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First of all, I have to express my thanks to Bullseye for the excellent job of explaining the field strip procedures of my new pistol. As a new owner of a Mark III 22/45, I have to say that it put to rest any second thoughts I had about buying one. I heard many times that is is a PITA to field strip. I can say that to those of us that can read and follow directions, that is a myth. I can disassemble my pistol in about 30 seconds, and reassemble it in less than a minute (and that's with stopping to read a printout of Bullseye's reassembly page in front of me). That said, I did encounter a few stumbling blocks the first time that I would like to share to those who just got their first one, or are thinking about getting one. Sometimes the prospective of the inexperienced can be helpful to others.

Prior to firing my Ruger pistol for the first time, I decided that I wanted to field strip and reassemble it successfully several times to resolve any issues up front. Right out of the box, it was just as I expected. It was tricky to get the mainspring assembly out, because it was so tight. I had to follow the instructions in the Ruger manual with a wood dowel (I actually used a plastic ball point pen instead of the dowel) and rubber hammer. The second time it was light years easier, and I don't need either of these tools anymore. It pulls apart easily.

The biggest mistake I made was not to clean and lube the new unfired pistol. On reassembly, it didn't go well the first time. Something wasn't right, even though I felt I was following the directions correctly.

Ruger (and all firearms makers) ship their pistols with a rust preventative on everything. On my pistol, this made the entire mechanism not move smoothly. Things were not getting into their proper positions for reassembly. I soon realized that I needed to clean off the sticky stuff that comes on new pistols. Since the position of the hammer and safeties is so important in the reassembly, I highly recommend cleaning and properly lubricating the entire pistol prior to use and of course, beginning the reassembly procedure. Once I did that, everything moved into place perfectly, and the entire process went by the book. It's all fun from here!

Steve: welcome to the forum... I'm happy to see you're getting started
on the right-foot...

I definitely agree, an initial (dis)assembly, inspect, clean & lube
is best for any/all firearms, you never know what you'll find/ fix/ learn...

I have a MK2-22/45 that breaks-down and assembles with ease every time,
then an older MK2 (1984-ish) requires a dead-blow mallet-WHACK
to remove-and-replace the barrel... so, experience will vary.

opinions will vary on clean and lube, I just say that I INSPECT my
firearms OFTEN... and while I'm at it... I'll be sure it is clean/lubed

when new, consider a little smear of GunGrease on the bolt to ease
the metal-on-metal surface "mating" as you run thru your first few bricks...

Let us know what ammo you find works for you...
I have my best luck with: CCI, Federal and Aquila...
and poor (dirty) experiences with Rem...

I keep a Nylon-Cable-Tie (size ??) in my bag to grab the
release-latch on the MainSpring... it saves scratching it with
a screwdriver... and broken fingernails...

Removing the firingPin (and associated little spring&thing underneath)
may be helpful, too... as a dirty "trough" for the firingpin may cause
some weak-strikes on the rim-primer... so, be sure the FiringPin moves
freely...

good luck...

Welcome! Happy to hear you found the web help page useful.

R,
Bullseye

Well, I've taken my new Mark III 22/45 to two different ranges on two occasions since the day I got it. (Just a few days ago). It has not let me down yet. The first night it went through a box of 100 CCI....'s with no failures in any way. Today, I went to an outdoor range and spent hours there, pumping about 250 rounds of Remington Golden Bullets from the bulk pack at Wal-Mart. Only once did a round fail to fire, and that was near the end. I followed the rules of safety by keeping the pistol pointed downrange for quite some time, then I removed the magazine, and carefully ejected the cartridge. It had been struck, but as will happen in cheap rimfire ammo sometimes, this one didn't go off. So I set is aside (still pointing downrange).
After some time, I reloaded the same cartridge and tried it again, and it went off normally. So we'll blame the ammo this time. But it was just one.

I'm happy to say that my new pistol has never jammed, and has performed just fine with both relatively expensive CCI's and cheap and dirty bulk pack Remingtons. I did notice that the Golden Bullets left more residue in my pistol, but that didn't result in any problems even after firing hundreds of rounds. I clean my guns after every time I fire them anyway. Next time I'll try the Federal Bulk pack ammo, which I suspect will work just fine also.
So if there is a "tip" in this post it is to try out different brands of ammo.
In my next post I'll talk about my home made thumb saver.

