Some problems with the Ruger Mark III .22 rf pistols

This was added as a post in another section. I wanted people to see this post.

We have 5 Ruger Mark III Pistols that our gun club owns. I have worked on at least 50 other Mark III's.

In about 50% of them the top of the magazine lips are too high when locked into the pistol. This causes the extracted fired ctg case to hit the magazine lips before the ctg case hits the ejector. This spins the ctg case backwards and the next ctg in the magazine causes a double load situation. This does not happen all the time but often enough to ruin a rapid fire pistol match if you don't fix it.


Also 40-50% of the mark III pistols have really heavy triggers. I was given one Mark III to do a trigger job on. When I first tried the trigger pull I thought the safety was on. Mark I &II pistols would have never left the factory in this condition.

There is a trigger stop screw on the front of the trigger on the Ruger mark III target pistols. They are NEVER set at the factory. The stop is always screwed all the way in and does not work as intended. The Mark I&II pistols had their trigger stops set at the factory.

Ruger has turned a fine pistol into a problem for some of their owners. I have seen it over and over again and it would only take $20 or $30 more to market a really good handgun, instead of a handgun that has to be gunsmithed before it is serviceable in the way the buyer expected it to be when purchased.

Of the 5 pistols we bought, we had 3 magazines that you could not even load ammunition into. No excuse for sloppy quality control. The Mark II is a better buy used than the Mark III is new.

I buy older firearms used because the bean counters, at that time, did not interfere with the products.

Doug Bowser
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Bean counters are ruining a lot of industries

I have a mid 80's MkII Gov. Target. A buddy shot it and decided to get one. Of course he had to get a MkIII. After shooting his he sent it back complaining of double feeds, heavy trigger and magazines not dropping clear when hitting the mag release. Ruger returned it saying they found no issues. He put it on the consignment shelf and started looking for a MkII.

I have a brand new MKIII Target and the only problem I have is one of the magazines has to be shoved in pretty swift to lock in. The other one seems to work fine.

Love my mkll!

I too have a Mark III and have experienced jamming as described by Doug. I have sent it back to the factory for repairs and it's much better, just not sure that it has been completely corrected. One thing I did come to realize is that it jammed more often with the CCI Mini-Mags versus the standard velocity .22s. My first thought was that the increased gas pressure was trying to make the bolt retract too fast therefore causing the extractor to release the spent casing before it should have. Thanks for the great information.

Got this Mark II from Doug a couple years ago now....

Ruger triggers in general are poor. The old models had good triggers only by comparison to the new ones...

I guess I got lucky. I just bought a Mark III target and no issues whatsoever through the first 100 rounds.

I am pleased with mine so far.

Since this old post got revived I'll chime in. My new 22/45 Lite has been flawless through the first several hundred of rounds. It is common knowledge that Mark III mags will not drop free due to the mag disconnect. It is pretty easy to remove this and there are great step by step vids out there that will walk you through it. That said I knew the trigger would not touch my old Mark II targets trigger before I bought the gun. Target triggers cost more in almost any gun. For plinking(what most that buy the gun will do) the trigger is fine. I will be putting a Volquartsen Mark II trigger in mine soon to get the trigger I want and to get rid of the mag disconnect. I do like that Ruger finally came out with the Lite upper to go with the Lite poly lower.

I've been lucky to have a MKIII and it hasn't failed to fire yet. Did remove the mag safety , and install a trigger with pre, and over travel adjustments though. Sweet shooting little Ruger. Bet it could be even nicer with a trigger job.