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I've had a variety of Ruger 22 Auto Pistols and am pretty familiar with tearing them down and putting them back together. Know where to buy new parts and even how to fix a few bent or broken things.
Couple months ago. I bought a beautiful old Ruger Standard online. Serial #15xxxx so that makes it about 1958. Pre Mark I.
It is such a joy to have a C&R and COE and pick it up at my FFL with no waiting period. Feels like cutting school and not getting caught.
So I tore it down to all the tiny parts, cleaned the hell out of it, replaced the recoil spring assembly which had a broken ear and a bent firing pin stop pin. Must have been a little Plutonium in one of the rounds fired in the last 60 years to throw the firing pin back so hard. Never seen the bent firing pin stop before.
Put it all back together, happy as can be, until I get to final assembly, putting the mainspring housing back in and it won't go. WTF! Stopped cold about 3/4 inch from being all the way home. Like solid, with a click, not even a little bit of spring to it.
Hurt my pride. Felt like a newby. This can't happen to me! I'm the Ruger 22 Auto Pistol Master!
When I get frustrated I walk away. Find something else to do. Came back in a few hours and starting assembling again, checking carefully the hammer position, the hammer strut, like always.
Mainspring housing said "No! F**k You! Not today!" I walked away.
Came back the next morning, sat down all casual like I didn't really care if it went together, just looking at everything, used a flashlight to look into the dark spots. Played with the bolt. Fiddled with the hammer, poking in there with a little punch.
And then I saw it.
At the very back, where the barrel meets the frame, the barrel was riding about a 1/16 inch high, not quite touching the frame. If I squeezed them together real tight I could bring the barrel all the way down to the frame.
I thought about that hook at the top of the mainspring housing and how it hooks the back of the barrel to hod it tight. That high barrel was just a hair to high for the hook to grab.
So I put it all together like always, kind of awkward while having to pinch the barrel and frame together, but finally mainspring housing was going all the way, hit that springy spot and flipped the take down lever home.
Celebrate!
Never seen that before, like the frame or the barrel or both were just a bit warped.
Maybe it was the same catastrophe that bent the firing pin stop pin and broke the ear off the recoil spring assembly.
Thought if I told my (long) story it might save someone else frustration sometime.
Couple months ago. I bought a beautiful old Ruger Standard online. Serial #15xxxx so that makes it about 1958. Pre Mark I.
It is such a joy to have a C&R and COE and pick it up at my FFL with no waiting period. Feels like cutting school and not getting caught.
So I tore it down to all the tiny parts, cleaned the hell out of it, replaced the recoil spring assembly which had a broken ear and a bent firing pin stop pin. Must have been a little Plutonium in one of the rounds fired in the last 60 years to throw the firing pin back so hard. Never seen the bent firing pin stop before.
Put it all back together, happy as can be, until I get to final assembly, putting the mainspring housing back in and it won't go. WTF! Stopped cold about 3/4 inch from being all the way home. Like solid, with a click, not even a little bit of spring to it.
Hurt my pride. Felt like a newby. This can't happen to me! I'm the Ruger 22 Auto Pistol Master!
When I get frustrated I walk away. Find something else to do. Came back in a few hours and starting assembling again, checking carefully the hammer position, the hammer strut, like always.
Mainspring housing said "No! F**k You! Not today!" I walked away.
Came back the next morning, sat down all casual like I didn't really care if it went together, just looking at everything, used a flashlight to look into the dark spots. Played with the bolt. Fiddled with the hammer, poking in there with a little punch.
And then I saw it.
At the very back, where the barrel meets the frame, the barrel was riding about a 1/16 inch high, not quite touching the frame. If I squeezed them together real tight I could bring the barrel all the way down to the frame.
I thought about that hook at the top of the mainspring housing and how it hooks the back of the barrel to hod it tight. That high barrel was just a hair to high for the hook to grab.
So I put it all together like always, kind of awkward while having to pinch the barrel and frame together, but finally mainspring housing was going all the way, hit that springy spot and flipped the take down lever home.
Celebrate!
Never seen that before, like the frame or the barrel or both were just a bit warped.
Maybe it was the same catastrophe that bent the firing pin stop pin and broke the ear off the recoil spring assembly.
Thought if I told my (long) story it might save someone else frustration sometime.
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