2245 Mk III Magazine Stuck in Pistol Backwards

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OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
Hi Guys. New guy here in serious need of some help. :oops:
I think I've got a new one for you. :roll:

After cleaning, I was needing to drop the hammer on my 2245 Mk III, so I went to insert the magazine to do so. The magazine bottom plate was off and magazine spring removed, and I inadvertently inserted the magazine body into the pistol backwards (front to back - the top of the mag is at the top of the grip). Oops! :oops:

That mag is stuck in the pistol and it will NOT come out! I suspect that the magazine's trigger window protuberance at the top of the mag is hooked on the top of the magzine disconnector or the disconnector assembly, but I can't tell.

The mag rattles around in there - it is loose enough to slip in and out about 1/4 inch by gravity, and the follower is freely sliding inside it.

At this point I can't tell whether the hammer is forward or not. I cannot disassemble the pistol since the mainspring housing will not rotate out of the grip. I can move the bolt forward and back, but that is about it. The bolt catch functions as it will hold the bolt back; the safety switch will move up and down; and the mag release button moves in ant normally.

I have tried pulling the mag out with pliers. I have slid a thin machinist's scale along each side of the mag, trying to squeeze it away from whatever it is hooked on. In desperation I even tried driving it out from the ejection port with a brass drift but succeeded only in folding one of the mag's feed lips in on itself a bit.

At one point I thought it might be the mag catch protuberance being hooked on the back pin of the Ruger Eagle insert in the grip, and was able to get the Eagle out, but that was not the case.

Any input is welcome.
I'm at the point of writing this thing off and buying another one.
HELP!!! :D
 

contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,138
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
I'd lock the bolt open & see if I couldn't figure out how to "release" it from the top if possible. Get a thinner & narrower piece of metal besides the machinist scale & try to slide it in between the normal front of the mag and the magwell.
 

raw6464

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
85
It sounds like you've got the hammer strut jammed. If you can pull the hammer spring back just a bit pull up on it as you tap the front of the barrel down on towels. Your going to be pulling up on the hammer spring as you whack the barrel down on the towels. You may have to tap with some force. The hammer spring should pop open. If it does remove it completely and then with a rubber mallet or plastic hammer whack the barrel off the frame. Then you should be able to get the mag out.
 

OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
With the proper lighting, magnification, and viewing angle I've been able to determine that the magazine disconnector is stuck right through the hole near the top of the mag.

Upon backward mag insertion, the disconnector must have rotated up enough to let the mag slide by, and then popped down right through the hole as it passed. Either that, or it poked through the hole in all my tugging, hammering, and finageling. Sheesh! :roll:

:idea: I suppose if it rotated up once, it will rotate up twice. I'll give it some more effort now that I know what the "hang up" is. They say that knowing what the problem is counts for 95% of the fix.

Is that magazine disconnector supposed to rotate up? What is its function? Does the back end of a (normally) inserted magazine push up the front end of it so that the back end will engage the sear to the trigger?
:?:
 

raw6464

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
85
IMHO I think you need to get the barrel off (my previous post). If you can move the bolt forward and backward as you posted, you should be able to get the mainspring bolt stop and barrel off and attack the problem from the top of the frame.
 

OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
That's my plan raw6464 - and thanks for the suggestion! :D
I just need to get some time to work on it again. Maybe tonight or tomorrow...

The plan is to close the bolt, and while pulling up on the partially-open mainspring housing, whang the muzzle against the floor repeatedly until the mainspring housing opens the rest of the way up.

It would sure be easier to deal with if the durn barrel/receiver were off, that's for sure.

By the way, I looked at it again last night for a few minutes and that magazine disconnector will NOT move up or down like I'd hoped.

Oh well. us working dogs got to get to work. Will check in tonight.
 

raw6464

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
85
OldSmoke":1d2zea03 said:
That's my plan raw6464 - and thanks for the suggestion! :D
The plan is to close the bolt, and while pulling up on the partially-open mainspring housing, whang the muzzle against the floor repeatedly until the mainspring housing opens the rest of the way up.

Yes, I had a somewhat similar situation (could not open the mainspring all the way) and the pull and whack worked.

The lesson I learned is once you open the mainspring a little and depending on how the gun is pointed the mainspring strut may fall out of the mainspring slot and then it jams the mainspring if you just try and push it back. Once you open the mainspring you should go thru the mainspring re-assemble drill.

The pull and whack should work for you, as the mainspring release should not be related to the jammed mag. Jam mag or not the mainspring stop bolt should release. The barrel should come off as it's just held by the mainspring stop bolt and the front lug and slot.

Good luck.


