Ruger Mark III 22/45 mod fail

[Andrew17019]

So I came home from work happy today because I got my MidwayUSA box in the mail after the weekend and I wanted to see what I could do to my Ruger Mark III 22/45 that I purchased a few weeks ago. I shot it a couple of times in the last month or so and wanted to beef it up into a more accurate target gun. I especially wanted to do something about the grips, since the frame feels quite small in my hands. So I opened the box and immediately realized that a grip I had seen advertised on a different site as being for the Mark III 22/45 did not actually fit over the polymer integrated grips on a 22/45. Oh well. So I mounted the Millett red dot that I had purchased and was more or less pleased with how it turned out. That's the ok part. I then began installing the accurizer kit.

I got home from work around 5:30 or so. Around 7:30 I took a 20 minute break to eat dinner. Let me tell you, I was pretty irate at this gun, moreso than any other project I've worked on. For some reason every time I installed a part something would not work and I would have to go back two steps and redo it. To make matters worse, the instructions in the Ruger manual are not specifically for the 22/45 which has different parts than a regular Mark III. Also, every single instructional I found online was not for the 22/45 but for the regular Mark III. I was basically on my own with a blow up schematic. At 10:00 PM I got everything put back together and it was moderately working. The internals fit VERY tightly and there is a lot of tension going on in there, but I wasn't in the mindset to see if I wanted to buff anything down so I sprayed it all with lube and called it a night.

The Ruger Mark X series is a pain in the ass to take apart and put together for the first couple of times anyway, but this one totally kicked my butt. I know they're notorious for it, but I have to say....this specific one (being polymer and such) really got to me.


Anyone else out there have a polymer frame Ruger Mark III and have similar issues with part interchangeability, aftermarket grips, and changing up the internals? The accurizer trigger is actually to die for, it just has a bit of travel that I'd like to slack up in the future when I don't want to throw it out the window.


My hands are red and raw as I type this, and my back is killing me....but I'll post pictures of the end product whenever I get the chance and this gun stops being the most hated in my collection.

[rwb1500]

So I came home from work happy today because I got my MidwayUSA box in the mail after the weekend and I wanted to see what I could do to my Ruger Mark III 22/45 that I purchased a few weeks ago. I shot it a couple of times in the last month or so and wanted to beef it up into a more accurate target gun. I especially wanted to do something about the grips, since the frame feels quite small in my hands. So I opened the box and immediately realized that a grip I had seen advertised on a different site as being for the Mark III 22/45 did not actually fit over the polymer integrated grips on a 22/45. Oh well. So I mounted the Millett red dot that I had purchased and was more or less pleased with how it turned out. That's the ok part. I then began installing the accurizer kit.

I got home from work around 5:30 or so. Around 7:30 I took a 20 minute break to eat dinner. Let me tell you, I was pretty irate at this gun, moreso than any other project I've worked on. For some reason every time I installed a part something would not work and I would have to go back two steps and redo it. To make matters worse, the instructions in the Ruger manual are not specifically for the 22/45 which has different parts than a regular Mark III. Also, every single instructional I found online was not for the 22/45 but for the regular Mark III. I was basically on my own with a blow up schematic. At 10:00 PM I got everything put back together and it was moderately working. The internals fit VERY tightly and there is a lot of tension going on in there, but I wasn't in the mindset to see if I wanted to buff anything down so I sprayed it all with lube and called it a night.

The Ruger Mark X series is a pain in the ass to take apart and put together for the first couple of times anyway, but this one totally kicked my butt. I know they're notorious for it, but I have to say....this specific one (being polymer and such) really got to me.


Anyone else out there have a polymer frame Ruger Mark III and have similar issues with part interchangeability, aftermarket grips, and changing up the internals? The accurizer trigger is actually to die for, it just has a bit of travel that I'd like to slack up in the future when I don't want to throw it out the window.


My hands are red and raw as I type this, and my back is killing me....but I'll post pictures of the end product whenever I get the chance and this gun stops being the most hated in my collection.

Grips are a big reason to avoid the 22/45. They aren't as plentiful as grips for the MKII or MKIII.

What kind of kit are we talking about? Was it Volquartsen stuff?

[JMIS]

I have a 22/45 myself. I don't think you can do anything to the grips other than a slip on of some type.

