New Ruger MKIV a real let down, what gives?

[ramair2k]

Federal automatch is give or take in my experience. I have two Ruger SR22s and I can shoot an entire box of automatch with not one issue. Then I move on to another box and I have a failure to * every mag. Happens with both guns. I will say that the 1st SR22 did go back to Ruger and they replaced the entire barrel and slide due to all the failures. It fails much less now but again, I think its because of the ammo (and I only use automatch)

 

[joeb41]

So I called Ruger and they want to see the gun. Packed it up today and will drop it at FedEx tomorrow. They said should be about 12 days till return, we shall see. I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again for the input.

Good move. They will make it right. I have a Mark III and a Mark IV and the both eat anything I give them.

 

[Oldarmy]

Had 2 shooters that ran brand new ruger mk4's "out of the box" this sunday at the s.c. shoot.
Both were having feed and extraction issues. Brandy-new mags too, as in just took them out of the packaging before the 1st string.
1 jammed up so bad that the extracted round was kinked.
Both seemed to be magazine related.
Seemed that the mag follower would depress all the way down, but on return, would bind up and slow the feed down, almost like it had a burr in it or was full of garbage.

I too feel like the mags have something to do with this. Mine felt sort of sticky for lack of a better way to put it. I took them apart and cleaned them in and out with Hoppe's and they were filthy with black crap. I also stated earlier that the mags seemed to ride too high into the gun. When it would jam I could see through the ejection "window" (if that's what you call it) and the next round did not look like it was heading in the optimal direction for a easy feed to the ramp. I also had a few times after loading up mags and while they were sitting on the bench the top round would just pop out. I love her looks but she's a bitch. I hope they straighten this out because this gun really sucked out loud, when it went bang that is lol.

 

[E.Stoner]

I have a MKIV hunter and it runs like a champ. Only handful of stovepipes in 1000’s of rounds with all kinds of ammo.
I got one of those speed loader with a hopper and have jammed ammo down it as fast as I can shoot.
It came missing one magazine, i called up Ruger and they send me one no questions asked in two days.

 

[mac1911]

I was going to suggest the extractor. My only beef with Ruger is that there are parts they tell you not to lube, but they come loaded with grease (striker channel in SR series). I'd blast the hell out of the bolt to get any grease out of there. The other place to look is the chamber and the little notch next to where the extractor goes when the bolt closes. If that has junk in it the extractor can't get a good purchase on the rim.

If the roll pin is sloppy you might open the ends a little and see if a little extra friction keeps it in place.

Good luck.

Ruger is correct you don't "lube" 22s you apply only enough oil to prevent rust.
Also note: The heavy "lube/oil" that comes on guns is a rust preventative usually water based. This is why the manufacture tells you to clean the pistol/rifle before use. Also as my Dad has always drilled into my head. "new guns are not clean"

Also im not a fan of needing high velocity ammo to "break in" a new 22. its designed to run on standard velocity , the mkiv can run on HV stuff but honestly i dont see why to bother? Standard velocity is somewhere between 1070-1100 fps

 

[kartooo]

the only semi auto handgun .22 i own is a SR22. it will eat anything i feed it if i use a stiff wrist/grip.
relax with a limp wrist and it has problems...

 

[fshalor]

You convinced me. Ruger sent me a FedEx prepaid label for a 2009 mk3 22/45 which has never fed more than 5 rounds at a time without a fluff fest.

I didn't expect them to do prepaid (normally they only cover shipping for the first two years .)

Relevant as if I can't get this to work, I'm buying a mk iv or iii non 22/45.

 

[Oldarmy]

You convinced me. Ruger sent me a FedEx prepaid label for a 2009 mk3 22/45 which has never fed more than 5 rounds at a time without a fluff fest.

I didn't expect them to do prepaid (normally they only cover shipping for the first two years .)

Relevant as if I can't get this to work, I'm buying a mk iv or iii non 22/45.

Good for you. I think it's time that maybe this finicky BS should be dealt with by Ruger. If mine comes back with the same issues I will go for a refund and be done with it. Like Dennis said earlier could you imagine how peed off folks would be if they bought a New AR and had to feed it a certain flavor of ammo for it to function. They aren't exactly giving these things away.

