Ruger re-did my old MKI pistol

[DDubya]

Back in 1972 I gave my father a Ruger MKI pistol in .22LR for Christmas. Serial number indicates it was made in 1951. It had fixed sights which I replaced with a set of fine Micro adjustables on the rear. Unfortunately, he did not take good care of it, and it picked up a lot of surface rust over the years. To make it worse, he took some steel wool and removed the rust but left behind a lot of scratches. After he died in 2009 I got the gun back. A few weeks ago I sent it back to Ruger for refinishing. They charged $110 and for $55 more they drilled and tapped it for a scope mount. Mount was included in the price.

Before:





After:

 

[captainkirk]

Gun looks great!

That model should have come with adjustable sights though. If it had fixed sights at one time, someone switched them out...

 

[DDubya]

That's what I thought too, but Ruger said it came with fixed sights. I was working at a gun shop at the time and recall replacing the sights on other MK Is so I'm sort of assuming I did it to this gun too. The sights are MMC, Micro Machine Company. I'm pretty certain that Ruger did put them on some of their handguns back in the 50s, 60s.

 

[mohavesam]

Nice save! "factory original" to boot.
From klunker to keeper! The money is gone and the gun lives on... (kudos for not just "painting" it)
I'm sure it'll live on in your family well past your years.

 

[MnBulldog]

Beautiful. Ruger did a nice job, back to "treasure"

 

[mikep048]

That is beautiful. Nice to see it restored.

 

[Kevin]

Looks like brand new. Good job.

 

[rugerguy]

Nice job, and as noted above, it is back to the way it "should" have been 'originally'...not sure how they figure it came with "fixed" sights , as the receiver is rollmarked "Mark I" and the barrel is the 6 7/8 inch length, as it should have been, and with the 'Micros' , those too are what was used back then...all in all a "nice job".......

 

[rammerjammer]

fantastic

 

[rugnelli]

Nice!

 

[street]

Looking at the serial number, and if I make it out correctly it's in the 25,XXX range. That puts that gun one of the first guns after they stop making the Red Eagles. Yours look like a 3 digit Black Eagle T678. A great find!!!

 

[ArmedinAZ]

That's the sort of fix my dad would do too. Nice to see it back in factory condition.

 

[6gun]

Looks really nice, you do know better than store it in that padded soft case right? they can and will collect moisture and could make it rust again.

 

[GA Cracker]

How cool is that? Those from Dad and Granddaddy and Grandmama are more special and then when you add to them to pass'em down it gets even better!

 

[m657]

{{{Lust}}}.......maybe they can do similar to my 53 version....

Thanks for the nice photos & story.

 

[DDubya]

Took it to the range today and ran about 150 rounds of a couple types of .22lr through it. Before re-finishing it did not feed hollow points at all. Just sort of mangled them. That hasn't changed. Looks like I'll need to polish the feed ramp a bit and see if that helps.

As to keeping it in the padded case. I keep all my handguns that way, but do take them out and wipe them down with oil several times a year.