1963 MKI Target bargain shooter**At the range!**

[Heliman]

Just after the first of the year, I was looking at handgun ads on a local website. I saw an ad for a 1963 vintage Mark I Target .22 pistol and the guy was only asking $200 for it. After some haggling I finally picked it up for $150.

This pistol is not a collector by any means. I cleaned it the best I could without a total teardown. After disassembling and cleaning the magazine, I loaded the mag and tried to cycle live ammo through the gun. Bad news is that there was damage to the lip of the chamber and a cartridge would not feed. This damage was undoubtedly from dry firing. Anyway, I gently deburred the damage and got the pistol to cycle consistently. Next stop, off to the range to see how it does with live fire. She aint very purty, but hopefully will be a fun plinker!








Dave

 

[06dilly]

I love guns with a story to tell and that looks to have many stories in it's past. Great find on what I'm sure will be a fun shooter. Nice one and thanks for sharing, Dave!

TomD

 

[rugnelli]

Dave,

Great acquisition! I would buy them all day like that. Looks to be just getting broken in and a lot of life left in it.

Congrats,

jeff

 

[Snake45]

Great project, and I LOVE projects! Knock the rust off it, hit it with some good cold blue, and then go shoot the snot out of it! Good find!

 

[Fox Mike]

Great buy and even better price. I started competitive shooting with a MK I. Loved that pistol. Some years ago we had a break-in and it was stolen. I have a few others but that particular one was my favorite.

 

[rugerguy]

very nice example of an early Mark I with the Micro rear sight, as nooted above simply clean off with rust-oil and some brass or braonze wool and touch up with cold blue....as for the chamber burr, make sure the 'firing pin stop pin is still in the bolt and not missing or broke,,,,,and the tip of the pin is not damaged from hitting the chamber rim....all in all a very nice gun, and a even better "deal" good for you. 8) :roll: :wink:

 

[Heliman]

Thanks for the encouraging comments fellas! Yes, my intentions are to shoot it, then do a disassembly and inspection of components. I will address the bluing issues then reassemble and do some plinking!

 

[SGW Gunsmith]

As a side note: You can use Ruger Mark II magazines in your pistol just as well. All you need to do is to move the follower button over to the right side of the magazine for your A54 grip frame pistol. Then, you will have much better working magazines that hold one more round, so you'll then have a 10-shooter instead of only nine.
It's impossible to find any of the original springs for the early magazines anyway, just in case the one you have has, or will, become weak.
Good to read that your pistol is functioning well, and will be even better with new magazines.

 

[rugnelli]

I keep coming back to this thread just to look over the pictures. Great pistol!

 

[wvjoetc]

Heliman,
I have one made in 1962, it is a real shooter. As others have said clean her up and shoot it, you won't be sorry.

 

[Heliman]

I took this pistol to the range today. Between WAYNO and I we shot about 70-80 rounds. I had one failure to feed, but otherwise it performed flawlessly and was very accurate.
When I first purchase this pistol, it had one well worn magazine which I disassembled and cleaned. I purchased a MKII magazine and had to reverse the "button" and had to "massage" it to make it easy to install and remove. Thursday, I made a trip to another shop which I remembered had a couple of containers with miscellaneous pistol mags. Low and behold I found an old school Standard Auto mag in nice shape. Bought it for $15. All mags functioned great! This will be a neat plinker for a long time to come! I am happy!

Dave :wink:

 

[woodsy]

You may consider it a "plinker", but a similar one (a little newer) got me a NRA-sanctioned "Distinguished Expert" award, competing in well-organized pistol matches. It now has north of 50,000 rounds through it, and still shoots very well.