 

[Oldarmy]

the only semi auto handgun .22 i own is a SR22. it will eat anything i feed it if i use a stiff wrist/grip.
relax with a limp wrist and it has problems...

That seems odd to me but I only have 5 guns so not a lot to compare to, What would you think contributes to that behavior? A gun like every other tool I own should work every dammed time or close to it for it's intended purpose if you ask me. Like my Power and hand tools if I can't rely on them I don't want them.

 

[BigDaddy-Oh]

Pistols, yes -- revolvers have always been fine. I've owned probably a dozen .22 LR and .22 WMR wheelguns over the years, and aside from a few bad batches of ammo, all have been very reliable.

I was gonna say that I have never had any issues with my "single six". Kidding aside My MK III has never had an issue, my new 10/22 went through about 150 rounds with no issue. It sounds like this is pretty much a Ruger Friendly thread (I know many out there can't stand the company). I own 8 Rugers of various configuration. I can probably say they are not the most accurate, but all shoot consistently . . . with the exception of my SR1911 CMD which seems to have an issue with some ammo. It usually is from brass that was not crimped well enough and has a pronounced step at the bullet end. It seems to bite into the loading ramp.

 

[whacko]

That seems odd to me but I only have 5 guns so not a lot to compare to, What would you think contributes to that behavior? A gun like every other tool I own should work every dammed time or close to it for it's intended purpose if you ask me. Like my Power and hand tools if I can't rely on them I don't want them.

We're talking about 22lr handguns here. 22lr handguns are notorious for being fussy on ammo and not as reliable as centerfire handguns. That's the main reason barely anyone would recommend any 22lr for serious business.

 

[whacko]

I was gonna say that I have never had any issues with my "single six". Kidding aside My MK III has never had an issue, my new 10/22 went through about 150 rounds with no issue. It sounds like this is pretty much a Ruger Friendly thread (I know many out there can't stand the company). I own 8 Rugers of various configuration. I can probably say they are not the most accurate, but all shoot consistently . . . with the exception of my SR1911 CMD which seems to have an issue with some ammo. It usually is from brass that was not crimped well enough and has a pronounced step at the bullet end. It seems to bite into the loading ramp.

I own 4 Ruger fire arms 2 revolvers, the 22-45 and a 10-22 and all have worked very well for me besides like you said a couple bad batches of 22 ammo.

 

[Oldarmy]

We're talking about 22lr handguns here. 22lr handguns are notorious for being fussy on ammo and not as reliable as centerfire handguns. That's the main reason barely anyone would recommend any 22lr for serious business.

I still say if they can't make them right then don't make them at all. We have come to settling for mediocrity in so many things. If a new IPad only worked under certain conditions how many would own them. This pistol has been in production for almost 70 fricken years. It should be near perfection by now jmo.

 

[Bonesinium]

I still say if they can't make them right then don't make them at all. We have come to settling for mediocrity in so many things. If a new IPad only worked under certain conditions how many would own them. This pistol has been in production for almost 70 fricken years. It should be near perfection by now jmo.

You could say the same thing about ammo. If all but one ammo type works fine, maybe it’s not the gun...

 

[drgrant]

We're talking about 22lr handguns here. 22lr handguns are notorious for being fussy on ammo and not as reliable as centerfire handguns. That's the main reason barely anyone would recommend any 22lr for serious business.

Part of the reason I still have like 3000 rounds of 22 from pre obamascare times... I think in the past 10 years I've run 22 pistol like a half dozen times. they're just frustrating and annoying to clean constantly.

 

[whacko]

You could say the same thing about ammo. If all but one ammo type works fine, maybe it’s not the gun...

Additionally run of the mill 22lr is cheap for a reason......it's not intended for self defense and 100% reliability. I'm fine with that for a nickle a round.

 

[whacko]

Part of the reason I still have like 3000 rounds of 22 from pre obamascare times... I think in the past 10 years I've run 22 pistol like a half dozen times. they're just frustrating and annoying to clean constantly.

