MK I having some FTF--UPDATED 6/29

[Teddydogno1]

I took my "new-to-me" MK I to the range for the first time and experienced about 1 in 10 or 15 failures to fire. I first thought it was an ammo problem (was using up some older ammo), but it continued when I switched to fresh ammo (though still bulk). Further, the failed rounds showed little or no sign of a firing pin strike and did fire on 2nd attempts.

I confess to not having done a detail strip and clean since buying it used about 4 months ago, but it had a clean bore and was not gunked up. I've never owned a Ruger .22 pistol before, but my college gun club and pistol team (I shot NRA Standard Pistol for two years and was something like #37 in the nation one year) had MK II Government Models and I sure cleaned and disassembled a bunch of those! Never had to troubleshoot a problem like this before,

Any thought to help me with this? Thanks.

Rob

 

[Mobuck]

I only clean my Ruger 22 pistols when they tell me they need it and FTF is at the top of their vocabulary.

 

[Teddydogno1]

Clean it.

Of course. But are there any other type of "known issues" that can cause this?

I just cleaned it and it did not seem particularly dirty or crusty. About what I would expect from the amount of shooting we did on Thursday. The firing pin slid freely even before cleaning, the chamber face was free of crud and only a minimum of crud in the rim recess of the bolt. Chamber looked good.

The MK II's that I have experience with would go MANY hundreds of rounds between detail cleanings and I don't recall them ever having a point when 1 in every other mag just wouldn't go off.


Rob

 

[sourdough44]

The 'older ammo' would be expected to be suspect. Hopefully the 'new ammo' wasn't Remington, prone to misfires. I'd start with a detailed cleaning, bolt out & clean, lightly lube internal parts.

Not sure what parts interchange with the Mark II, but if anything looks amiss, go for replacements. If not well versed in bolt removal there are some useful U-tube videos.

 

[rugerguy]

lots of things to look for in a rimfire gun that can and will cause "light' hits................you say you cleaned the bolt "face" (the pocket where the case rim sits) get any crud out of it, all the way around.
Check the chamber is "round"? not oval or have any divots to keep the shell from "dropping" in...easy enough to check that out.
Then the firing pin, the nose (tip) is it "right", not broken or chipped, or too blunt (worn flat) , but should NOT come to a "point" either.... and the protrusion, is the pin coming out far enough? also is the hammer falling clean and clear ,NOT rubbing on the inside of the bolt? can cause drag, slow it down, and misfire........ then the ammo itself, try others.................
Lots to look for and hard to "bench check" a gun when its NOT sitting here in front of you...good luck

 

[bentblade]

One of the first things I would have looked at would be the cases that were fired and the ones didn't to compair the firing pin strikes. If they all look like good stong hits I would suspect ammo problems.
If you are getting some lite strikes something is dirty or broken.
You say the pistol seems clean, so I would tend to rule out the bolt not beeing fully in battery or the round not fully seating, both could cause lite strikes. But whats clean to you might not be clean to someone else.
That being said clean it again paying paticular attention to the chamber, bolt face, barrel face and the extractor cut in the barrel. Especially the extractor cutwhich is often overlooked.
Sometimes you can have enough dirt built up inside the cut that will contact the extractor and keep the bolt slightly out of battery. MK l = years of build up.
Then I would completely disassemble the bolt, making sure there is no built up crud inside the bolt. The agency I work for carries glocks. One the bigest problems is shooters over lubing their guns and oiling the firing pins. The oil attracks dirt and carbon which turns to sludge inside slowing or resticting the firing pins movement causing lite primer strikes.
Also check for a broken or bent spring or firing pin.
Good luck

 

[Teddydogno1]

In my original post, I indicated that the rounds that failed to fire showed little or no sign of firing pin strike. The bolt did not seem gunked up enough to account for that, nor did the bolt face, extractor groove or rim groove in the bolt. But they are now clean for certain and I'll have to wait until my next range outing to see if there has been any change.

The firing pin looks OK to me. Not too sharp or too blunt. A nice rectangle.

Rob

 

[Bullseye57]

How's the firing pin rebound spring? If this spring is broken or worn it could cause the firing pin to not sit high enough for the hammer to strike it causing similar problems to what you've described.

R,
Bullseye

 

[Teddydogno1]

Probably be early July before I can out to the range to try it out "post cleaning". The club near work that I am joining requires a safety class/orientation before using the facilities and the next available one is July 7! Grrr. : )

(yes, there are other places I COULD go, but probably won't)

Rob

 

[fas111]

I had the same problem with my mk1. The channel the firing pin sits in was gunked up. Just remove the bolt, then the spring on top of it. It justs lifts up. Push out the pin located near the front of the bolt. It will push out easily. Lift out the firing pin and then the tiny spring resting under the fp at the front of the fp channel. Be careful its a tiny little bugger. Clean th fp and its channel and you are good to go.

 

[Teddydogno1]

I did go out shooting last night after work. I had cleaned the pistol well, including the bolt and firing pin. I only had one FTF and that was with a Remington Golden Bullet round. That was probably the ammo at fault. It was also probably nearly 100 rounds into the session. I'm going to leave it uncleaned (except an exterior wipedown) and see what happens.

The magazine that came with the pistol (used from Cabelas) is different from the two new factory mags I bought after getting it. The one that came with it has a base block that is a little shinier than the others and is flat on the bottom--no Ruger logo. It also has a different profile at the feed lips--looks like it is cut and folded in a little compared to the others. Is this an older Ruger factory mag, or does it sound aftermarket?

Rob

 

[Bullseye57]

The description you gave sounds like an earlier M-9 magazine for the Standards. The shiny bottom block should be non-removable if it is that style of magazine. The feed lips have cuts made in like fingers to better guide the rounds into the chamber. The newer style feed lips do not have these extra guides.

R,
Bullseye

 

[hboswell]

I have 2 MarkI's, both made in 1976, along with 7 original magazines, the silver non-removable base variety, which are 9 rounders. I highly recommend getting a HKS model 22R loader. It runs about $4 and will really saves your thumbs. I recently picked up three of the MarkII magazines, the ones with the black base plate, which are 10 rounds. They still make the MarkI magazines in 9 round ,but, I really didn't see the point since the only difference is a slightly longer follower pin which reduces the capacity by 1 round. The MarkII magazines work perfectly and are much easier to load. You can also disassemble them for cleaning. As to ammo, I have experienced failures with Remington Bulk ammo in mine from time to time, much more frequently with Winchester bulk and never with CCI or Western SuperX(purchased in the late 60's). Remington Viper or Yellowjackets usually work, but the conical bullet tends to catch on the feed ramp sometimes. I did recently clean both of them down to removing the firing pin, and was really surprised at how much gunk was in the channel. They both run perfectly now and will probably do so for the next 100 years or so.

 

[Teddydogno1]

Here are pics of the mags I have. The two on the left are brand-new Ruger MK1 mags (9 shot-). The one on the right came with the pistol when I bought it used. It does have ANY markings that I can see. Note that it is constructed very differently from the others, including the welds, slot & button and the feed lips. Is it actually a Ruger factory mag? What vintage? I believe my pistol is from right around 1973.

Rob

 

[Bullseye57]

That one on the right is a period 1960's-1970's M-9 Ruger factory magazine. It is a second version. The first had only one slot on the right side of the mag body with the staked bottom block.

R,
Bullseye