Question - when you replaced the extractor which extractor plunger spring did you use? Was it the one in the package or the old one from the gun?
R,
Bullseye
MKII light hammer strikes
Moderators: Bullseye, Moderators
Yeah, that question was in my mind also. I don't remember but I am pretty sure it was the old spring since that was in the instructions. I guess I will order some new springs from Ruger to be sure. But then again, the pistol has worked for the last 2,500 rounds up till now.... And I will check the new MKIII to see if the barrel is held in the bolt with just extractor tension.... I suspect it shouldn't.
The bolt is not held against the breech face by extractor tension. It has nothing to do with the bolt or bolt positioning. The extractor will not even be contacting the case when the cartridge is fully chambered. The extractor will be pushed away from the case rim when engaged in the extractor groove of the barrel. When the cartridge fires, the inertia blow back will force the case and bolt rearwards. The extractor claw will grab the case rim only when it is away from the barrel's extractor groove, not before. The extractor does not pull the empty case out of the chamber, rather it holds the case fast to the bolt face after the bolt has been forced rearwards under recoil. What keeps the bolt forward against the chamber face is the recoil spring assembly. That assembly has all the tension to extract a new round out of the magazine and then seat it fully into the chamber.
If your extractor spring is too strong, or you have the 10/22 one installed then the extractor will have enough force to prevent the bolt from closing fully. The spring tension will override the recoil spring assembly's tension and hold the bolt slightly open. This is from the extractor forcing the bolt slightly open in the barrel's extractor groove. An unseated bolt could cause the exact symptoms you're experiencing.
I realize that your pistol did work before but something has changed. I'm not sure what it is yet but there was something that happened just prior to the failures. Now all we have to do is figure out what that something was and undo it.
R,
Bullseye
If your extractor spring is too strong, or you have the 10/22 one installed then the extractor will have enough force to prevent the bolt from closing fully. The spring tension will override the recoil spring assembly's tension and hold the bolt slightly open. This is from the extractor forcing the bolt slightly open in the barrel's extractor groove. An unseated bolt could cause the exact symptoms you're experiencing.
I realize that your pistol did work before but something has changed. I'm not sure what it is yet but there was something that happened just prior to the failures. Now all we have to do is figure out what that something was and undo it.
R,
Bullseye
Also check the upper corner of your receiver's breech area. If any lead build-up has found its way into the seam where the barrel and receiver meet then that could also prevent the bolt from closing fully. Any lead build-up would also get covered up by powder residue and therefore be difficult to detect.
Just a thought.
R,
Bullseye
Just a thought.
R,
Bullseye
Update
Well, I fianlly received the ejector springs from Ruger and installed one behind a new exact edge extractor. I figured I would change both since I had it apart anyway.
Now to go back a little ways in time. When I ordered the springs and a few extra MKII hammer bushings the gentleman at Ruger asked me if I had checked the recoil spring assembly. I assured him I had and it was good. So I didn't order one.
I found a new recoil assembly I guess I had ordered for this pistol but never installed cause I never saw the need. So I put the old one and the new one side by side. The old one seemed a tiny bit shorter so I also installed the new recoil spring assembly. After reassembling the pistol and dry firing it, everything seems to be working fine.
I think the recoil assembly is one of the first things Bullseye asked me about way back in the beginning of this thread...
Anyway, I am going to try to get ot the range tomorrow to see what happens.
Now to go back a little ways in time. When I ordered the springs and a few extra MKII hammer bushings the gentleman at Ruger asked me if I had checked the recoil spring assembly. I assured him I had and it was good. So I didn't order one.
I found a new recoil assembly I guess I had ordered for this pistol but never installed cause I never saw the need. So I put the old one and the new one side by side. The old one seemed a tiny bit shorter so I also installed the new recoil spring assembly. After reassembling the pistol and dry firing it, everything seems to be working fine.
I think the recoil assembly is one of the first things Bullseye asked me about way back in the beginning of this thread...
Anyway, I am going to try to get ot the range tomorrow to see what happens.
sounds stupid but had similar trouble for different reason.
Try cleaning the chamber with a nylon bore brush bent into a 90 degree angle. Clean the chamber out every magazine or two. Clean the face of the chamber off with a tooth brush at the same time. See if this clears up the problem.
This worked for me until I finally bought a new hammer spring.
This worked for me until I finally bought a new hammer spring.
Hammer Spring
Brownells sells the whole main spring houseing assembly already assembled for like 27 dollars....
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ ... 7658#27658
............. Well worth the money I thought.
I have changed just the spring once when I bought a wolff spring kit but it is a bit like trying to get a angry cat into a bread bag.... lot of noise , a bit of blood and and in the end a pointless. It turned out the reduced power spring did not have enough power to make for postive ignition. I had to make some fixtures out of wood and borrow some clamps to get it all together. When I decided to go back to the standard spring I bought the whole assembly already together.
In the end the gun is dead reliable. I have not had a failure to fire in 500 rounds. Here is what I did although not everything would have been needed but I tried a lot of things. So here is where my gun stands and why I did each thing.
