Mark III 22/45 Trigger Reset issue

[MaterDei]

Hi,

I have a Mark III 22/45 that was acting up at the range today and is still acting up after a thorough cleaning.

The problem is consistent with all of my mags and even without a mag inserted (more on that later).

I have made no modifications to the pistol and have never detail stripped it. Removing the barrel from the frame for a thorough cleaning is as far as I have gone. It only has about 500 rounds through it so it is basically in like new condition. Now, on to the details.

With an empty magazine inserted the pistol cocks normally. I either release the bolt with the bolt release or hold down the bolt release while cocking it and release the bolt from its most rearward position. I am not easing the bolt into battery.

With the mag still in the gun, of course, the first time I pull the trigger it moves all the way to the rear until it physically can't move back any further. During the course of the pull there is no resistance whatsoever. I release the trigger and on the second pull it performs as it should, engages the sear and drops the hammer, click. The problem is not intermittent, it behaves the same way every time I recock the pistol.

I do not believe this is a mag disconnect issue and here is why. With no mag in the gun on the first pull of the trigger it does the exact same thing. Then, on the second pull, the trigger only moves partially to the rear and stops. The mag disconnect is doing its job on the second pull.

At the range I was having the same problem but only on the first round of the magazine. Something about the more violent nature of the recoil seems to overcome the issue and the rest of the mag shoots fine.

So any thoughts to what the problem might be? I offer a great prize to whomever helps me the most. I will trade my like new Mark III with extra safety features for one of your old obsolete and clearly unsafe Mark I or II pistols. Even swap! Yes, I am that nice of a guy.

 

[Bullseye57]

Sounds as if your disconnector lever, not the magazine disconnector feature, is not resetting on the sear. This could be caused by a couple of things. One your trigger is not quite traveling far enough forward to reset the disconnector on the sear. Try this before attempting to squeeze the trigger - push the trigger with a finger forward as far as it can go, then try pulling the trigger to the rear and see if the pistol's hammer drops. If it does, then your trigger is not rotating far enough forward to engage the disconnector. The next question is why? If that doesn't cause the trigger to drop without having to pull the trigger rearward once first, then you may have to remove the barrel and inspect the plunger in the top of the trigger for powder residue or stickiness. This is an area that gets quite a bit of powder fouling during normal operation and dirt of grit here can impede the trigger return plunger from performing its duty of applying tension onto the disconnector lever and returning the trigger fully forward. I would also consider detail stripping the pistol and cleaning thoroughly behind the disconnector lever as sometimes residue finds its way in behind it and then mixes with some of the shipping preservative that Ruger applies and gums up the action of resetting the trigger. Any extra friction here can cause a hang-up like you've described and generally most folks don't ever clean behind this lever to remove the old shipping preservative oil. Since you have said that you didn't install any aftermarket parts then what usually causes this type of failure, a misadjusted pretravel screw found on an aftermarket trigger cannot be causing this problem. When checking the plunger on top of the trigger also inspect the little pin that goes from the trigger to the disconnector lever to ensure it has not loosened from the lever assembly. If the pin is loose or bent, you may need to replace the disconnector lever with one available from an aftermarket source like Volquartsen.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

 

[MaterDei]

This helps a lot, bullseye. Many thanks.

The trigger travel forward and aft are identical on the first, non-firing pull, and the second pull. Also, I can hear and feel the trigger reset well in advance of the trigger being fully released and forward.

That leads me to the detail strip. Yippee! Time to do some googlefu and find the detail strip instructions.

 

[MaterDei]

I completed the detail strip. I did find some burring on the disconnector but it was not where I thought would cause any issues. Nevertheless, I smoothed it up.

Now that my gun is reassembled the problem is intermittent. In the process of detail stripping it I did learn exactly how all the components work. The disconnect is not being lifted enough to engage the sear. My next step will be to disassemble the trigger group and stretch the plunger spring so that it exerts more upward force on the disconnector. Of course, this will negatively impact the trigger pull, but what else is there to do? My love for my Buckmark is growing...


Any problems with this approach?

 

[djw54]

I completed the detail strip. I did find some burring on the disconnector but it was not where I thought would cause any issues. Nevertheless, I smoothed it up.

Now that my gun is reassembled the problem is intermittent. In the process of detail stripping it I did learn exactly how all the components work. The disconnect is not being lifted enough to engage the sear. My next step will be to disassemble the trigger group and stretch the plunger spring so that it exerts more upward force on the disconnector. Of course, this will negatively impact the trigger pull, but what else is there to do? My love for my Buckmark is growing...


Any problems with this approach?

I know we like figuring things out ourselves, but have you considered having Ruger fix it?

 

[MaterDei]

I wanted to give you all an update and thank you all for your helpful advice. The gun is functioning fine now.

I detail stripped the frame. I didn't find any problems at all that shouted to me "there's your problem". I did a good cleaning and did a little bit of polishing on the disconnector and the trigger plunger. While I was at it, although I don't think it contributed to the problem, I replaced all the mag disconnect crud with a Volquartsen Mark II bushing.

I stretched the trigger plunger spring just a tad as well. I didn't measure my trigger pull weight before the work but it is currently at 4 lbs 4 oz which is just fine by me.