Clean after every 1000 or so rounds, lightly oil and replace extractor as factory ones can wear out after a few thousand rounds and its only a few bucks to do so. Do this and your gun should chug along just fine. There is a reason it is the #1 selling .22LR pistol out there by about 25x more then any other.
Ruger Mk lll, jamming
- Thread starter RoscoeP
- Start date
My stainless steel Mark III had this same problem. Would constantly jam (stovepipe) and no amount of cleaning, oiling, magazine fixing or swapping with friends, extractor changing, or ammo made a difference. I would get 2 or 3 jams per magazine. Taking out the LCI made no difference either. Second time I sent it back to the warranty company with a video of the problem they order a new barrel/receiver for the pistol. The pistol now runs flawlessly. Not one jam since getting it back last June. I am still under the impression that something in the original barrel/receiver was just not up to spec. Sometimes lemons make it past quality control.
Ruger pistols are very reliable and will work well with just about any sort of .22LR ammo. So I suggest that there is something wrong with your gun. It may simply need a really good cleaning and CORRECTLY lubricate the slide. When you manually cycle the slide it should have a nice smooth feel to it and when you pull the bolt back and simply let it go the bolt should snap forward sharply. If it feels in any way like something is sticky or dragging then you have an issue of some sort.
When it does shoot and cycle correctly do the spent casings fly out a good 3 or so feet away or do they barely dribble out over the back of your hand? If they fly out well to the side and only the odd one is left stuck in the chamber it indicates that the extractor is either dulled off due to damage or it may not be getting a good hold on the casing rims due to being gunked up. On the other hand if the casings are ejecting weakly it indicates that the bolt has some drag on it that is slowing it down. This can be due to fouling or simply running too dry or using the wrong lubricant so it's dragging too much.
You also didn't mention if the gun is new or used. That would also help us
A good start would be to clean the bolt assembly with particular attention given to removing and cleaning under the extractor. Here's a good looking video that runs you through a detailed strip down of the bolt assembly;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQLrSG3MM_U
When you get it all back together use a light bodied gun oil on it and give the whole thing a LIGHT coating. You don't want the bolt to be dripping wet with oil. Then, every few hundred rounds shot, lay a little oil onto the bolt by applying it through the ejection port onto the side of the bolt then lock it back and apply a small bead of oil around the joint between the bolt and receiver body. That'll keep it running for a good 300 to 500 more shots. Then re-oil again. I generally can get a good 1000 to 1200 rounds through my .22 pistols, my Ruger included, before the insides get so grungy that I strip the gun and clean out the action. The bolt is still good during all this. It's mostly the sandy sort of feel in the trigger from all the powder fouling that makes me do the cleaning.
When the extractor is out and you're cleaning it and the channel out (a pipe cleaner works great for cleaing out small deep holes such as the extractor spring channel and hole) check the hook to ensure that it's sharp and has a nice clean 90 degree hook to it.
Inside the receiver there should also be a finger of metal that sticks up which gets in the way if you're trying to stick a cleaning tool down into the body of the gun. That is the ejector finger. Comparing it to the bolt assembly you'll see that there is a channel cut into the bolt where this finger runs and that it sticks up far enough that it can hit the edge of a casing that the bolt pulls out. If this ejector is bent it'll cause a drag on the bolt which can slow it down and prevent the casings ejecting correctly by not allowing the bolt to cycle fully. When all is well you should be able to slide the bolt assembly into the upper receiver and when you rock the gun back and forth about 20 degrees the bolt should slide just from gravity. If there is any drag in how it fits and moves than it must be corrected.
