the frame to press the hammer forward to release the cross pin.

If that doesn't work, we can go to plan B..

I'm not certain what the "hammer lever" looks like (I'm really new to working on guns!) but looking up through the mainspring well, I can see the bottom of the hammer (with a slot) and a flat, black metal piece, the top end of which sticks into the hammer slot and the bottom end rests on a small cross pin. With a small wooden dowel I can move the bottom of this piece back and forth laterally, but at the top, it is wedged tight into the hammer slot and will not move.

It appears to me that the hammer is back in the cocked position.

I've tryed to pry and push the parts I can reach, but everything is jammed in solid.

Pulling the trigger has no effect.


THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

As mentioned previously your hammer strut is caught on the frame crosspin.



That problem is found on Step#9 of my trouble shooting page, http://www.guntalk-online.com/TroubleshootingPage.htm

If you push the hammer forward a little and pull the little strut out from behind the pin the bolt will side out cleanly for you.

R,
Bullseye

YEAH! That was it.

I was just too newbie to understand what the proper relationship should be.

I pushed out the small frame pin that was jamming the strut, and the bolt came right out.

Now, it's on to dislodging the receiver, but that has to wait until I get some paying work done today.

Once again, thanks a million. What would Ruger owners do without this forum?

A picture does a wonder for communication!

R,
Bullseye

Somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember a proverb to that effect.

I have discovered that a large share of any difficulty I encounter in working on my guns is due to my ignornace of nomenclature, so pix really make a difference.

purchawk wrote:After a year of paying my gunsmith to disassemble and clean my Mark III (which I use for bullseye 50 foot competiton, coming up in May).

If you don't mind me asking, how much does that service cost you?

The guy charges $25 for a basic breakdown and clean, but it's not much more for some real tinkering, such as adding a VQ trigger for $40.

He's a retired police captain who was the armourer for our small local force. Nice guy, and he really knows his way around a pistol, but I need to be able to do it myself.

I suspect we all here are indebted in some way (figuratively speaking ) to Bullseye for his Mark ******* information..

Wow, I should start charging $20 for a good cleaning and $50 to teach people how to do it. Ignoring the cost of running a storefront, downtime, and buying supplies (ignoring those costs has been the downfall of many a small business, by the way) I'd be making a mint!

Anyone with capital want to own a franchise chain? Imagine little minature mechanic shops with a waiting area and the "shrouded in mystery" back area where the magic happens ... I promise I won't run any "blinker fluid" style scams

purchawk wrote:YEAH! That was it.

I was just too newbie to understand what the proper relationship should be.

I pushed out the small frame pin that was jamming the strut, and the bolt came right out.

Now, it's on to dislodging the receiver, but that has to wait until I get some paying work done today.

Once again, thanks a million. What would Ruger owners do without this forum?

I hope your sear spring didn't come loose from underneath the crosspin..
If it did you can "Probobly" hook it back under the pin..