Ruger 22/45 MKIII misfires: crappy ammo or something worn out?

[1KPerDay]

I have around 15K rounds through this pistol and I absolutely love it. Volquartsen trigger and sear, clark hammer bushing, LCI disabled, slingshot mod, grip panel mod, custom clark extended mag release, Hi Viz front sight.

It's my go-to pistol for training new shooters and my daughter shoots it in local handgun matches with me. Lately I've been getting lots of misfires. I assumed ammo was just crappy, as the first 10K rounds I think I only had one dud. Mostly Federal Champion, mostly made before 2008 chaos. I ran out of it. Lately I've been shooting CMP Remington SV which seemed OK for a while but one in 20 will feel and sound like a half-charge.

Federal bulk 36 grain plated most recently. About one in 10 or 20 are duds, but most fire on a reload/restrike. Some don't. I cleaned the gun thoroughly, and even replaced the extractor and firing pin with the Volquartsen ones to see if the firing pin was worn or something. Still getting lots of misfires.

Is there a chance the mainspring is worn out? It still feels the same, but it's the only thing I haven't tried replacing.

Or is it just bad ammo, do you think?

 

[1KPerDay]

 

[azrocks]

Unless my eyes are tricking me 1 out of every 2 strikes on those cases looks lighter than the other, as if something is occasionally preventing the bolt from fully seating. Might be slowing it down just enough to prevent it from consistently returning. Could the extractor be a hair bent? A worn recoil spring might make exacerbate something like that. Or maybe just the recoil spring alone.

 

[1KPerDay]

The strikes look the same to me in person. As noted I tried ruger extractor and volq extractor with same results. Recoil spring looks fine but I'll take another close look at it.

 

[Old Shooter]

Those look like pretty solid hits from the firing pin. I'd try some different ammo, CCI Mini-Mags always work fine for me.

 

[243winxb]

Is that a bevel on the mouth of the chamber that i see in the photo?

I would make sure the action can fully close by cleaning the barrel face and extractor hole well. Does the extractor move as it should, or stiff and sticky?

Make sure the recoil spring assemble is installed correctly, and not riding or dragging on the frame.

Check the ammo by pulling the bullet. You should see if the primer compound as run all the way around the inside of the rim.

Does it misfire will all magazines. If lips got bent, they may drag on the bolt.

 

[243winxb]

Is there a chance the mainspring is worn out?

No.

Or is it just bad ammo, do you think?

Yes, more than likely.

 

[1KPerDay]

ran a quick eval:
60 rounds each (6 mags) fired of the below unless noted otherwise, with number of misfires following each.

Golden bullet 0
Thunderbolts 0 crappy ammo, every third round is a half charge
federal American Eagle suppressor (40 rds) 0
Federal auto match 0
CCI mini mags 0
CCI SV 0
Winchester super x super speed HP 3 in different mags all fired 2nd strike.
Federal AE 1. Didn't fire on restrike close to original strike. Flipped to other side and it fired on restrike.
Federal lightning 1. fired on restrike (flipped sides)
Win super x 36 grain HP 1280 fps 1. Didn't fire on restrike (flipped sides).
40 more mini mags 0

This winchester came out of the box like this...

 

[243winxb]

When a round doesnt fire, pull the bullet. Dump powder. Look to see if the priming compound is under where the firing pin made contact.

 

[1KPerDay]

not a bad idear. best way to pull 22?

 

[kcofohio]

See if you can press a spent casing over the bullet. If so, then use it to wiggle the bullet loose from the charged cartridge.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

^ A steel .223 empty gives me plenty of leverage to break lead bullets free from .22 LR rounds.

 

[kcofohio]

^ A steel .223 empty gives me plenty of leverage to break lead bullets free from .22 LR rounds.

How true!

 

[Fishslayer]

Lately I've been shooting CMP Remington SV which seemed OK for a while but one in 20 will feel and sound like a half-charge.

So the gun IS igniting the primer.

