Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Need Help With My Ruger MK II

My Ruger MK II, which I've had since 1985, has begun acting up. Out of a magazine of 8 or so rounds, 2 or 3 will not fire from each magazine. It's NOT the ammo - I tried 3 different brands, and each had virtually identical instances of failure to fire. When I run the rounds through a second time, most of them fired.

Is there anything that I can do short of taking this pistol to the 'smith? I know that the Mark II is notoriously difficult to disassemble and reassemble, so I'd rather avoid that. If, as I suspect, the spring that pushes forward the firing pin is simply worn out, I'll have to find a 'smith somewhere to fix it. Any other simple fixes to attempt first.?

My guess worn spring or dirty bolt assembly. They are not that hard to take apart. Plenty of step by step on youtube. However if you are not comfortable have a smith clean it.

First thing i would try is a deep cleaning.

The 22 rimfire ammo is some nasty/dirty stuff and it does not take much to screw some pistols up.

The only real "trick" to reassembling the Ruger MK pistols is to let the hammer fall forward before attempting latch the mainspring housing back into place. If you don't, you're essentially trying to put the pistol back together in the cocked condition. That's damn hard to impossible. Putting it back together in the fired condition is perfectly possible and much, much easier.

That...

I get a chuckle out of this. Every time I hear of someone who "notoriously" hears these things are hard to take apart. I really hate to assume this pistol has never been taken apart and cleaned properly. That's probably where I'd start. By the way, these things are exceptionally easy to take apart and don't require ANY tools to do so. Like others said, watch some youtube video's on it and you'll find it's really not too difficult..

Every time I see one of these threads, I always think back to late February 1986. Comet Halley was in the pre-dawn sky. Saturday night, a bunch of us went out east of town to see it and stayed up all night doing so. I'd been to the range the week before and found the Mk II a little sticky. I got it in my head to take it down and deep clean it. I had trouble getting it back together-- my head was still foggy from being up all night. I called my buddy, a math professor at UC, and asked him about it. He offered to have me come out to his house, and he'd show me. There was one problem: he was recovering from Chicken Pox. I told him I'd had it as a kid, so no problem.

Monday night after the trip to the comet, I went out to my buddy's house with my MK II in pieces. He had his wife's MK II and we spent the evening getting both pistols cleaned and re-assembled. It was a struggle to say the least. His wife joined in, and the 3 of us finally got the two pistols back together.

I started showing flu-like symptoms a day later. Wednesday was bad, I had to stay home from work. It got worse. Thursday afternoon, I started feeling better and called my boss to tell him I'd be in the next day. Just as I was hanging up, the blisters started. For two weeks, I had eruptions every 3 hours or so. I had blisters on blisters. I had blisters down my throat. I had blisters on my junk. I had blisters in places I didn't know existed. There would be a fever and chills, and then just as the fever broke, I'd have an eruption.

None of my friends would come and see me. I was like a leper. I was too sick to go out. The only way I got food was I'd bet this new chick at a recent Happy Hour, and she'd drop by with a bag of something or other once a day. She was a school teacher, and knew she was immune to The Pox. We started getting close through it all.

I got back to work with a serious beard which went against the dress code. I couldn't shave for 9 weeks. I looked like a leper. Shortly after I got back to work, I got laid off. My school teacher friend was off work for the summer, so she moved in and we shared expenses. I got a new job at the end of the summer, but in the mean time, we had a lot of fun.

This was how I got to dating Wife 1.0, AKA Satan.

So let's see, I lost my job. I found the Hell-spawned girl of my nightmares. I had to grow a beard to cover the scars. I haven't shaved since March 1 1986. I was also a smoker. When I tried to light-up again in June-- nogo. I had to quit cigarettes.

I have not had that MK II apart since. Frankly I've been scared of the consequences.


Don't anyone tell you that a MK II is easy to clean.

Easy to some is hard for others. If you don't feel comfortable have it done. But it sure sounds like a cleaning will fix the problem.

You've had it since 1985 and never taken it apart to detail clean? You might need a gunsmith to chisel the crud out. They're not as bad as some would make you believe. Download a copy of the owners manual if you don't have one and actually follow the instructions.

I've had my MKII since 1983 or 84. Used to take it apart almost every time I used it. Don't do that anymore, finally figured out it was overkill. But depending on ammo the need varies. Had one brick of winchester wildcat a few decades ago that was nasty. Have never seen as much powder residue before or since. Ended up stripping the pistol completely and washing frame under hot running water to get all the junk out (followed by very careful drying and lubrication). Gave away most of the brick that was left, with fair warning to the recipient.

I've had my MkII apart 20-30 times in the last 35 years, plus a dozen or so others. Follow the steps ( I have NRA assembly/disassembly book set from 1980 or so - probably should invest in a new one, and transfer my margin notes-) and don't put it back together cocked. Easy-peasy.

I'm happy to say that I took the advice of posters above and dove in. My Ruger Mark II is now clean as a whistle. Even after watching the You Tube videos several times, reassembly is not easy, but perseverance will get it done - that hammer strut is a bear. Now to get to the range to see if the FTFs are cured.