I shoot 22 alot. More than once a week. Plate shoots and plinking. It's fun and cheep. I clean my 10-22 twice a year wether it needs it or not.....runs great. The 22-45 I clean once a month......runs fine.

 

[whacko]

I still say if they can't make them right then don't make them at all. We have come to settling for mediocrity in so many things. If a new IPad only worked under certain conditions how many would own them. This pistol has been in production for almost 70 fricken years. It should be near perfection by now jmo.

Even 50 year old 22s were not perfectly reliable......maybe a little more reliable.....but again.....22s are toys for the most part and I'm fine with that.

 

[drgrant]

I still say if they can't make them right then don't make them at all. We have come to settling for mediocrity in so many things. If a new IPad only worked under certain conditions how many would own them. This pistol has been in production for almost 70 fricken years. It should be near perfection by now jmo.

22lr has a lot of grades of ammo.for it, that's part of the problem. 22 pistols have always sucked, or always have had a range of ammunition limitations. Some of it I think is hard to engineer around.

 

[drgrant]

Additionally run of the mill 22lr is cheap for a reason......it's not intended for self defense and 100% reliability. I'm fine with that for a nickle a round.

golden bullet lol.... aka "dirt with a primer behind it" bang! bang! pop. BANG! lol

 

[whacko]

golden bullet lol.... aka "dirt with a primer behind it" bang! bang! pop. BANG! lol

I don't shoot golden turds. Jesus they make a mess out of the bore.

 

[LLF]

up until i bought the redhawk 45colt/45 acp that was a f'n dog a few years ago, it was 30 years since i had my last headache. that was a walther ppk/s .380 and it was a piece of shit. wouldn't feed anything! went back twice with no results. oddly, the little .22 i run now for fun is a s&w m&p .22 compact made by walther. since the day i took it out of the box it runs and runs and runs. doesn't care what ammo i feed it.

Well I'm glad to know I'm not the only person that has had trouble with the Walther PPK/S. I bought one about 36 years ago and it used to malfunction all the time. Mine was an Interterms, made in USA. I ground and polished the feed ramp last year and that helped. I'm still a Walther fan but only German-made Walthers.
For .22LR shooting I bought a Browning Buckmark Camper and I love it. It will shoot anything, never jams or fails to eject. I also put a set of Wiliams "Fire Sights" on it and I would recommend the Fire Sights to anyone. I recently got a S&W 17 in .22LR. The only ammo the S&W doesn't like is Winchester White Box. When I shoot that it seems like the shells expand in the cylinder and make it hard to eject them. I can shoot Remington Golden Bullets, Blazer, CCI in either gun all day with no problems. OP I hope you get your issues with the Ruger straightened out. I appreciate the frustration of having a gun you were really excited about let you down.

 

[Oldarmy]

I agree with what you guys are saying and especially the hit or miss ammo, that's punny lol. Hey I get what it is for but I still want a toy I paid good money for to actually work. I get it is mainly the auto loader .22 that have the most issues. I read up on these and they seemed like a safe bet and it appears they are not. Some swear by the reliability of them and not many people seem to be taking a dump on these guns so live and learn. I hope I get back something that will work is all.

 

[Daddy Mac]

I hope things work out for you. The 22/45 is a sweet looking pistol and it should work perfectly right out of the box. I owned a MK III Hunter several years ago and it could be a bit ammo sensitive at times. Traded it towards a SW 617 and have never looked back. The revolver is a totally different animal but it fires anything you load into it, anything. Please let us know if Ruger comes through for you, wishing you the best.

 

[Bonesinium]

It’s not realistic to expect a firearm to be able to function perfectly with all types of ammo that have varying degrees of quality, different specs, defects, etc.

You’ve tried just a single type of ammo. If all other ammo besides that one works, I’d say paying good money for something that actually works was achieved. But you wouldn’t know that having not tried.

I just had a firearm choke hard on me at a match last weekend. It had not had an issue before. I didn’t just blame the gun and sent it back. I tested it again yesterday to see what the deal was. It functioned 100% with 6 of the 7 types of ammo I had on hand. It was just that one type I had issues with. Should I still blame the gun? What about if it works with 19 of 20 types? 99 of 100? At what point do you consider it to “actually work”?

