New Ruger MKIV a real let down, what gives?

Oldarmy

Oldarmy

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I took my brand new MKIV down below to my range this morning and nothing but problems. What I did after getting the gun, Took it down and gave it a good cleaning and lightly lubed it with some rem oil. It's what I had. Cleaned the mags in and out as well because they felt a little sticky oddly enough. Cleaned with Hoppe's and everything seemed smooth and in perfect order. Loaded up with what I had for ammo which is Federal Target Grade 325 count white & black box. Not the best but it worked for me in anything else I have had in .22lr and I got a ton of it. This was freshly opened brick. The gun was just terrible, jams, stove pipes, ftf, fte,. I never got through a mag with out constant jams and feeding and ejection problems. I have never seen the likes of it, totally unreliable and unusable. I know some will say well it's shit ammo and maybe so but this was way beyond crappy ammo imo. This gun was just not willing to "run". I went through about 250 rounds nursing this thing, broke it down two or three times ragged down the bolt and it would cycle maybe 6-8 rounds and seemed to be corrected and it would start all over again. I know, try some other ammo and I will. Anyone ever have this experience out of the box new with one of these. It's the mark 4 target model, beautiful looking gun btw but that's about it!
 
That sucks. Just to help us help you:

Can you try another box of the same ammo? You wrote you have plenty. Same ammo just a different production run may help.
Was this with every magazine?
Did it happen when the mag was first inserted, when only the last rounds were in, whenever it wanted?
Did anything get under the extractor while reassembling/cleaning?

Best of luck I know you wanted this particular pistol.
 
To answer both of your questions. This was with every magazine from the first till the last it ran normal only once or twice maybe three times and only for4-6-8 rounds and would go to hell again. It was bang, jam, push on the bolt a little to get into battery and bang, fail to eject, then fail to feed and really rough to pull bolt to manually eject and so on it went. I will try a different box of ammo. What ammo that did fire seemed fine and accuracy seemed to be there. Is this decent ammo? I cleaned it well and don't believe anything got into the ejector. I will take it down again and look closer. I did keep feeding it with the thought of "breaking in the newly machined parts". But this was just crazy bad. I was disgusted.
 
Penniepup1 said:
I’ve thrown everything from garbage to good stuff through mine and never a hiccup. That sucks!
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That is what I expected and believe there is plenty off stuff worse than the stuff I was using. It really seemed to be the mechanics of the gun. I have some training as a machinist and the bolt seems to drag off and on almost like it is tightening up and then it slid smooth again, strange.
 
Oldarmy said:
That is what I expected and believe there is plenty off stuff worse than the stuff I was using. It really seemed to be the mechanics of the gun. I have some training as a machinist and the bolt seems to drag off and on almost like it is tightening up and then it slid smooth again, strange.
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Sounds like it needs a trip back to Ruger. I have the hunter model and enjoy shooting it.
 
Asaltweapon said:
My experience with every new 22 I bought was to just run it.......
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my philosophy also, but with any semi auto. it gives me a baseline. if it worked out of the box but then malfunctioned after i broke it down, maybe i did something wrong at reassembly. not sayin' you did, the ruger mk series are pretty simple guns.
 
greencobra said:
my philosophy also, but with any semi auto. it gives me a baseline. if it worked out of the box but then malfunctioned after i broke it down, maybe i did something wrong at reassembly. not sayin' you did, the ruger mk series are pretty simple guns.
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I hear ya but this is child's play to clean and I just had to lol.
 
My Mark IV has run fine with everything I've put in it, probably 1,000 rounds or more. Sounds like you you got a lemon. Make Ruger fix it. FWIW, when they had the recall I got my frame back in about 3 weeks.
 
My MKIII only runs reliably with CCI Mini-Mags. All other ammo ends up with stovepipes, FTF etc.. Sounds like the same issue exists with the MK IV. I would bet it has something to do with the main spring stiffness (needs higher power ammo to cycle reliably).
 
TomMontana said:
Don't use the Federal Automatch. It's very inconsistent. My Mark IV runs well with CCI minimags. It FTF and stove pipes with CCI tactical, Federal and Winchester white trash.
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Funny....automatch is my go to ammo for my 10-22 and 22-45 rugers. I stack it deep.....use it for competition plate shoots and it does outstanding.
 
