Yesterday, I shot a club .22 pistol match, a Bianchi Cup "Los Alamitos" match. Shot from 7, 10, and 25 yards. Shot with both hands, strong hand only, weak hand only, one stage requires a rapid reload on the clock.

Years ago, I purged myself of semi-automatic pistols for defense, I"ve been carrying revolvers only for defensive purposes for the last ten years or so. Got rid of all my semi-auto centerfire pistols, keeping only Smith and Wesson revolvers for sport, competition and defense, keeping only a Ruger .22 pistol for practice and competition. One of the reasons I went revolver only is that I have experienced many malfunctions with any semi-auto pistol during competition, shooter induced, ammo induced and pistol induced. Not so with revolvers....

I decided to shoot the Ruger in yesterdays match becasue of the rapid reload stage. I can't reload my 4" K .22 Combat Masterpiece quickly using HKS speedloaders, so went with the Ruger.

I was having a great run, shot the 7 and 10 yard stages clean, all "X's" and 10's. 24 rounds run so far, perfect string. Moved the targets to the 25 yard barricade stage, fired one round from the Ruger, and it jammed, couldn't clear it before time ran out. Reloaded for the last six round string, another jam! 10 rounds scored as misses!

That Ruger pistol has been mostly trouble free for the last six years and thousands of rounds, but when it counted, it let me down...

I am going to work on my reloads with the K .22, even going over time and maybe getting one penalty is better than relying on a bottom feeder when your handgun must be 100% reliable!

Go to a revolver that takes "moon clips". With round nose bullets it makes for awesome reloads. Another plus is that it doesn't scatter your empty brass all over the landscape... they are all neatly contained in clumps of 6.

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A closed mouth gathers no foot

Look on line for some different approaches to speed loading. Might help.

B2

You didn't say what ammo you where using and I am guessing it is a MII pistol??

One fix that really helps is changing out the extractor with the VQ version and a new Ruger spring not the one that comes with the VQ. Also replace the magazine springs with new Wolf springs. If you shot the gun a lot a new recoil spring assembly helps also. Sounds like a lot but it;s only a few dollars and makes a big difference.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I've run my Ruger 22/45, my Ruger MKII, and a Browning Buckmark for years with any kind of malfunction very rare. But in the last year or so, malfunctions have become more and more prevelant with my .22 autoloaders and I'm convinced it's the ammo.

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- Change it back -

Try a change of ammo. I bought a used Mk. II last year. I had a few incidental failures to feed using recently purchased ammo. Changed to CCI Blazer 40gr. RN and had no further problems. Recently fired some Federal Lightening bought back in 1985. I was frankly surprised not only at how well they functioned, but the on target accuracy produced by that Mk. II using ammo that in 1985 was about the cheapest one could buy. Also try current production CCI Mini-Mags. Either HP or RN, they seem to be loaded to full power and to run well in my Mk. II as well as various semi-auto rifles. HTH. Sincerely. bruce.

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So how much you willing to give me to take that jam-o-matic off our hands?

What model Ruger?

Don't your matchs have a revolver division? That way you would be shooting aginst other revolvers.

The pistol is a Ruger .22/45 MKIII, bought it new about six years ago. I recently sent the pistol back to Ruger for a re-build, they replaced just about every spring and wear part in the pistol, everything but the firing pin.

I had put about 1000 rounds through it since getting it back, with no problems. It shoots Federal Auto-Match reliably, so that is what I was using for the match. I am going to try some other brands of ammo, I should have been using CCI Mini Mags, but it had been running so good with the Federal Auto-Match.

Our club matches make no distinctions between pistols and revolvers, but they do even the playng field by having six shot strings in action matches.

I have no problem making speedy reloads with centerfire revolvers, but the HKS .22 rimfire speedloader is hard to use as not much of the cartridges stick out to align with the cylinder, and the rounds won't just drop in, most times you have to push them in by hand. Makes for a slow reload.

This is the only rimfire match of the season that requires a speedy reload, so I can use my revolver for the rest of the matches that come up.

I'll sort out the pistol, find out what went wrong, hopefully it's just a bad batch of ammo.

You did not say how it was jamming, Stovepipe, fail to eject, mis fire?

Lets just say I have more than one of them, The VQ extractor solves many problems plus it throws them so far it hits your competition in the head and distracts them.

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Still Running Against the Wind

The pistol would fire the first round chambered from the magazine, then the second round would fail to feed, bolt jammed up against the round trying to get into the chamber. Only way to clear it would be to drop the magazine, get rid of the bad round, then re-charge the pistol.

Tried two brand new magazines, same result.

I'll clean the pistol good, then try some different ammo.

Try the new extractor and recoil spring assembly. You have nothing to lose. Mine will feed any and all bulk ammo.
They are older MK II's

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Still Running Against the Wind

Give your Ruger a good cleaning and CCI Blazers. You will be good to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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S&WHF 366