Ruger Mk III woes

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jsullivan

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I took my girlfriend up the range today, and since the last time we went together I have bought a Ruger Mk III. I've only shot it once myself, but she had a lot of trouble with the larger calibres and I thought it would be good for her.

Anyway I found there was at least one fail-to-fire in each mag. After clearing the jam, I would compare a spent casing to the fail to fire. To the eye, it appeared they both had the same amount of impact on the rim. We were using American Eagle 40gr which was recommended by the gun store guys.

Has anybody found ammo that this type of gun "digests" a bit better? Or could it be more of a break in issue? Her grip appeared OK, though she did get a couple stovepipes as well and I think weak grip can sometimes cause that.
 
Some ammo is better than others. Seems like you had a few "duds", something that is common among rimfire ammo, sometimes frustratingly so. I recently went through a bulk pack of federal, which wasn't the cheapest stuff around, that almost gave me a freak'n stroke, I'm talking a few duds per mag. I tried the duds in other guns, tried the ammo with different guns and mags with similar results. (I complained to federal, they sent me $15USD!)

Try some different ammo! :D

I have had good results with winchester "dynapoints" from walmart.
 
After trying many types of ammo, I find that my Mark III will experience some FTF (fail to feed) with flat points (Winchester Xpert 36g). The best is Winchester Dynapoint 40 g. The feed ramp seemed to have rough edges, so I removed the burr. Last session was 500 rounds, not a dingle FTF. Never had a dud though. Try a thorough clean & lube. After 1000 rounds or so it should be broken in.
 
While it's still fairly new, it's a good idea to run strictly high velocity ammo through her to break it in. Standard velocity might not have enough pop while it is still new and tight. I know my 22/45 wouldn't work well at all with standard velocity ammo when I first bought it. But after 1000-1500 rounds of CCI Blazer it will run on all the standard and subsonic ammo now......
 
jsullivan said:
I've only shot it once myself, but she had a lot of trouble with the larger calibres and I thought it would be good for her.
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Was it new or did you buy it second hand? I am just curious if it has been properly stripped and cleaned, or if it was shot before and not cleaned.

Granted, you can shoot quite allot of 22 through a MKIII before you need to clean it, but it sounds like a minor extractor problem. Perhaps it's sticking..
 
jsullivan said:
Anyway I found there was at least one fail-to-fire in each mag. .....To the eye, it appeared they both had the same amount of impact on the rim. ...American Eagle 40gr which was recommended by the gun store guys.

Has anybody found ammo that this type of gun "digests" a bit better? Or could it be more of a break in issue? Her grip appeared OK, though she did get a couple stovepipes as well and I think weak grip can sometimes cause that.
Click to expand...

I disagree this is an extractor issue:confused: Anyways, I assume we are talking about a brand new mkiii? The fail to fires are probably due to some crappy .22lr. AE40 has never been a problem for us here, the only other reason I can see is a soft strike, which you seem not to observe. Step one would be have someone else try your ammo out in their firearms and see if its merely an issue of poor priming. Eliminate one thing at a time and narrow the prob down.
Digests? A Ruger should eat ANYTHING you feed it. The only problems I've ever seen in one of them was with some REALLY old 'crudded up' 22lr. Regular 40grainers with a round nose should not give you any problems. I do not believe 'break in' should really be an issue with a ruger either. What size, model is the pistol? If it is anything but the very light models I really don't believe limp wristing or a weak grip is to blame. You should be able to hold a Ruger pistol light as angel feathers and still have it run just fine. At least thats my experience running some of the heavier models. Deathgrip need not apply.... Make sure the gun is cleaned of any 'factory goo' which can be sticky/binding the bolt setup including firing pin and could account for both ftfeeds and ftfire. Strip the gun down and do a good cleaning/oiling. Oil that bolt up good... and don't forget to put the retaining pin back in and make sure it stays in during assembly. Check that your firing pin spring getup is in the right way too or it will eventually break and bind up giving you ftfire situations. I've seen that done though the gun will actually still perform fairly well ... Worth checking into.
If the issues persist 1) have some others shoot it with different ammo and if still a prob 2) take it back... there is absolutely NO reason for a new Ruger to malfunction. Don't believe the break-in hype for a firearm like this (guaranteed the store guys will point to b-i)
Let us know your findings.
 
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If you were getting FTF's, it likely wasn't the grip. I've had a few FTE's with my MK3 22/45 since I bought it, but that was only in the first few mags. Since then, (~1500rds) things are working smoothly.

I only shoot the copper washed stuff, be it Win Dynapoints or Power Points and haven't had any real problems. I did test out a couple of other ammo brands (AE 38gr HP, Federal 38gr HP, CCI Stingers, CCI Velocitor$) and had no problems there.

I'd say you got a crappy batch of ammo. My Ruger has been great and I hope you find yours is too!
 
Yes it was brand new from the store, but hasn't seen much use. I think a thorough strip and clean will be my first step, followed by trying some of the different recommended ammunition.

At any rate, there's plenty worse things to have to do than "test" a bunch of ammo on a lazy Sunday.

It's my first rimfire, so one nice surprise is how easy it has been, both on recoil and the wallet!
 
Have you tried rechambering the failed rounds and firing them? I've had some .22lr ammo with good primer strikes that failed to go 'bang'. I rechambered them and they shot fine. My Ruger MkII slabside had a few fail to fires and fail to feed/extract in the first 500 rounds but it has seen over 5000 trouble free rounds since. I think your issues are just 'breaking in' ones. I'm almost willing to put money on it that they'll clear up after another few hundred rounds. :cheers: BTW, AE 38g HP is my prefered ammo for my MkII.
 
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