I'm a fairly new shooter, and I've never owned a new gun before. I recently got my first, a new Ruger Mark III Target. I took it to the range for the first time last night, and had a lot of trouble with it. The initial problem was a failure to feed (spring on the mag was sticking, wasn't pushing the next round up far enough), and then it started jamming on empty cartriges. All told I put about 100 rounds through it, and had maybe 6-8 of each type of failure. As I mentioned, the gun was (supposedly) NIB, I was using the original Ruger mags, and I was shooting CCI/Blazer .22LR.
So what's the deal? I heard it mentioned that new guns require a "break in period." Is that what's going on? If so, how do I properly break it in? Should I buy different ammo (I was shooting the cheapest stuff FS had)? Please let me know your thoughts. I'm gone over the weekend, so I'd like to take it out again tonight before I leave and see if I can iron out the kinks. Thanks.
And come to think of it, it didn't seem to be terrible accurate either. Granted I'm a new shooter and a terrible shot, as was my friend who was shooting with me, but we both put 50 rounds through the Ruger and through a S&W 686 (.38sp) and we both were far more accurate with the S&W, even though it had the larger round. Maybe that was just a fluke.
So what's the deal? I heard it mentioned that new guns require a "break in period." Is that what's going on? If so, how do I properly break it in? Should I buy different ammo (I was shooting the cheapest stuff FS had)? Please let me know your thoughts. I'm gone over the weekend, so I'd like to take it out again tonight before I leave and see if I can iron out the kinks. Thanks.
And come to think of it, it didn't seem to be terrible accurate either. Granted I'm a new shooter and a terrible shot, as was my friend who was shooting with me, but we both put 50 rounds through the Ruger and through a S&W 686 (.38sp) and we both were far more accurate with the S&W, even though it had the larger round. Maybe that was just a fluke.