My bitch about the 22/45 is the rear sight. I shot a steel plate shoot for the first time this weekend with a red dot on mine. It was very sunny at times so I took it off. I could not hit shit with the open sights either. So last night I was putting my red dot back on and found that my rear sight moved an 1/8'' to left. I never messed with it the sights before. So I didn't relize the rear floats in a dove tail.



Alot of questions answered here also...
http://rugerforum.net/forums.php

[Neko456]

You scared me I thought that a out of the box Ruger Mk X failed to fire or operate. But when you start doing major internal upgrades you may get some problems but of course they are self created. I've seen some custom Ruger Mk XXs that are super accurate these guys use them in competition, they may use the same accurizing kit I don't know. I say this to give you incouragement that you are going down the right track to have a quick shooting very accurate Ruger 22LR Pistol. If all else fails send it to a Gun smith and he will fix it so it works like a Ruger again.

Good Luck i hope you figure things out. Sorry I couldn't help that some deep Gun smithing. Thats what make it hard for me to try these type jobs, you already got a sweet shooting pistol now you want a bonified tack driver. Some times it two step backward to get 3 step forward. I applauded your effort. Keep us posted.

[LightningMcQueen784]

My bitch about the 22/45 is the rear sight. I shot a steel plate shoot for the first time this weekend with a red dot on mine. It was very sunny at times so I took it off. I could not hit shit with the open sights either. So last night I was putting my red dot back on and found that my rear sight moved an 1/8'' to left. I never messed with it the sights before. So I didn't relize the rear floats in a dove tail.

Really? hmm.. I've never had a problem with the irons on my MKII 22/45. The only thing I changed about it was to install the William's FireSights. The factory irons worked fine... it's just hard to see black on black irons on a black target.... so I switched it out to fiber sights, and they're fantastic... holds zero, no drifting, hits whatever I point it at every time.

It is kinda a pain to disassemble and reassemble tho :P

[Andrew17019]

Grips are a big reason to avoid the 22/45. They aren't as plentiful as grips for the MKII or MKIII.

What kind of kit are we talking about? Was it Volquartsen stuff?

It was the Volquartsen accurizer kit, it's being sold as an accurizer that is also good on the 22/45 models, although some of the parts are not interchangeable (bolt release, sear spring, etc.) My Ruger was always hard to charge but now it is almost impossible, and I'm having seating issues with the magazines. I think I'm going to break it down again in the next day or two to see what the problem is. It may be a breaking-in issue, but the way I'm looking now even if it broke in a lot it wouldn't be where I'd like it to be. The trigger pull is phenomenal, I just have to make some adjustments to the trigger to get it to where I want it. I still have the big complaint about the grip situation, but I guess that's what I get for buying the 22/45. I may see if the Hogue wraparound 1911 grips are bastardizable to the frame enough to get it to work out for me.

[amcoder]

I just bought a MkIII 22/45 as well. As you said, it's a pain to take apart, especially the first few times. I bought the RP version that takes 1911 grips, which is nice.

The first time I put it back together the action was really tight for me. It turned out to be that I put the magazine disconnect on the wrong side of the hammer bushing. Oops.

I have the same problem with the sights on mine. Both the rear and front sights come loose after a few hundred rounds. I'm hoping some lock-tite will solve the problem.

[Andrew17019]

Interesting catch. I was working off the schematics so I'll take a look at that again, but is the bushing a lot smaller on your gun than it is in the schematics? It makes it look like the flange around the one end is much larger than it actually is on my part.

[amcoder]

Interesting catch. I was working off the schematics so I'll take a look at that again, but is the bushing a lot smaller on your gun than it is in the schematics? It makes it look like the flange around the one end is much larger than it actually is on my part.

Yes, the flange on mine is significantly smaller than it looks in the diagram. I think the picture looks more like a MkII hammer bushing.

[spacemanvic]

My daughters MkIII 22/45 came with removable checkered cocobolo wood grips on a polymer frame. I will agree, it is a PITA to clean (especially compared to my P95). I showed her how to clean it after our outting this weekend at the range, very hard to get into the crevices.

I did add a lil blue locktite to the screws to keep them in place. Ive also lightened the trigger pull (VQ parts), slingshot mod, and removed the magazine safety so that it now works like an old Mk I or II. Magazine now shoots out when you release it!

I've seen online how-to's to convert your MKIII grips Andrew, requires quite a bit of filing to do though. Here's a how-to I found for you:

MKIII 1911 Grip mod