EDIT: After examining my gun it's pretty apparent the mag disconnector is stuck in the hole in the side of the mag... all your pulling on the mag will be to no avail. The good news is once the barrel if off you can pull the mag disconnector up and release it from the mag with a small screwdriver or a dental pick. If you can get the barrel off I'm sure you'll get the mag released from the disconnector.

If you can't get the barrel off the only other option I see is drive the hammer pivot pin out and drop the whole trigger mechanism including the mag disconnector... work intensive to re-assemble but should work without any damage to the gun.

Again good luck
 

OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
:D VICTORY AT LAST! :D

Ahhhhhhh!!! 8)

You're my hero raw6464!
Thanks for your suggestions and moral support!

Last night I tried the floor-beating approach while prying up on the back with a plastic rod. That succeeded in regaining the ability to close the mainspring assembly again, which I considered a welcome change. Futher floor-beating and prying up was for naught though.

Then I tried forcing the mainspring housing open by twisting a plier jambed underneath it and beating the muzzle a bit more. This reslted in some movement of the rear of the receiver lifting slightly (1/16") above the grip so apparently the hook portion of the mainspring housing had released from the receiver but not the grip. It was clear that it was NOT going to move any further (something jambing against the front of the hook portion?) and that trying to do so would probably resuult in a broken front grip lug.

At that point I got a drift punch and drove the hammer pin out. This resulted in much movement, but it was still limited by something so I drove out the trigger pin as well and the rest is history! :D

I now have the thing completely torn down, with all parts cleaned and secured in little plastic bags awaiting re-assembly. The back of the grip suffered a small amount of cosmetic damage to the knurling from prying with the pliers, and the receiver's ejection port got goobered slightly, but it's nothing a few minutes with a riffling file and a dab of cold blue won't fix.

It was surprising that the magazine disconnector was not damaged from all my pounding! In fact, the thing had actually cut through about 1/16" of the magazine above the notch it was stuck in. I would have thought it would have been quite goobered - but not!

What surprized me most was how tough and resilient the plastic grip material is. I would have thought it would have sustained all kinds of damage from the amount of abuse I heaped upon it, but other than the above cosmetic issue on the back of the grip, it's fine.

I still haven't figured out what had the mainspring housing jambed so tight, but I did notice that if the sear is allowed to flip over backward, it WILL limit that mainspring housing from unhooking from the receiver and grip.

LESSON LEARNED:
Do NOT disassemble magazines and 22/45's on the bench at the same time. Never EVER stick a magazine body into the well backwards. Sheesh!
:roll:

COST OF LESSON:
Cosmetic damaged to back of pistol grip.
Slight damaged to ejection port (easy to fix).
One magazine body ($25).
Three goobered screw drivers.
One broken plastic rod
One cut fingertip next to nail.
One small blood blister.
One heck of a lot of frustration. :evil:

Thanks again, raw6464. You saved me from buying a new pistol! :D
 

raw6464

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
85
OldSmoke":2rs3pyr2 said:
I still haven't figured out what had the mainspring housing jambed so tight, but I did notice that if the sear is allowed to flip over backward, it WILL limit that mainspring housing from unhooking from the receiver and grip.
Your welcome... all's well that ends well.

My theory on why you could not open the mainspring was because the gun was probably cocked, I say that because you could open and close the bolt so the hammer had to be in the cocked position. If the hammer was jammed in the uncocked position you would not be able to open the bolt. With the gun cocked, opening the mainspring is just about impossible. I thought about that and came here to warn you about it this morning but I see it's too late for that.

Just for my edification did you pull the trigger at any time to try and uncock the gun? Since the mag was jammed in the trigger mechanism it can't be said with any certainty the gun would uncock anyway. But in retrospect the gun being cocked may have been the only reason why you could not open the mainspring?

I'm not surprised the gun came out basically unscathed. Ruger built a strong gun... takes a lickin and keeps on tickin.
 

OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
Just for my edification did you pull the trigger at any time to try and uncock the gun?

Yes Sir. Many times - trying to get anything to happen; but with no correctly-inserted magazine, the hammer wouldn't fire via trigger pull. I even tried pushing up on the magazine disconnect, thinking perhaps that would let the hammer fall, but to push up on it required that the backwards magazine had to puxh up too, which put the top of the mag in the way so the bolt wouldn't close. Catch 22. (another bad pun)

Man! That is a nasty lock-up condition. I sure hope no one else pulls the same bonehead maneuver!
:oops: :roll: :oops:
 

raw6464

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 12, 2008
Messages
85
OldSmoke":1vtptu6k said:
Just for my edification did you pull the trigger at any time to try and uncock the gun?