*** Polish Firing pin. Start with 600 grit paper on a sheet of glass work up to 1500 grit then finish with mothers mag polish don't stop until the firing pin looks like chrome on all flat surfaces and edges****** Thought the redused friction would give the firing pin enough extra energy to impove ignition*****
****Polish bolt exterior with 600 grit - 1500 grit finish with mother polish. Bolt should look like chrome when done. I clamped it to the bench and polished it like I was polishing a shoe******* Thought the reduced friction of the bolt would increase the force of the bolt closing there fore makeing the primer rim flat against the chamber face for improved ignition********
****Polish stricking face of hammer same process as fireing pin. ******* I thought that this would increase the speed that the bolt closes with since it rubbs the underside of the bolt when the bolt cycles. For the same reason as polishing the bolt*******
****Polish the Hammer Pin, Hammer pin Bushing all sides, Sides of Hammer using same method as with firing pin except round parts i used a drill to turn the parts while I sanded and polished****** I thought the reduced friction would make the hammer fall with more force there fore making improved ignition.********
*****Polish sides of extractor and Extractor plunger using same process as above.**** I thought this might make the bolt close tighter? I was getting desperate*********
****Replace Hammer spring with factory mainspring assembly**** Increased spring pressure forces hammer to move with more force there for improving ignition********
As it turns out while I was tearing the gun appart every couple of days anyway I polished the other pins, sides of links, trigger spring plunger, sear face, and almost everything else inside the gun. I have to say although it was a lot of work and took some trial and error in a few places. The Vo trigger has two stage pull. The first stage or takeup is about 1 lbs. The break has just a bit of creap but is very smooth and takes an addional 1.25 lbs to break. For a total of 2.25lbs. In the last 500 rounds there has not been a single miss fire or jam of any type. The only cleaning it has gotten in the 500 rounds was cleaning the chamber and breach face after each shooting session. I detail stripped it last night. Everthing still looks good and the action fucntions very smoothly. There was less dirt in the action than I though there would be after 500 rounds without cleaning.
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ ... 7658#27658
............. Well worth the money I thought.
I have changed just the spring once when I bought a wolff spring kit but it is a bit like trying to get a angry cat into a bread bag.... lot of noise , a bit of blood and and in the end a pointless. It turned out the reduced power spring did not have enough power to make for postive ignition. I had to make some fixtures out of wood and borrow some clamps to get it all together. When I decided to go back to the standard spring I bought the whole assembly already together.
In the end the gun is dead reliable. I have not had a failure to fire in 500 rounds. Here is what I did although not everything would have been needed but I tried a lot of things. So here is where my gun stands and why I did each thing.
*** Polish Firing pin. Start with 600 grit paper on a sheet of glass work up to 1500 grit then finish with mothers mag polish don't stop until the firing pin looks like chrome on all flat surfaces and edges****** Thought the redused friction would give the firing pin enough extra energy to impove ignition*****
****Polish bolt exterior with 600 grit - 1500 grit finish with mother polish. Bolt should look like chrome when done. I clamped it to the bench and polished it like I was polishing a shoe******* Thought the reduced friction of the bolt would increase the force of the bolt closing there fore makeing the primer rim flat against the chamber face for improved ignition********
****Polish stricking face of hammer same process as fireing pin. ******* I thought that this would increase the speed that the bolt closes with since it rubbs the underside of the bolt when the bolt cycles. For the same reason as polishing the bolt*******
****Polish the Hammer Pin, Hammer pin Bushing all sides, Sides of Hammer using same method as with firing pin except round parts i used a drill to turn the parts while I sanded and polished****** I thought the reduced friction would make the hammer fall with more force there fore making improved ignition.********
*****Polish sides of extractor and Extractor plunger using same process as above.**** I thought this might make the bolt close tighter? I was getting desperate*********
****Replace Hammer spring with factory mainspring assembly**** Increased spring pressure forces hammer to move with more force there for improving ignition********
As it turns out while I was tearing the gun appart every couple of days anyway I polished the other pins, sides of links, trigger spring plunger, sear face, and almost everything else inside the gun. I have to say although it was a lot of work and took some trial and error in a few places. The Vo trigger has two stage pull. The first stage or takeup is about 1 lbs. The break has just a bit of creap but is very smooth and takes an addional 1.25 lbs to break. For a total of 2.25lbs. In the last 500 rounds there has not been a single miss fire or jam of any type. The only cleaning it has gotten in the 500 rounds was cleaning the chamber and breach face after each shooting session. I detail stripped it last night. Everthing still looks good and the action fucntions very smoothly. There was less dirt in the action than I though there would be after 500 rounds without cleaning.
YOU AIN'T GONNA BELIEVE THIS...
mes44317 wrote:Try cleaning the chamber with a nylon bore brush bent into a 90 degree angle. Clean the chamber out every magazine or two. Clean the face of the chamber off with a tooth brush at the same time.
I finally took this to my smith (life got in the way over the last four months or so...).
He asked me if the chamber was clean. "Sure", I said, "don't you see how the bolt and everything shines? I polished it for crying out loud!" So he says "Yeah, looks nice, but is the chamber clean"? Then it hits me ~ I never cleaned the chamber with a bore brush LARGER than .22 caliber. Sure enough there was a ring of lead and lube packed around the forward end of the chamber that he cleaned out with his .25 caliber brush. The .22 bullets wouldn't drop all the way in until he cleaned it out and now they are dropping right in. He also polished down the topside of the half-moon in the recoil spring assembly so it would ride even smoother.
He explained it something like this. When lead and lube from the .22 bullets build up around the throat of the chamber the bullet can no longer seat as far into the chamber as it is supposed to so the bolt doesn't close fully. It only stays open a 'skosh'! Now, the bolt will close far enough to let you fire the gun, but he hammer has to drive the bullet into the chamber the rest of the way and consequently doesn't have enough energy left to propel the firing pin hard enough to ignite the powder in the bullet ~ hence, light firing pin strikes!
I haven't tried it at the range as of yet but I hope to get there tomorrow and I will let everyone know what happens. I think this is going to work.
Is this saga finally coming to a close? All it really needed was a chamber cleaning?!?!?!
So thanks to all who helped me with this intriguing problem!!!