Who Cleans their guns? Ruger Mark III reliability confirmed

[RugerSlinger]

My wife bought herself a Ruger Mark III about 4 and a half years ago, she loves the gun and has put over 10,000 rds thru her. I have never taken it apart as I have heard how much of a pain it was. I never had a reliability problem with it until the last time we went to the range we and had 2 ftf.
That was right before Christmas and while we were at the range another gentleman was there with his Mark III that had a Volquartsen trigger in it. He let her try it and she loved the trigger on it so like a good hubby I bought her a Volquartsen accurizing kit for Christmas. 
I finally got the time to install the trigger kit Saturday, and I figured while I was installing it, I might as well give it a good cleaning. When I finally pulled it apart I couldn’t believe this thing still fired. Haha Just goes to show you these things can take some abuse and neglect.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

All Cleaned up inside. Yay

I will get a picture up of it all done once my computer stops acting up

 

[DW357]

I use Gun Scrubber on my Mark III Hunter, makes cleaning VERY easy. Blast it out and then I spray the internals generously with Hornady one shot dry lube/cleaner. Using oil or CLP afterwards makes it way to messy and wet which causes it to pick up every bit of fouling. Not so much with the Hornady stuff.

But WOW that's dirty

 

[Gak44]

I bought a used MK3/ 22/45 a couple years ago. Only cleaned it a couple times so far. Its not too bad, once you do it a couple times. But thank God for some of those U Tube vids!!

 

[DrBurnsides]

Only hurts the first dozen times you do it.. Gun scrubber FTW for intermediates.

 

[IROC403]

+1 for youtube lol, its easy after a few times tho

 

[spt_1955]

1. I believe that the Mark III would stand up to that abuse. I have 2 of them.
2. Every Mark III should have the Volquartsen accurizing kit installed. Mine do.
3. What did people do before Youtube?
4. Why would you ignore your pistol like that?????

P.S. did you really use that brass hammer to take down the Ruger?

Wow.

 

[92G]

Pics w all the dirt grime make me cringe.
i put 1 mag through a firearm and it gets a full scrubdown....not saying this is a good thing just that im mental.
interesting to see how long it ran w/o cleaning


did the LCI jam and cause the FTFs? Its another reason i pulled mine out.

 

[coachjpg]

I was trained by a Marine. He's long dead now. If I don't clean a gun when I return from the range, I can feel his disapproval until the gun is clean. It's not exactly like being haunted. I think of him more as a very vocal guardian angel. USMC vocal.

I teach & coach pistol and rifle, so I can come home from a long day at the range with 2 dozen dirty guns and a 5-gallon bucket full of empty brass. Given a bore-snake every 500 rounds or so, the Ruger .22 pistols can easily go through over 1,000 rounds in a single range session. When I first started doing this, I could be up all night getting all those guns cleaned to USMC standards.

I got a small parts cleaner from Grizzly, and filled it with DunkIt solvent from Cylinder & Slide. It makes short work of cleaning chores. I can hose out all the gunk from down in the guts of a pistol without fully disassembling it. I mostly just field strip. If it's really bad, I remove the grips, train the parts cleaner hose on the gunked-up area, and go eat dinner. It's almost like a dish-washer for guns. The solvent is a cleaner and preservative, but it's not a lubricant, so I lube the guns after cleaning.

My daughter the ecologist approves of the fact that my solvent is recycled and filtered, rather than using spray cans and sending most of the solvent to the landfill. I've used my first bucket of solvent for about a decade now. Once in a while I'll change the filter, and I imagine there's a layer of crud on the bottom of the parts cleaner tank, but the solvent coming out of the nozzle looks as clean as it did when new. The initial investment is large compared to the cost of a spray can, but for industrial scale cleaning, it was a huge help.

I also have a pistol rack that sits submerged in the solvent. I can remove the grips and leave half a dozen guns soaking. It's tough to clean out all the solvent when I do that, so that treatment is reserved for seriously caked-on crud.

There are no aerosol fumes, so I'm not breathing nasty chemicals when I clean.

I also found that I was able to get rid of crud I'd previously been able to see deep in the mechanisms of pistols, but could never really reach before. My guns are much cleaner now, even though my cleaning time is a fraction of what it was. And I can rest easy knowing my guns would pass my guardian angel's inspection.

