Ruger Mark IV?

[Tinkermatic]

Rented a Mark IV Target at the range today and put a few hundred rounds through it. I had more than a few FTFire with multiple manufacturers and a pair of double feeds. Brand new Federal Champion, decades old CCI Blazer, CCI mini mag and Remington Thuderbolt. All had at least 1 if not more failures, the most prominent being the Federal Champion I picked up a week ago. All said, out of 200 rounds I had 10 or so failures. The 18 year old Blazer seemed to work the best.

Is this a gun issue? Ammo issue? Weak spring? Range gun, probably a high round count...hypothesizing. Or, is this just synonomous with .22LR auto pistols? It's unfortunate because I was hoping to pick up a .22 semi-auto pistol and this was not a promising outing. They don't have a Walther or Ruger SR22 to rent, as those would be my first choices just because of the similarity to my VP9. Still a lot of fun and accurate, albeit frustrating.

Is this typical? Is it the ammo? Is it the gun? Are .22 pistols just finicky?

I looked at other threads and couldn't seem to find anything one way or the other. Hoping those with more experience can chime in.

Thanks in advance.

-Dave

 

[Dradian]

Was the range gun ever cleaned(my guess is no, or rarely)?

I have a mark IV and it has been completely reliable with all kinds of ammo. I also clean my 22s, so I'm sure that helps.

 

[Ae1m]

I had the same problem with Mark 4 and I have multiple mags. After a careful range session, I determined it to be with only 1 mag and I could not tell by close examination what the problem was. All very clean and polished. Got rid of that one and no problems whatsoever. In my experience over many years, a majority of these things end up being the magazine. I now have 2 Mark 4s and a total of 8 mags with no problems running all kinds of ammo from expensive Eley to cheapo Remington. No need for CCI mini mags as many think. (My Mark 4s are both the Mark 4 Lites)

 

[Tinkermatic]

Was the range gun ever cleaned(my guess is no, or rarely)?

I have a mark IV and it has been completely reliable with all kinds of ammo. I also clean my 22s, so I'm sure that helps.

This was at Mass Firearms in Holliston. They seem to be pretty good about cleaning? however, the round count and thoroughness of cleaning was where I was leaning. How many rounds through yours?

Responses like yours were exactly what I was hoping for.
Thanks

 

[Tinkermatic]

I had the same problem with Mark 4 and I have multiple mags. After a careful range session, I determined it to be with only 1 mag and I could not tell by close examination what the problem was. All very clean and polished. Got rid of that one and no problems whatsoever. In my experience over many years, a majority of these things end up being the magazine. I now have 2 Mark 4s and a total of 8 mags with no problems running all kinds of ammo from expensive Eley to cheapo Remington. No need for CCI mini mags as many think. (My Mark 4s are both the Mark 4 Lites)

What's a Mark IV lite? Only 1 mag at the range, and it had definitely seen a fair number of rounds, so there's that.

 

[Dradian]

This was at Mass Firearms in Holliston. They seem to be pretty good about cleaning? however, the round count and thoroughness of cleaning was where I was leaning. How many rounds through yours?

Responses like yours were exactly what I was hoping for.
Thanks

I have around 1.5k through mine, about 70% of it suppressed.

I agree with Ae1m, if it was not filthy, next most likely cause would be magazine.

The Ruger Mark I/II/III/IV are well proven and reliable for the most part.

 

[RumRunner]

I have a Mark IV Hunter, about 1,000 rounds through it so far. Only issues I had with it were when I was trying to get rid of some old Remington ammo, all newer ammo ran through with no problems.

 

[Glocknerd13]

I'll chime in for the Federal Champion. That blue box .22 stuff is cheap, but its dirty as hell and I've seen it FTFire in just about any .22 its been fed through, rifle and pistol. Remington ammo is even worse IMO. Also what was the temp? Its probably a longshot but waxy ammo in my Mk4 just jams up once its <40F.

 

[Tinkermatic]

I'll chime in for the Federal Champion. That blue box .22 stuff is cheap, but its dirty as hell and I've seen it FTFire in just about any .22 its been fed through, rifle and pistol. Remington ammo is even worse IMO. Also what was the temp? Its probably a longshot but waxy ammo in my Mk4 just jams up once its <40F.

I honestly haven’t bought .22 since 2001, and then, my Mom had to do it for me. $20 for a brick seemed decent.
It’s a well ventilated indoor range, lots of people on it today, oddly enough for 11:00 on a Wednesday. I’d say it was close to 60 degrees. It wasn’t the jamming as much as the FTFire that was causing concern.

 

[Glocknerd13]

I honestly haven’t bought .22 since 2001, and then, my Mom had to do it for me. $20 for a brick seemed decent.
It’s a well ventilated indoor range, lots of people on it today, oddly enough for 11:00 on a Wednesday. I’d say it was close to 60 degrees. It wasn’t the jamming as much as the FTFire that was causing concern.

FTFs would mostly be a underpowered hammer, a defective firing pin. Or most likely the. 22 primers. I was shooting a match last week, kid had a FTF every 8ish rounds with the federal champion.

 

[TomMontana]

I'm at 6,000 rounds on a Mark IV. Mini-mags were the only one that minimized any issues. I also filed down part of the barrel ext to provide more space for the ejector to work. Then after a few hundred rounds of mini-mags to break it in, I've been using crappy Fed Automatch since. I'll still get a stove pipe here and there.

 

[Ae1m]

What's a Mark IV lite? Only 1 mag at the range, and it had definitely seen a fair number of rounds, so there's that.

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Ruger® Mark IV™ 22/45™ Lite Rimfire Pistol Models