Ruger MkIII Improvement

DutchWrangler · Apr 25, 2011

Anyone with a Ruger MkIII knows what a PITA it is to field strip the firearm. My solution for my 22/45 was to buy a speed strip kit that only requires an allen wrench to remove the bolt and gets rid of the magazine disconnect which greatly reduces trigger pull.

dennishoddy · Apr 25, 2011

I have the mark III hunter. Did you buy this somewhere?
Inquiring minds want to know.

DutchWrangler · Apr 25, 2011

dennishoddy said:
I have the mark III hunter. Did you buy this somewhere?
Inquiring minds want to know.

The kit is sold by Majestic Arms: http://www.majesticarms.com/id10.html
$49 for the Speed Strip kit, $13 for the 3.2 Bushing Kit (new hammer and bushing which eliminates the magazines disconnect and improves trigger pull).

Only downside was that it took almost two months to ship. But, it only took an hour to install which I got around to doing this evening. Gotta take it to the range soon and see how it holds up.

BigK674 · May 9, 2011

Dutch,
Have you been able to shoot your Mark III yet? I was thinking about getting it to install on mine.

KLG

DutchWrangler · May 9, 2011

KLG (Kenny Gant) said:
Dutch,
Have you been able to shoot your Mark III yet? I was thinking about getting it to install on mine.

KLG

I have. Works flawlessly. The trigger pull has dramatically improved with the new bushing and new hammer and the abolition of the magazine disconnect. Mags now pop and drop effortlessly. Although the Speed Strip is handy for cleaning after a light round of shooting, I'm still opting to field strip for cleaning the normal way after a heavy round of shooting.

Here's another photo of it...

BigK674 · May 9, 2011

Thanks Dutch. Looks like I'll be getting this kit soon. I especially liked the part about the magazines dropping out a lot better now. That was one thing that bothered me about the gun.

dennishoddy · May 9, 2011

Its kind of strange, but the mags that came with my Mark III that have the black ruger logo, are hard to get out. The ones I bought seperatly with the red ruger logo, fall out on their own when the mag release is pushed. They look identical, but there must be some sort of problem.

BigK674 · May 24, 2011

Got the new hammer and bushing installed this weekend. Had some trouble getting the hammer out. Eventually just did a detail strip of the lower and then switched the parts and put it back together. I wasn't able to get the pivot pin out of the bolt stop pin. Guess I wasn't holding my tongue just right. Used this link to figure out how to put the gun back together.

Shot the pistol at the 22 rimfire fun match on Sunday and my pistol quit shooting. Looked it over and noticed the sear pivot pin had worked it's way out and was not in the hole on the right side of the gun. With the help of the guy next to me we got it fixed and I finished shooting the fun match.

I really like the feel of the trigger now and the fact that the magazines will fall out without any help.

Will have to tackle that bolt stop soon.

Dieseltech09 · May 24, 2011

dennishoddy said:
Its kind of strange, but the mags that came with my Mark III that have the black ruger logo, are hard to get out. The ones I bought seperatly with the red ruger logo, fall out on their own when the mag release is pushed. They look identical, but there must be some sort of problem.

If you measure with a set of calipers the notch for the mag release is a little higher on the black logo mags then the red logo ones. You cant tell it by just looking but if you measure from the bottom of the notch to the top of the mag, there is a small difference. I have an early MKIII that the black logo mags would not lock in unless you took a file to the bottom of the mag release notch. Just a couple passes with the file and they were good to go. Im not sure what was causing the problem but when I sent my pistol to Volquartsen for some work, they called and asked if I had had trouble with mags seating. I told them yes and they said they would fix the problem. I dont know for sure what the did but its no longer an issue.

dennishoddy · May 24, 2011

That's interesting about the mag release difference. I'll get the calipers out tonight and check mine.

Dieseltech09 · May 24, 2011

I dont remember how much they are different by, but its not much. Mike is the one that figured it out. I had like 4 different black logo mags and not one of them would fit. All it took was a little file work and they locked in. Since Ive gotten it back from Volqurtsen Ive picked up several more black logo mags and they all lock in as they should.

dennishoddy · May 24, 2011

At the last .22 steel challenge match, one of the mags was so hard to get out, I seriously considered prying it out with a screw driver, but it finally came out. I'll report back.

dennishoddy · May 25, 2011

Put the calipers to the mags tonight, and you were dead on. Its not much, about .0015 to .002. I'll get out the CNC file, and get them trimmed up. Thanks for the heads up!