 

[RugerSlinger]

I didn't use the brass hammer to take the upper off, I used it to remove and install some pins. They were pretty easy, didn't require much force. I am very good about cleaning all my other guns but this one always got put on the back burner because I never had a problem with it. I shoot mostly precision bolt guns and I only clean them every 400-500 rounds, I was always taught that you can over clean and actually do more harm than good if cleaning too often. I only clean when necessary or if it is my carry gun.

When it jammed it was just because the ramp was so carboned up and the chamber was very dirty. The LCI was very sticky though, I'm kinda surprised that didn't cause the jam.

Here she is all clean, still trying to decide on a pattern for cerakote on it.

 

[Gammon]

I use Gun Scrubber on my Mark III Hunter, makes cleaning VERY easy. Blast it out and then I spray the internals generously with Hornady one shot dry lube/cleaner. Using oil or CLP afterwards makes it way to messy and wet which causes it to pick up every bit of fouling. Not so much with the Hornady stuff.

But WOW that's dirty

I would not trust Hornaday One Shot to lube a pistol or revolver. Careful application of a quality lube is well worth the effort.

 

[drgrant]

Pretty amazing... howd she keep it running? Just kept lubing it?

 

[Gammon]

I am a big fan of maintaining my guns but I do not think that religiously cleaning them after each use is necessary or wise, especially with new ones. After break in I usually fire the gun for an extended period without cleaning. Why? To find out how reliable this weapon is. If you clean a gun religiously after every two or three hundred rounds, all you know for sure is that gun will go two or three hundred rounds without cleaning. I want to know more.

Once upon a time I was competing with a beautiful custom .45 ($2800 in 1980's money) which I slavishly maintained, cleaning it after every use. The gun performed flawlessly with virtually no malfunctions after break in. At this point I knew for sure that the gun would go about 350 rounds without cleaning and function reliably. I used this pistol to shoot a Bianchi match in Vermont and put over 300 rounds through it. As I was leaving, a friend suggested that I accompany him (we were both on motorcycles) on a trip south to Westfield MA for the Sun IPSC match. I shot the match and, after about 100 rounds the gun started to stove pipe, ruining my day.

Careful examination of the pistol revealed that the extractor tension was insufficient, i.e. I had a bad extractor. The part would work just fine as long as the gun was clean and well lubed but would fail if it got dirty. The part was defective as I tried adjusting the tension, but found that extended use would result in failure. A new part cured the problem. I learned my lesson, if you expect reliability out of your guns, test them before you actually have depend on them.

 

[RugerSlinger]

Pretty amazing... howd she keep it running? Just kept lubing it?

As long as i kept the bolt lubed she shot fine. I was really surprised myself it shot that long without cleaning. I had an m&p15-22 that had close to 2500 rounds without cleaning and it finally started to malfunction. When it did, it was pretty bad. The bolt didn't fully close and somehow the it still allowed the hanger to drop, the round fired and blew the side of the casing out. When it blew out, it blew the extractor out of the bolt. I was at the outdoor range and to my surprise i found all the pieces,even the tiny spring. Nothing broke so i was able to clean it and put it back together at the range and keep firing it the rest of the day. This is why i always bring tools with meto the range.

 

[atilla]

that's probably what mine looks like. never cleaned it. i'll clean it when it quits working.

 

[Chet0729]

I have cleaned my MKIII a few times, not because it was malfunctioning just because it looked really bad and I couldn't stand to look at it anymore. Strip it, run it through the Ultrasonic, then a very light lube

 

[Fattman]

I can no longer disassemble my MKIII, i was training my wife how to break it down and clean it and during the process with the mainspring out she pulled the bolt a little back and no longer will the mainspring come out of the gun. I have tried everything to drive it out and and just wont budge. My pride is keeping me from sending it to ruger, anyone have an idea how to get it out? I will give someone $20 if they can get it out, it is down on the southshore near lakeville/carver.

 

[45collector]

I can no longer disassemble my MKIII, i was training my wife how to break it down and clean it and during the process with the mainspring out she pulled the bolt a little back and no longer will the mainspring come out of the gun. I have tried everything to drive it out and and just wont budge. My pride is keeping me from sending it to ruger, anyone have an idea how to get it out? I will give someone $20 if they can get it out, it is down on the southshore near lakeville/carver.

They can certainly be a pain. PM sent; I'm close to you.