Federal bulk 36 grain plated most recently. About one in 10 or 20 are duds, but most fire on a reload/restrike. Some don't. I cleaned the gun thoroughly, and even replaced the extractor and firing pin with the Volquartsen ones to see if the firing pin was worn or something. Still getting lots of misfires.

I get pretty much the same thing from Fed bulk in multiple 10/22 & Ruger pistols. I have no idea why the stuff is so popular. Try CCI or ELEY primed Aguila. I have 3 bulk packs of the Fed bulk left and it is strictly trade bait. 1 in 10 is a lot of misfires though. Maybe a new hammer spring?

 

[1KPerDay]

contacted ruger and they send me a new firing pin, rebound spring, and rebound thingy. I replaced the rebound spring which was broken again for the second time in about 5K rounds.... shot 100 rounds of fed bulk and got 3 misfires, one that ignited on second strike and 2 that didn't. I'll pull the bullets.

I may try to replace the mainspring if this keeps up and priming compound is in place.

 

[1KPerDay]

So the gun IS igniting the primer.



I get pretty much the same thing from Fed bulk in multiple 10/22 & Ruger pistols. I have no idea why the stuff is so popular.

well like I said the old federal champion (pre-obamascare) was great stuff IME... I shot 10K rounds of it with maybe one misfire.

 

[springer99]

contacted ruger and they send me a new firing pin, rebound spring, and rebound thingy. I replaced the rebound spring which was broken again for the second time in about 5K rounds.... shot 100 rounds of fed bulk and got 3 misfires, one that ignited on second strike and 2 that didn't. I'll pull the bullets.

I may try to replace the mainspring if this keeps up and priming compound is in place.

Federal bulk/Auto-Match ammo is notorious for having ignition problems. My Mk III has a rebound spring that is broken in two places and I've never bothered replacing it(don't know why). In any case, it fires flawlessly when using CCI SV ammo. I returned 5 bricks of Auto-Match to Federal about 3 years ago for that same problem. Guess they still haven't figured out how to prime and crimp cheap 22LR.

 

[FROGO207]

Look at your firing pin. I shot two of my SS MKII versions so much (80K + rounds each) that the back of the firing pin was so peened /bulged out that it would hang up on the back of the bolt channel and not fully strike the bullet rim every time. The back flat on the firing pin should be the same width as the rest of its length. The new one you got should look less bulged if at all. Changing mine along with the rebound spring and cleaning the channel solved my misfires with all ammo but the "Golden Bullets". No mention of you changing the firing pin in your posts so I would suggest you do it as well. FWIW I now have a few spares on hand of each item you had sent to you from Ruger for just in case.

 

[Drail]

Federal rimfire ammo used to be very reliable compared to every other brand I tried and I used to shoot at least two bricks a week. All of the U.S. ammo manufacturers are turning out crap today. I think I have bought one box of rimfire ammo in the last 10 years. It was Winchester and the box was FULL of bad rounds and it was way overpriced but it was the only rimfire ammo I have seen on a shelf in years. Never again. I'll just keep handloading centerfire rounds and sell my rimfire guns. It has gotten ridiculous - it's all overpriced and poorly built. I used to really enjoy shooting rimfire and built a Springfield 1911 just for rimfire use. I'll probably convert it back to .45 ACP now. It does not matter what kind of gun you have if the ammo is this bad. Most of the ammo companies will not even consider building new production facilities for rimfire because they claim the profit margin just isn't high enough.

 

[DeadEye9]

I have around 15K rounds through this pistol and I absolutely love it. Volquartsen trigger and sear, clark hammer bushing, LCI disabled, slingshot mod, grip panel mod, custom clark extended mag release, Hi Viz front sight.

It's my go-to pistol for training new shooters and my daughter shoots it in local handgun matches with me. Lately I've been getting lots of misfires. I assumed ammo was just crappy, as the first 10K rounds I think I only had one dud. Mostly Federal Champion, mostly made before 2008 chaos. I ran out of it. Lately I've been shooting CMP Remington SV which seemed OK for a while but one in 20 will feel and sound like a half-charge.

