Ruger Wouldn't Do It

I got a call from a fella a couple of weeks ago with a request to modify a Ruger Mark III 22/45. This pistol is the variation that only came with a top, receiver rail and bottom accessory rail, and with the threaded muzzle end. His request to Ruger was, "He wanted to have Ruger adjustable rear sight installed and the muzzle end drilled and tapped for the Ruger front sight." Here's what happened here:

AS RECEIVED FROM THE CUSTOMER

AFTER MILLING THE DOVETAIL, DRILL & TAP

SIGHTS INSTALLED

Ruger will not modify a firearm from the configuration in which it left the factory - hence no shorter/longer barrels, different grip frames, or adding sights. Looks like very nice work!

Nice job, and typical of the way things can and will work out, if they ( the customer) wants optics ONLY< the holes ( three for the base is fine), then of course folk want the front and rear, and later on they will still get the receiver drilled and tapped and of course being that is four holes needed AND the dovetail to fit all the needs, I feel the receivers should ALL come that way,BUT those operations each "cost" more , takes time and time is money and the factory ( bean counters) want to cut any and every corner/cost................
at least with the three holes there ,makes our job of "setting up" to drill the front and mill the dovetail that much simpler......ta daa 8) :roll:

oh thats right , I'M RETIRED now........... :wink:

whew........................did I say "nice job"??? :mrgreen:

I agree with what you've surmised wholeheartedly. My experience with Ruger Mark pistols goes back to 1969, so I know full well what they won't do to modify any already sold pistols, especially a Ruger Mark III design, which they now consider to be an obsolete version. They no longer even stock some of the parts for those versions.

It did quite surprise me that Ruger will now take in earlier Ruger Mark I and II pistols for drilling & tapping for an optics base. Even though they farm that work out to a local 'smith. I do recall a member on some forum who sent his Ruger KMK10 in to get it drilled and tapped. Whoever did the work drilled through and right into the chamber. That made the guy quite livid and their only response involved him picking out whatever Ruger Mark III version he chose for a replacement. I suggested that they ( Ruger ) should send the complete pistol to Clark Custom or Volquartsen for the installation of a new 10" barrel. Obviously, that didn't happen.

Another issue involves some of the Ruger Mark II stainless steel pistols that have two-piece bolts. Their customer service manager admits that they get between 3 to 5 Mark II, two-piece bolts back every year for replacement. Trouble is, they have no Mark II bolts left in inventory, so they were sending a Ruger Mark III bolt with smaller diameter bolt ears as replacements. Now that they're out of Ruger Mark III bolts, most likely they'll send Mark IV bolts if anymore bolts separate.
I done a preventive fix on well over 40 of the Mark II bolts and so far, none of those have separated, but don't ever send a two-piece bolt back to Ruger, EVER. They will automatically replace it, so I recommend that if an owner ever needs to send a Ruger Mark II stainless steel pistol back to Ruger, for any reason, don't send the bolt.
I have seen the two-piece bolt on stainless steel KMK 10, KMK 512 and the KMK 6 7/8 Heavy Taper Target pistols, and those also are found with the solid, one-piece mainspring housing assembly body.

funny you should say about them drilling through , into the chamber....I too have been doing the 22 semi auto since the late 1960s, and the early 70s our shop was ":warranty repair" station for High Standard after they moved from Hambden to East Hartford, they hired all NEW workers and the High Standards used to be drill and tapped on the bottom of their barrels for the barrel weights, and guess what, the "new" hires drilled through , into the bores of some of their guns, and they got shipped out...wow they could not operate and set up a simple drill press operation........oh well 8) :roll:

yes, they have got to be running out of bolts, for those MK II and III guns, I recall them swapping out the early two piece bolts of the Korean War vintage semi autos,come apart while firing !!!! two pieces pressed together is just that "pressed together"......hmmm

Again, nice job and have heard some good things about you guys, me I'm enjoying retirement.. :wink:

rugerguy said:

funny you should say about them drilling through , into the chamber....I too have been doing the 22 semi auto since the late 1960s, and the early 70s our shop was ":warranty repair" station for High Standard after they moved from Hambden to East Hartford, they hired all NEW workers and the High Standards used to be drill and tapped on the bottom of their barrels for the barrel weights, and guess what, the "new" hires drilled through , into the bores of some of their guns, and they got shipped out...wow they could not operate and set up a simple drill press operation........oh well 8) :roll:

yes, they have got to be running out of bolts, for those MK II and III guns, I recall them swapping out the early two piece bolts of the Korean War vintage semi autos,come apart while firing !!!! two pieces pressed together is just that "pressed together"......hmmm

Again, nice job and have heard some good things about you guys, me I'm enjoying retirement.. :wink:

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You know Dan, I sure would've liked to try and fix that drill through hole. What I think might have worked would've been to put the receiver/barrel assembly in the oven at 400 degrees for an afternoon and at the same time freeze a #31 piece of drill rod. Then, do a shrink fit as both parts normalize. After that, recut the chamber and see if the plug comes shooting out the top of the receiver and hits the DIRECT TV satellite, or stays put. Would've been neat to try that for a remedy.

Back when Dirty Harry was shown, and getting a s&w m29 revolvers chances were slim to none unless we paid the black market price. I wrote ruger and colt letters on making a revolver in 44 mag. Colt responded no way. Ruger said it's in there plans.
I own two ruger RedHawks in 44 mag.