GunTalk-Online.com

Over the past year and a half I've done trigger jobs on several late model Mark II's and Mark III's and have never had any problems. Normally I install a VQ sear, Clark's oversized hammer pin & bushing set, Clark trigger, stone the stock hammer hooks to about .018 and polish a few parts and can get a real smooth trigger at about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs with no felt creep.

Last week I did everything listed above on a Mark II that was built in 1993 and found that the bushing was holding the sear out in front of the .018 hammer hooks so I tried the stock bushing and had the same problem. I cut the bushing down to let the sear go back against the hammer and then the safety would almost fail plus I had a tremendous amount of creep. I ended up putting in a VQ target hammer and that took care of all of the problems.

Yesterday I started a trigger job on another Mark II that was built in 1990 and I've got the same situation.

I checked a Mark II that I have that was built in 1986 but I had installed a hammer out of a 2002 Mark II and the bushing is back behind the underside of the hammer hooks therefore the sear rides on the hammer instead of the bushing. I also checked a Mark III I have and found the sear rides on the hammer under the hammer hooks also which is the way I thought it is suppose to work.

Do you know if Ruger has changed the specs on their hammers over the years and if not what's my problem? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Keystone

No the specifications have not changed over the years, at least until the Mark III model came out. Likely what you are seeing is the manufacturing tolerance differences between individual pistols. Every mass produced item has some variances in manufacturing specs. That situation is compounded when the hammer's hook is cut very short compared to the original factory one. This is one reason why Ruger has the trigger related components tagged as factory repair only.

Any change in the sear's relative static position will affect the thumb safety. The thumb safety is designed to capturue the sear face and this is a fairly tight fit.

This is where customization takes over. Each pistol has to be treated separately and custom parts fitted accordingly. If I cut something too close or it doesn't work in a particular pistol it goes in the scrap bin and I start over. There's no compromise for safety.

R,
Bullseye

Thanks for your reply Bullseye.

I've known from the beginning that the parts in each piston fitted up slightly different but this was the most extreme difference I'd seen. Everything on the first pistol came out well including the safety which had a good tight fit. I learned from the first pistol and saw what was going on the second one before I cut the hammer hooks down, I just had to change my strategy a bit, I guess that's a part of the learning curve.

Thanks again,
Keystone