So I picked up my first Ruger Mark III 22/45 series a couple weeks ago from Jeff after ordering it on his Davidsons website. I found a TALO edition slab side 4.5" with Cocobola grips for a good price so I thought I'd take a chance. I had shot a few Mk II's and one Mk III 22/45 before. The Mk II's were good guns and the triggers were un-modified and a bit heavy. The 22/45 had an absolutely horrendus trigger and felt like a plastic toy. I wasn't sure what to expect from the pistol I ordered.
First thing I noticed was the wood grips, it was a beautiful little pistol and with the wood grips, you barely notice the poly frame. Very nice fit and finish, I was impressed, especially comparing it to the last 22/45 I had shot. I racked the bolt a few times and tried the trigger............... Magazine safety!!!!!!!!!! Stupidest thing I've ever seen. Can't believe manufacturers are installing these things. Anyway, more on that later. I put the mag in and tried the trigger a few times, felt firm and fairly crisp. I don't have a pull gauge, but it felt like it was somewhere around 5-7 lbs. I then tried to release the mag, but after pushing the mag release button, I still had to dig a fingernail under the mag lip to pull it out, again, more on that in a bit.
I took it to the range that night and without a cleaning, put a hundred rounds each of Federal bulk and Winchester hi velocity through it. I didn't have any problems with the Federal ammo and had about 3 rounds of the Winchester not fully seat. I had to push on the bolt a little to get it to seat all the way. Other than that, no FTF or FTE's at all. Ran very well. I can't tell you for sure what the accuracy is like because I really don't like the front sights. For me, they're hard to see and difficult to get a good consistant sight picture. If I were to stick with the iron sites, I would get some Hi-Viz sights and give it a good try for accuracy. I have a red-dot on order and will be getting that mounted later this week. All in all, I was very pleased with this pistol......Except for the mag safety and mag release issue.
After stewing on the mag safety and mag release issue, I started researching fixes for those problems. I found a washer fix that would fix both the mag safety and mag release problem that I didn't like. So never having tore apart a Mk series pistol before, I dove right in. Got the bolt release thing figured out, but the barrel wouldn't budge. I kept pounding and pounding, it wasn't moving. I thought I hadn't removed something, so I started punching out pins. Next thing I knew, I had it completely dissasembled. Did I mention that I've never messed with these things before? Springs, pins and parts everywhere. I finally got the barrel off and decided to give up. Put all the stuff in a plastic bag and went to bed. Got up this morning and attacked it again. Got everything figured out and got the washers installed in place of the spring and mag safety. Did a quick function check, everything seemed to be OK, and the empty mags jump out of the pistol like they should now. Headed out to the range for a quick range test and ran through 20 rounds real quick. Trigger seems a little lighter, maybe 4-6lbs and I can now pull the trigger without the mag in. I think there's a little more creep than before, but I'm going to stop dicking with it for now. It kinda feels like a two stage trigger, so I'll just live with it.
I had thought about getting a VQ trigger kit, but after this last fiasco, I'm done for now.