 

[knfmn]

I can no longer disassemble my MKIII, i was training my wife how to break it down and clean it and during the process with the mainspring out she pulled the bolt a little back and no longer will the mainspring come out of the gun. I have tried everything to drive it out and and just wont budge. My pride is keeping me from sending it to ruger, anyone have an idea how to get it out? I will give someone $20 if they can get it out, it is down on the southshore near lakeville/carver.

Try holding the *unloaded* pistol upside down at about a 45 degree angle and pulling the trigger. Hold the trigger back and give it a few good shakes. You should hear the hammer strut rattle. It takes a little bit of doing, but eventually you'll get it right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn-pEo1HPu0

If that doesn't help you, PM me a phone number and I'll try to talk you through it.

 

[Chet0729]

I can no longer disassemble my MKIII, i was training my wife how to break it down and clean it and during the process with the mainspring out she pulled the bolt a little back and no longer will the mainspring come out of the gun. I have tried everything to drive it out and and just wont budge. My pride is keeping me from sending it to ruger, anyone have an idea how to get it out? I will give someone $20 if they can get it out, it is down on the southshore near lakeville/carver.

So is the main spring out or not. With the main spring out and the hammer down the bolt should just fall out.
If the main spring is actually out of the gun you should be able to see the hammer in the hole the main spring came out of. You can move it with a paper clip.
I am a ways from you but if you want to come here I will look at it. I recently reassembled one that another customer came into the local gun shop with in a bag.

 

[ScottS]

O

Try holding the *unloaded* pistol upside down at about a 45 degree angle and pulling the trigger. Hold the trigger back and give it a few good shakes. You should hear the hammer strut rattle. It takes a little bit of doing, but eventually you'll get it right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn-pEo1HPu0

If that doesn't help you, PM me a phone number and I'll try to talk you through it.

Perfect instructions for getting the mainspring back into the gun. He can't get the mainspring out.

 

[knfmn]

O

Perfect instructions for getting the mainspring back into the gun. He can't get the mainspring out.

Which is where the first part of my directions comes into play. Get the hammer strut away from the mainspring and he'll be able to swivel it the rest of the way out of the pistol.

 

[allen-1]

I have a Colt 9mm Defender, (think small 1911 frame). Great carry gun and I field strip it and clean it after each range trip. I was absolutely *shocked* one day at a ConTact match when it failed to fire. You know that "click" instead of "bang" that just makes you feel so good? Ducked back behind cover, slapped the mag, racked the slide (saw the bullet eject), came back on target and went CLICK again. Damn...

One of the more experienced shooters asked me if I ever did anything more than fieldstrip the firearm for cleaning, and when I said no, he showed me how to take it apart. The firing pin/spring channel was so gummed up that the firing pin block was stuck in place. We got it running, and when I went home I took it apart much more thoroughly and cleaned it. Now I take the slide apart every 500 rounds or so to keep this from happening again.

 

[Acme.Armament]

My wife bought herself a Ruger Mark III about 4 and a half years ago, she loves the gun and has put over 10,000 rds thru her. I have never taken it apart as I have heard how much of a pain it was. I never had a reliability problem with it until the last time we went to the range we and had 2 ftf.

That is typical of the Ruger Mark series owner who has not installed a Speed Strip kit. Put a Speed Strip kit from Majestic Arms in it and cleaning will be easy.

that's probably what mine looks like. never cleaned it. i'll clean it when it quits working.

See above atilla.

 

[45collector]

There are certain guns I own that I don't bother cleaning after every time I shoot them. Glock 19, AK, any of my hunting guns. Most of them though, get a basic scrubbing of the internals with CLP and a toothbrush, and a CLP-soaked swab down the pipe before wiping everything down, re-oiling and putting back in the safe. I shoot a lot of milsurp guns though so I take better care of them than I do the more common, widely available, easily replaceable guns (as in the G19).

 

[Gammon]

There are certain guns I own that I don't bother cleaning after every time I shoot them. Glock 19, AK, any of my hunting guns. Most of them though, get a basic scrubbing of the internals with CLP and a toothbrush, and a CLP-soaked swab down the pipe before wiping everything down, re-oiling and putting back in the safe. I shoot a lot of milsurp guns though so I take better care of them than I do the more common, widely available, easily replaceable guns (as in the G19).