My Ruger Mark IV 22/45 Tactical shoots anything I feed it. Sounds like you got a clinker.

I had a Hammerli SIG Trailside that had a tight chamber that would pick and chose rounds with no pattern. After 6mo at SIG it came back beautiful - the gunsmith’s last project before he retired.

Hope yours gets fixed quicker!
 
Sucks to have those issues. I’d definitely put a couple of hundred minimags through before anything else. All 22s are somewhat sensitive. I’ve had mine a while and it’s been a clock.
 
Some things I notice under closer inspection. The pin that runs through the center of the bolt has a loose fit as I believe it should, has a tendency to float back and forth. If is protruding out just a hair (it is convex on it's ends) it makes the bolt slide a little roughly. When pushed in to center it, butter. The extractor end where it is hooked and fits into the little indentation next to the barrel bore is a little misshaped and is not flat as I would think it should be. It could be made that way but it looks wrong to me. It has a very sharp point on one side. I have cleaned it again and their was a small amount of metal particles in the chamber from the machining process. Could have been preventing the bolt from completely locking up. Cleaned it up nice and lubed it lightly and will try it again tomorrow. I am also reading the wear marks on the parts for clues. I hope it will wear itself in. If she don't straighten up back she goes to Ruger. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
I have a mark III with probably 15K rounds through it so far. I use an ultimate clip loader to load my mags and I always spray just a bit of rem oil on the bullets prior to loading. They run almost flawlessly with a bit of lube on them. If I run them dry, I will get stove pipes and sometimes the spent brass gets stuck pretty tight in the chamber. I have to use a rod through the muzzle to push them out. I have tried after market extractors but still the same result. Only thing I can think of is that the chamber is a bit tight or some of the 22s have brass that is slightly larger or expands too much after firing. . No worries though, the oil does the trick.
 
fshalor said:
Crap. I was hoping this version was gonna be the bees kneez.

How does the feed ramp look? Rough edges?

I really want another mk3 like the one I sold which would eat anything .
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Feed ramp does seem a little rough and does I believe catch and impede the incoming round. I also feel that the magazine sits too high and also contributes to rough stripping and feeding of the incoming round. I really think the guns appearance is sweet and I really dig that but the innards are disappointing. I think I could fix it but why should I. I bought this for fun and to get my wife more involved in shooting. Now I will have the hassle of sending it off and wonder what I'll get back. I'm pretty pissed as I waited a long time to get this.
 
Dadstoys said:
If you suspect that pin is loose, send it back.
It's only going to get looser over time.
May be that's one that slipped by QA.
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I know it's supposed to be a slip fit it holds the firing pin in and also traps the thingamajiggy lol that holds the extractor so it is meant to come out easy so you can fully dissemble the bolt, but it drifts over and makes the bolt slide roughly. So you could be right maybe a couple thousandths under.
 
whacko said:
Funny....automatch is my go to ammo for my 10-22 and 22-45 rugers. I stack it deep.....use it for competition plate shoots and it does outstanding.
Click to expand...

nothing but trouble for me in marlin 60, s &w 22a, s&w 422. wierd how that is that some find it good, and others find it problematic
 
whacko said:
Funny....automatch is my go to ammo for my 10-22 and 22-45 rugers. I stack it deep.....use it for competition plate shoots and it does outstanding.
Click to expand...

If I wasn't trying to neckbeard 22lr after SH, I wouldn't have cases of automatch still. I get better results using CCI standard velocity in my 10-22. The price for it is about the same for automatch. Minimags can be found now for $0.06 to $0.08/rd. For me, almost not reason to buy automatch when prices and availability is so good now for CCI.
 
I'm sort of a snob. If cci me nimag hp dostn run, I don't trust the gun .

My used ma 22/45 mk iii has been nothing but problems. Even after $100+ in volk parts, a bunch of buffing and new mags x3, it still can't feed more than 5 rounds out of a mag without a failure .

Sad as the thing is a tack driver. Doesn't matter if it can feed itself.

My only purpose for a .22lr is for training and trigger work.

Whomever on NES got that mk3 Hunter from me for sub $400 got a steal and I hope they have enjoyed it .
 

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