Lesson Learned - Read the Manual - and a mini red dot

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djw54

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
377
Location
West Michigan
I took my MkIII 22/45 to a friend's gathering, shooting off the back deck, with some newbie shooters, so a .22 is just the ticket. Until, halfway through the second mag, the safety just does not want to disengage, sometimes. Fiddled with it and put it away until today.
I notice as I'm trying to sort it out, that if I roll the pistol from one side to the other, sometimes it'll disengage. I take a glance through the manual, and come across the page with the infernal (no typo) safety/lock. Hmmm, so that's what that hole next to the thumb safety is. Looking in my box, there's the keys, and sure enough, the lock was floating loose between lock and unlock. Put it firmly in the unlock position, and now safety will disengage every time.

Mounted the rail (without removing rear sight) and my new Vortex Viper mini red dot, and am ready for the next range trip. Viper will mount in the rearmost slot with the rear sight in place, but it doesn't sit flush on the rail because the rear sight is too tall; had to move it one slot forward, so it is directly over the ejection port.

That's it for today.
 

22/45 Fan

Hunter
Joined
Dec 8, 2001
Messages
2,123
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
djw54 said:
Mounted the rail (without removing rear sight) and my new Vortex Viper mini red dot, and am ready for the next range trip. Viper will mount in the rearmost slot with the rear sight in place, but it doesn't sit flush on the rail because the rear sight is too tall; had to move it one slot forward, so it is directly over the ejection port.
Votex says the Venom/Viper red dots won't mount on a Weaver rail but only on a Picatinny rail. I bought the Ruger aftermarket Picatinny rail for my MkIV (fits all the MkII and III guns also). It can be mounted two ways, forward of the rear sight with the sight left in place or turned 180º and mounted over the (removed) rear sight dovetail.
 

djw54

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
377
Location
West Michigan
22/45 Fan said:
djw54 said:
Mounted the rail (without removing rear sight) and my new Vortex Viper mini red dot, and am ready for the next range trip. Viper will mount in the rearmost slot with the rear sight in place, but it doesn't sit flush on the rail because the rear sight is too tall; had to move it one slot forward, so it is directly over the ejection port.
Vortex says the Venom/Viper red dots won't mount on a Weaver rail but only on a Picatinny rail. I bought the Ruger aftermarket Picatinny rail for my MkIV (fits all the MkII and III guns also). It can be mounted two ways, forward of the rear sight with the sight left in place or turned 180º and mounted over the (removed) rear sight dovetail.

Don't know what to tell you. I used what I believe to be the Ruger-supplied rail. I bought the gun used, but the rail has the Ruger logo. Now that you mention it, it should mount the other way around with the rear sight removed. As to rail types, frankly, I don't know what the difference is between Weaver and Picatinny.
 

coach

Hunter
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
3,767
Location
Jacksonville, Maryland
Here's an article from Brownell's about the rails. They are similar. http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=10724/guntechdetail/Picatinny_Rails__Weaver_Rails__What_s_The_Difference
 
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Messages
9,936
Location
missouri
"Now that you mention it, it should mount the other way around with the rear sight removed."

If I looked at it right, the factory "weaver type" rail will reverse BUT only 2 of the 3 screws will match. That's probably enough for most purposes(I'm not set up to drill a hole to match that 3rd screw hole). A "divot" will have to be drilled in the bottom of that rail to clear the top of the bolt retainer pin(not a high tech operation).
 
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