Yes Sir. Many times - trying to get anything to happen; but with no correctly-inserted magazine, the hammer wouldn't fire via trigger pull. I even tried pushing up on the magazine disconnect, thinking perhaps that would let the hammer fall, but to push up on it required that the backwards magazine had to puxh up too, which put the top of the mag in the way so the bolt wouldn't close. Catch 22. (another bad pun)

Man! That is a nasty lock-up condition. I sure hope no one else pulls the same bonehead maneuver!
:oops: :roll: :oops:

Oldsmoke,
Don't be so critical on yourself... the bonehead road is overflowing with people with good intention... I been there a few times myself.

Ah yes, if the bolt wouldn't close the hammer can't drop. Then at the end of the day removing the hammer and trigger pins was really the only workable option you had. With the hammer cocked in your situation you had no chance of removing the mainspring bolt.

Well I'm glad you got it apart... if anybody else has this problem you have a PHD in how to fix it :D I agree this IS a nasty lockup.
 

OldSmoke

Bearcat
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
17
Just for the record, she's all deburred and shined, blueing touched up nicely, grip knurl filed in pretty well, Ruger eagle re-glued, and all parts cleaned and reassembled. Everything seems to be OK. Just need to take it out and see how the sights held their zero.

Case closed. Sighhhhhh......... :)
 

zenbiker

Bearcat
Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
45
I did it also. After about 90 minutes of trying almost every thing and ready to go to a gun smith, I was able to release the mag but slipping a dental pickup between the frame and the magazine on the offending side and release the disconnector .
By the way, this is the second time I did it and the first time I did go to my gun shop. :(
 

GunUnderground

Bearcat
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
1
Location
Prescott, AZ
OK Guys, I have heard of several of these backwards magazine in the Mark III's :idea: and I designed a tool that quickly slides between the mag and mag-wall to disconnect the magazine disconnect, releasing the backwards magazine. You can see the tool and a complete discussion about the mechanics here: www.mag-out.com . I hope this helps anyone that has this happen to them.
 

98_1LE

Single-Sixer
Joined
May 30, 2010
Messages
345
OP, may I suggest throwing the mag disconnect as far as you can, or burying it in your back yard? You can replace it with any number of aftermarket or OEM Ruger MkII hammer bushings, and life will be better.
 

wwb

Hunter
Joined
Nov 18, 2004
Messages
2,867
Location
wisconsin
98_1LE said:
OP, may I suggest throwing the mag disconnect as far as you can, or burying it in your back yard? You can replace it with any number of aftermarket or OEM Ruger MkII hammer bushings, and life will be better.

+1

May as well deal with the LCI at the same time. As I understand it, they do a fine job of accumulating crud, but removing it and fitting a filler eliminates the worst of it.

Glad your adventure worked out in the end.

Personally, there is no way I'd own a Mark III - the Mark II was the pinnacle of Ruger .22 autoloading pistol development, and the Mark III was a giant step backwards (except for the 1911-style mag release).
 

Dumb_Gun_Girl

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Messages
2
Location
United States
Quick fix and super easy

take a very thin very stiff piece of metal ( I used an old piece of tape measure) fold the metal strip around the round edge of the mag

slide the piece of metal up the mag (between the handle and mag)
when it hits the top push the mag as far up as it will go then slide the metal up as far as it will go

this should disengage the latch its caught on and you can slide both pieces out together.

takes 10 seconds to do and 12 hours to think of

now i keep the tape measure piece in the gun safe beside the gun :wink:
 

temptinghail

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 2, 2011
Messages
1
I too got the magazine stuck on my first attempt to field strip my ruger mk III.

after about 30 min of fussing and finagling i put the butter knife down and took a good look at the back of the gun. Note i had the mainspring housing and bolt out already.

If you look closely to the right, where the mainspring housing was (back side of grip). You see a silver latch looking thing. Its all the way to the right and can be pushed with a flat head. When i pushed this back far enough the mag released all on its own.

You do not have to take it to a gunsmith or buy a fancy tool, like the one that was on google when i looked up how to fix it.
 

GDSever

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 16, 2011
Messages
12
Despite incriminating myself here, I must enthusiastically concur with temptinghail's recommendation. Pushing the latch allowed my backwards magazine to shoot right out without further tinkering.

Love my Mark III!
 

kendog17

Bearcat
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Messages
1
Last month, my wife also put the magazine in the Mark III backwards (but it was not empty). Hard to beleive that you can put a loaded magazine in backwards, but she was not paying attention and did it. I bought one of those mag-out tools, but could not get it to work. I tried it again today, oiled up the mag-out with a decent amount of oil and the magazine came out. It worked good and the trick is make sure there is oil on it and that it is pushed up in the mag well as far as it will go. It was a little scary working with the loaded mag in the gun. I guess I will have to watch the wife everytime for a long time to feel safe with her loading it. She was just HUA that day.
 
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