ToyFJ40 has to get credit for the cable tie idea. I read that in one of his earlier posts and had one ready before I picked up my pistol the first day. Also, to anyone who has tried to load up the Ruger clips, they should have included a cheap plastic device to help hold down the thumb button. I actually ordered one from http://www.rimfiresports.com/ , but being impatient, I decided to make one. The main idea was to get a durable piece of plastic and cut a rectangle in it that would let the clip slip through, but would hold onto the button. (All the time I was thinking, "You have way too much free time on your hands"....). I found a discarded computer hard drive cover that worked perfectly. After 15 minutes with a 1/4" drill and a file I had a home-made thumb saver for loading my Ruger clips. It works so well that I'll be surprised if the $3.95 ones are any better when they finally do arrive. Anyway, you need to get something like this to help load up your clips.

I know I did not "invent" the Nylon-Cable-Tie use for the Ruger latch...
I read it somewhere... likely here, some time ago...

a "brick" usually refers to 500-rimfire cartridges.
the traditional small box-of-50 will often come in 10x of 500
which is roughly the size of a "brick"...

Which "CCI" were you using? Mini-Mag, I presume.
good luck with your "break-in period"...
( by the way, we like to THINK that means the firearm, tool, car...
needs time to "settle in"... but *it* is really just training YOU
as to how it is going to work and function... )

Steve,

All of us here appreciate seeing new uses for old discarded things; how about posting a picture of your newly designed thumb-saver magazine loader?

Careful using Remington Golden Bullets, they have a tendency to lead the barrels of pistols. If you see accuracy drop off drastically, check your barrel for leading.

R,
Bullseye

Thanks for the heads up on the Remingtons. The CCI's that I tried were indeed Mini Mags (36 grain copper plated hollow points). I prefer to use copper plated rounds in general. So even though the Remington Golden Bullets are also copper plated, they tend to lead up barrels? That's very good to know. I was under the impression that it was just a powder residue issue with the cheaper stuff. What about the Federal Bulk pack ammo? (copper plated, 36 grains, HP). Those are around $9.84 for a box of 550 at the Walmart here in Miami.

I'll try and upload some pics of my thumbsaver in my next post. It's so simple an idea, it's silly.

Here are some links to pics of my thumbsaver. It works like a charm.
It is simply a rectangle the size of the clip outer dimensions cut into a discarded piece of plastic. What helped is that my plastic was a good shape (curved) and fit into my hand easily. If I took a little more time with it, I could have made the hole more on center, but it didn't matter. This really is easy to use!

http://mysticblueband.com/images/ts.jpg
http://mysticblueband.com/images/tshand.jpg

For some reason Remington's tend to be more lead prone than other brands regardless of lube plating or not. Keep an eye out when shooting the Goldens or the Thunderbolts.

I see now how you made your thumbsaver.

R,
Bullseye

I've tried RGB's from 3 boxes. One was left at the range. 7 of 10 FTF's. Left it at the range. I bought the second box, figuring the experience withthe first was a fluke. Not many FTF's but after shooting them I needed to do a thorough cleaning of every firearm I shot. Got copper flakes and other crud. They didn't feed well in my Glenfield 60 and left copper flakes all over the innards.

Not to learn from the first mistakes, I'm shooting a box now because I kept reading that the did well in P22's. I don't shoot the P22 very well and the RGB's make it worse. They did ok in my 22/45. Being cheap, I guess I'll finish up the box and spend a lot of quality time cleaning pistols.

I've been shooting mostly CCI-SV and Federal 36gr hp's. The CCI's seem to be best for consistency and function. Slightly bigger groups with the Federals. One of these days I may learn to stick to what works well.

When you shoot Remingtons this is the risk you take.



These bullets are poorly made and prone to heavily leading your pistol's barrel.

R,
Bullseye

Good grief. I've heard tales of .22's leading up. Took them with a grain of salt. Looks like mine are in for additional cleaning. Glad I haven't shot too many RGB's.

I avoid Remingtons like the plague.

R,
Bullseye

greener wrote:I've heard tales of .22's leading up.
Took them with a grain of salt.

I think Ammonia NH3 will work better than salt NaCl ...

I have my leaded-barrel story that I've told before and will not bother to repeat,
but less than 50 Rem-Thunderbolts leaded-up a barrel such that
it was just spitting-blobs of lead... the barrel was Lead-Lined !!
fortunately, S&W (it was a 22A1) took it and cleaned it up...
I still have 9-boxes of the brick of T-bolts in my cabinet that I have
to move often as MY REMINDER!! thus, my preference of CCI, Fed & Aguila