By CLP I am assuming you are referring to "Break Free" which is a lubricant. Why would you clean a gun with lube? A solvent such as brake parts cleaner or carb cleaner is more effective and a lot cheaper.

 

[ScottS]

By CLP I am assuming you are referring to "Break Free" which is a lubricant. Why would you clean a gun with lube? A solvent such as brake parts cleaner or carb cleaner is more effective and a lot cheaper.

CLP, including Break-Free CLP, stands "Cleaner Lubricant Preservative."

 

[45collector]

CLP, including Break-Free CLP, stands "Cleaner Lubricant Preservative."

Exactly. I try not to use stuff as potent as brake cleaner on my guns if I don't have to. If I clean the gun the same day its been fired every time, CLP does the trick no problem. I know plenty of guys use brake cleaner and similar stuff to clean guns (I've used it to remove lead fouling from guns that were left dirty for years) but I'm pretty sure CLP is much less harsh on the finish.

Oh and Fattman brought his MKIII by yesterday, and it turns out a pin in the main spring assembly had walked out and was resting against the step on the inside of the frame, making it impossible to remove the main spring assembly. Thats a tough one since you can't get any tools into that area of the frame with the gun still assembled.
I wasn't able to free up the gun. I have brought much disgrace to my family name and now must commit seppuku with a dull, rusty AK bayonet.

 

[mac1911]

My wife bought herself a Ruger Mark III about 4 and a half years ago, she loves the gun and has put over 10,000 rds thru her. I have never taken it apart as I have heard how much of a pain it was. I never had a reliability problem with it until the last time we went to the range we and had 2 ftf.
That was right before Christmas and while we were at the range another gentleman was there with his Mark III that had a Volquartsen trigger in it. He let her try it and she loved the trigger on it so like a good hubby I bought her a Volquartsen accurizing kit for Christmas. 
I finally got the time to install the trigger kit Saturday, and I figured while I was installing it, I might as well give it a good cleaning. When I finally pulled it apart I couldn’t believe this thing still fired. Haha Just goes to show you these things can take some abuse and neglect.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

All Cleaned up inside. Yay

I will get a picture up of it all done once my computer stops acting up

I will say that's not to bad for 10k rounds. Good ammo ?
My dad used to wait until we went camping in the Orange Ma area. Collect any guns needing real gunsmith work and drop them off and he would pick them up come hunting season . I have long forgot that gun Smith (30+ years) I do remember him saying once. " I have repaired more guns damaged from cleaning than I have from being dirty" maintaining your guns is good but you don't have to detail strip every time.
When I first bought mine I asked one of the bullseye shooters how to take it apart.
With his southern accent he barked..... is it broken....I said no. He then said....son you don't need to take them mk pistols appart unless they break. A,little spray cleaner every 1000+rounds or so and lube.
I don't clean my barrel until I see accuracy fade...he had a MK I II and III. Showed me his mk III that he had not cleaned in 3k rounds....was not to bad.
Maybe I'm lucky. I have several guns that are in that "keep then clean/wet with lube or they won't work" category. I have used my father's method and the directions with the guns. I seldom have a problem...
OP......your pistol is now broken in. Good job. Glad to see some got to shoot 10 rounds. Those days are gone for me. As a kid me and my brother would shoot 5k easy on a 5 day camping trip.
Our "jam o holic" model 60 would run just fine the entire summer easily seeing 8-10k each year. With only a hand full of stove pipes.

 

[Stryker]

That is typical of the Ruger Mark series owner who has not installed a Speed Strip kit. Put a Speed Strip kit from Majestic Arms in it and cleaning will be easy. [thumbsup

+1 for the speed strip kit - put mine in a few years ago and makes cleaning pretty easy

 

[Gammon]

CLP, including Break-Free CLP, stands "Cleaner Lubricant Preservative."

I believe that the reference to "cleaner" is similar to the term "detergent" used to describe a function of motor oil. Both lubricants may have additives that help clean the motor/firearm, but they are not intended to be used as cleaning agents.

The last time I checked, Break Free was $6 for 4 oz at the local gun store. This is way too expensive to use for cleaning. The solvents I use are much cheaper, more effective and do not harm any finishes that I am aware of. I do a lot of shooting and cleaning and can't afford to waste money in the process. This caused me to give up on my $6/4oz Break Free. I now use synthetic motor oil which is just as good as Break Free and a lot cheaper at $10 per quart.