Federal bulk 36 grain plated most recently. About one in 10 or 20 are duds, but most fire on a reload/restrike. Some don't. I cleaned the gun thoroughly, and even replaced the extractor and firing pin with the Volquartsen ones to see if the firing pin was worn or something. Still getting lots of misfires.

Is there a chance the mainspring is worn out? It still feels the same, but it's the only thing I haven't tried replacing.

Or is it just bad ammo, do you think?

The Ruger Mks tend to be pretty solid target pistols for a very long time. I have a Mk2 that probably has over 100k through it's life on mostly original parts. I changed the mainspring once myself, and I've had it for 20k rounds of life. The parts aren't expensive so it wouldn't hurt to replace anyway, but a good test would be to take a couple hundred rounds of good reliably functioning ammo and see if it malfunctions at all then. For me my go to "testing" ammo is CCI MiniMag 40gr solid. As rugged & reliable as these pistols are, Some of them are certainly very picky with ammo. My old Mk2, MK3 22/45 and my newest Mk4 both tend to only like certain brands/loads. CCI stuff always goes bang every time. Mini mags, stingers, Velocsiters, match, all excellent. Have never had any luck with most Remington-golden, thunders, yellow jacket, cyclone etc generally do good in my rifles but terrible in my MKs. Federal bulk 36gr does better than Remington but still some stoppages so nowhere as good as CCI. Aguilla and Winchester HV and match products do well for me but not their slower stuff. Eley standard LRN works good for mine, and surprisingly Blazer LRN does good as well.

 

[1KPerDay]

Thanks for the ideas. The weird thing is this pistol was very very reliable with all ammo for over 10K rounds. Just lately it's getting more misfires. I ordered a mainspring and will try that. I fired 60 more rounds of federal with 3 misfires, and 60 rounds of CCI SV with one misfire. I will pull these bullets when I remember.

 

[1KPerDay]

Look at your firing pin. I shot two of my SS MKII versions so much (80K + rounds each) that the back of the firing pin was so peened /bulged out that it would hang up on the back of the bolt channel and not fully strike the bullet rim every time. The back flat on the firing pin should be the same width as the rest of its length. The new one you got should look less bulged if at all. Changing mine along with the rebound spring and cleaning the channel solved my misfires with all ammo but the "Golden Bullets". No mention of you changing the firing pin in your posts so I would suggest you do it as well. FWIW I now have a few spares on hand of each item you had sent to you from Ruger for just in case.

Firing pin looks new, replaced with new VQ firing pin, and have new Ruger firing pin also. Nothing seems to make a difference.

 

[DeadEye9]

It could very well be the spring issue then. If the firing pin is in good condition but just not getting reliably hard strikes that is usually a spring issue. Typically they last longer than 10k rounds but there's always exceptions. The mainspring is like $2 so it's worth a shot trying that anyway.

 

[1KPerDay]

Shot it again yesterday and got up to 3 misfires per mag with federal bulk, and 1 with CCI mini-mags (only shot one mag of mini-mags). Pulled a few misfires on the advice of some knowledgable people. The Federals look as though the priming compound was either caked on the walls of the brass and not spun into the rim, and/or the priming compound was improperly formulated and broke up into the powder charge, and/or the priming compound broke up into the powder charge upon being struck with the firing pin. I can't know about that last one but I thought it possible. It appears to me most likely that it was not adhesive enough and has broken up as part of the powder charge. Never seen this before. Not sure it's possible but thought I'd mention it.

The CCI mini-mags I pulled (only a couple duds) seems like the priming compound was in a U shape rather than properly distributed around the rim, and the primer strikes were at the top/open end of the U. Which makes me wonder if it actually was a U shape before struck with the primer, or if the primer strike for some reason didn't ignite the priming compound but knocked that bit of the U off. I didn't notice any priming compound mixed with the powder on the CCIs, however.

Exceedingly difficult to photograph but you might be able to see enough to armchair quarterback something. Thanks for all help and advice. I haven't tried replacing the mainspring yet. Gotta get a round tuit.

 

[Ed Ames]

Do you have another .22 firearm?

If so, is it having the same dud rate with this ammo?