 

[Oldarmy]

It’s not realistic to expect a firearm to be able to function perfectly with all types of ammo that have varying degrees of quality, different specs, defects, etc.

You’ve tried just a single type of ammo. If all other ammo besides that one works, I’d say paying good money for something that actually works was achieved. But you wouldn’t know that having not tried.

I just had a firearm choke hard on me at a match last weekend. It had not had an issue before. I didn’t just blame the gun and sent it back. I tested it again yesterday to see what the deal was. It functioned 100% with 6 of the 7 types of ammo I had on hand. It was just that one type I had issues with. Should I still blame the gun? What about if it works with 19 of 20 types? 99 of 100? At what point do you consider it to “actually work”?

I also tried the CCI varmint before I sent it back, same problems. Should have been more clear on that. I posted how I measured to two types and the different OAL they showed.

 

[Ae1m]

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!

95% sure it’s the magazine(s). I have MKIV and bought a few extra mags. Was having the same issues. I scribed a number into all of them, narrowed the failures to 2 of the 6 mags exclusively. Returned the 2 to Ruger, got replacements, all work fine now.

 

[ridleyman]

I bought a mk iv shortly after they came out-no probs whatsoever with CCI minimag and some non-copper plated lead bullets after about 600 rounds. I tried a couple other lighter, quieter loads and, as expected, they didn't cycle the bolt so I did it by hand.

 

[dwarven1]

IMHO, .22 rimfire rarely runs well in an autoloading handgun. The features that allow some .22lr rifles to be reliable (heavier bolt with a long enough through for brass to clear the incoming round, curved magazine, etc) aren't doable in a pocket pistol.

Funny. I've never noticed that in the 3 Ruger Mark I's I've had, the Mark II, the Mark III, the SR-22, or the Buckmark. I'll give you the Beretta 21a, but that only started acting up after a friend futzed with it at the range before I could get it out of his hands.

So I called Ruger and they want to see the gun. Packed it up today and will drop it at FedEx tomorrow. They said should be about 12 days till return, we shall see. I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again for the input.

Long lead time; they must be busy. They put my wife's Mark II back to rights in pretty short order after the hammer strut spring assembly broke. (she bought it used; from how loose it was generally, I'm guessing it had 30-40K rounds through it before she got it. Ruger made it nice and tight again, though.)

Part of the reason I still have like 3000 rounds of 22 from pre obamascare times... I think in the past 10 years I've run 22 pistol like a half dozen times. they're just frustrating and annoying to clean constantly.

22lr has a lot of grades of ammo.for it, that's part of the problem. 22 pistols have always sucked, or always have had a range of ammunition limitations. Some of it I think is hard to engineer around.

What is this "clean" you speak of? You mean running a bore snake through it every year? Seriously, what kind of .22s do you have, Mike, that are such crap? I love my .22s - totally reliable.

 

[LLF]

Funny. I've never noticed that in the 3 Ruger Mark I's I've had, the Mark II, the Mark III, the SR-22, or the Buckmark. I'll give you the Beretta 21a, but that only started acting up after a friend futzed with it at the range before I could get it out of his hands.



Long lead time; they must be busy. They put my wife's Mark II back to rights in pretty short order after the hammer strut spring assembly broke. (she bought it used; from how loose it was generally, I'm guessing it had 30-40K rounds through it before she got it. Ruger made it nice and tight again, though.)





What is this "clean" you speak of? You mean running a bore snake through it every year? Seriously, what kind of .22s do you have, Mike, that are such crap? I love my .22s - totally reliable.

Amen to that. I also love my .22s. No I wouldn't rely on them in a life or death situation but for a couple of hours at the range they are great. You can put holes in paper for 4¢ a round or 20¢ a round. Same holes (different sizes). Speaking for myself I clean all my guns religiously after every range trip. I shoot a lot of Remington Golden Bullet because it's cheap and readily available. My guns clean up easy after each visit so I have no complaints. If I was shooting top of the line ammunition I would do the same thing.