Cleaning A Ruger Mark Iii Pistol
I will picking up my new Mark III soon. I understand it is a good idea to field strip and clean the gun prior to its use. Does anyone have any tips on what in particular needs attention during this first cleaning? Are the guns test fired at the factory? Just curious. Thanks, The guns are test fired at the factory and include a casing fired from that gun in the box to satisfy some state requirements.
Get the protective coating off of everything you can reach and reapply your favorite coating. Just field strip it a s far as the manual and the Ruger on line videos suggest. Remember that a MKIII weapon has safety interlocks and will need to have the magazine installed to release the hammer and to activate many trigger system components. The tricky part is remembering to install and remove the magazine at the proper times. You can breeze through this sub forum for tons of threads on cleaning MK series pistols but all you need up front is the information posted above in the first to isolated posts named “STICKY: Ruger Mark Series” posted by Calvin Wiles. I used that exact information the first time I field stripped my MKIII 22/45 and it went so smoothly.
I assume you have your favorite cleaning chemicals and a cleaning kit but if you don’t have a jag for.22 caliber I highly recommend that item for your cleaning kit. Take your time so you enjoy the process and get familiar with all parts of the firearm including the ones you do not actually remove.
The MKIII pistol is one of the more difficult pistols to break down and assemble but it is easy with the instructions by Calvin. I taught my son how to clean a pistol using my MKIII 22/45 as his first strip/clean/reassembly. After that, the P95 and 1911 was a piece of cake for him! Oh yeah, welcome to the forum and enjoy that firearm; I love mine and my son let’s me shoot it now and then even though it’s my gun! I am a novice. Does replacing the bushing make it any less safe?
It depends on what the definition of 'safe' means to you. Replacing the MKIII magazine disconnector safety with a new aftermarket magsafe eliminator bushing does remove a factory designed safety device from your pistol.
Nov 05, 2011 Ruger Mark III Pistol Reassembly - Duration: 3:56. RugerFirearms 336,216 views. The Ruger MK III.
Are these new bushings going to cause issues with unintended discharges - in a word 'No'. All they do is adapt the MKIII hammer's profile, which was cut with a step to allow for an additional safety hook and spring, and replace it with a hammer bushing designed in a similar style of the earlier generation MKII pistol. I can make this claim about the origins because I am the person that designed the original concept back in 2004, when the MKIII series pistols first hit the market. When the Mark III Series pistols hit the market, in April of 2004, I found two areas of concern with my first exhibit of the model. One was the magazine disconnector safety adding additional steps to an already somewhat user difficult disassembly/reassembly process.
And the other was a one-piece metal lever designated as the Loaded Chamber Indicator, which had a knife-edge resting on the rim of a rimfire detonated cartridge. Quick mechanical testing revealed that the cartridges could be fired if these levers were struck from the outside of the pistol, with all other mechanical safety systems engaged, and no physical contact with the trigger.
Several intense conversations and a few months later Ruger shut down their MKIII assembly line and redesigned those levers to the current two-piece design. If you want to replace the hammer bushing and the LCI with aftermarket substitutes, you will be effectively deconfiguring your pistol back to the earlier generation style of the Mark II. Hope this helps. Yes, I was referring to LCI being loaded chamber indicator. Here are pictures of the two versions made for the Mark III pistol.
Ruger Mark Iii Hunter Pistol
The one on the left side of the picture is the original style LCI that was produced in April 2004. On the right is the one that was released in Jan 2005 to prevent discharges by striking the lever from the outside of the pistol.
Ruger Mark Iii Pistol Reviews
Ruger sent out retrofit kits to anyone who had purchased a Mark III pistol with the one piece LCI along with instructions on how to replace the old loaded chamber indicator.