I asked an experienced bulls eye competitor and gunsmith to look at my long bbld slab sided Mark II era 22/45 last week end. I thought the trigger rolled a bit more than I wanted it to for bulls eye work. The good people at VQ had installed some of their parts and tweaked the gun for me in 2010 when I was a Steel Challenge shooter. The trigger is exceptional, as can be expected from Volquartsen, but its longer, rolling travel, perfect for speed shooting, presents a challenge now that I've morphed into a small time local bulls eye competitor. I wondered if it should be cleaned up a bit. (Because I only used the gun for speed shooting - couldn't imagine I'd ever attempt bulls eye - I didn't have Volquartsen install the VQ trigger, wanting to retain the basic long trigger for Steel Challenge shooting).
This guy said, no, don't mess with it. It will help in the development of my bulls eye work and it is a nice 2 1/4 pounds as is. At times, because I hesitate so much, it feels like it has about a 15 lb trigger at 50 yards - but that, I already knew, was my problem.
I asked this smith about some other problems with this gun. I'd been thinking maybe I'll have to give up on it entirely. I bought it in 2005 at a Salt Lake City gun show as a new gun. Wasn't looking for a Mark gun, though I knew I wanted it when I saw it. But, it seemed "shop worn"; the expression a friend who saw it used at the time. There was a smidgeon of pitted rust in the barrel that I can now no longer see. The top of the front sight wasn't quite squared. I've fired, maybe, 30,000 rounds through it in Steel Challenge practice, almost all of it Wally World bulk Fed Champion. At one point the bolt stop broke, which Ruger was kind enough to replace after some back and forth. Then the fire pin broke. Recently, the bolt doesn't want to stay back (after my dropping it over time using the bolt release instead of "sling shotting" as I should've been doing). I'm about to put in a new bolt release. Now, I'm noticing that the ejector moves slightly, which the one in my other Mk II 22/45 does not do. So, I asked this smith what can I expect from a gun that's developing problems like this?
His response was that it's still very much "a shooter". It's good for my early bulls eye work (been at it for about 4 or 5 months) and that the gun can be expected to last a long time. He was basing this on his experience with a handful of Ruger Mark guns that his local shooting business uses that have hundreds of thousands of rounds through them and still work. I didn't know that might be possible. It opens up the possibility, while carefully monitoring some of these problems, that I can use the gun for some bulls eye work, and, if .22 ammo prices ever become reasonable again, I have a perfect gun, thanks to the VQ combat trigger, to return to Steel Challenge practice and competition.
Does anyone else here have experience using Mark II, or III, guns so extensively that they wear out, or almost wear out?
This guy said, no, don't mess with it. It will help in the development of my bulls eye work and it is a nice 2 1/4 pounds as is. At times, because I hesitate so much, it feels like it has about a 15 lb trigger at 50 yards - but that, I already knew, was my problem.
I asked this smith about some other problems with this gun. I'd been thinking maybe I'll have to give up on it entirely. I bought it in 2005 at a Salt Lake City gun show as a new gun. Wasn't looking for a Mark gun, though I knew I wanted it when I saw it. But, it seemed "shop worn"; the expression a friend who saw it used at the time. There was a smidgeon of pitted rust in the barrel that I can now no longer see. The top of the front sight wasn't quite squared. I've fired, maybe, 30,000 rounds through it in Steel Challenge practice, almost all of it Wally World bulk Fed Champion. At one point the bolt stop broke, which Ruger was kind enough to replace after some back and forth. Then the fire pin broke. Recently, the bolt doesn't want to stay back (after my dropping it over time using the bolt release instead of "sling shotting" as I should've been doing). I'm about to put in a new bolt release. Now, I'm noticing that the ejector moves slightly, which the one in my other Mk II 22/45 does not do. So, I asked this smith what can I expect from a gun that's developing problems like this?
His response was that it's still very much "a shooter". It's good for my early bulls eye work (been at it for about 4 or 5 months) and that the gun can be expected to last a long time. He was basing this on his experience with a handful of Ruger Mark guns that his local shooting business uses that have hundreds of thousands of rounds through them and still work. I didn't know that might be possible. It opens up the possibility, while carefully monitoring some of these problems, that I can use the gun for some bulls eye work, and, if .22 ammo prices ever become reasonable again, I have a perfect gun, thanks to the VQ combat trigger, to return to Steel Challenge practice and competition.
Does anyone else here have experience using Mark II, or III, guns so extensively that they wear out, or almost wear out?
