I bought a ruger Mark III 22/45 Target Stainless about 5 years ago as my first gun. My best estimate is that in that time I have put about 20,000 rounds through it, but I haven't really been keeping track. The first time it gave me any issues was a few weeks ago. It was giving me very light primer strikes and was only able to actually fire a few rounds. I took the firing pin out after I got home and noticed that the rebound spring was broken. I ordered and installed a new rebound spring, new firing pin and a new recoil spring assembly and when back to the range.
This range trip, about 9 out of every 10 rounds fired normally, and about 1 out of 10 I would pull the trigger and it felt like it hadn't been reset. I wouldn't hear any click, and it felt like the trigger started out farther back than it should have. I attributed this to the new recoil spring assembly, and assumed the spring was a little too tight and my cheap ammo wasn't pushing the bolt all the way back. What should have been a red flag for me was the fact that when I ejected the round that didn't fire, it looked like it had and extremely light primer strike, even though I didn't feel the gun fire. I know I should have stopped shooting it then and there but I kind of wrote it off as "Maybe my buddy put some rounds that didn't fire last time back in this box and I didn't notice" and I kept going. A few rounds later I pulled the trigger and the brass seemed to blow out the back of the chamber. I thought that there was some defect in the brass, made sure that my barrel was unobstructed, and kept shooting. A few rounds later it happened again, I started trying to put 2 and 2 together and thought that maybe I had one round that I had fired normally and a second round that had slamfired, but it happened so quickly I wasn't sure, and by this point I finally learned my lesson and stopped shooting it.
I thought I must have done something wrong putting in the firing pin and rebound spring so I came home and took the bolt back out, but as far as I can tell everything is in there correctly.
Attached is a picture of one of the shells of a round that I believe slamfired. I circled what I believe is a light primer strike that shouldn't have happened. Also I've attached a few pictures of the bolt and firing pin. I would like to maybe set a fired brass in the chamber and release the bolt onto it, then check for a new primer strike, but I don't know if that is a good idea or not.
Any ideas what I did wrong here? Is the new recoil spring playing a bigger role in these problems than I thought? Have I completely misdiagnosed what is going on here? I look forward to any insight you guys could provide.
This range trip, about 9 out of every 10 rounds fired normally, and about 1 out of 10 I would pull the trigger and it felt like it hadn't been reset. I wouldn't hear any click, and it felt like the trigger started out farther back than it should have. I attributed this to the new recoil spring assembly, and assumed the spring was a little too tight and my cheap ammo wasn't pushing the bolt all the way back. What should have been a red flag for me was the fact that when I ejected the round that didn't fire, it looked like it had and extremely light primer strike, even though I didn't feel the gun fire. I know I should have stopped shooting it then and there but I kind of wrote it off as "Maybe my buddy put some rounds that didn't fire last time back in this box and I didn't notice" and I kept going. A few rounds later I pulled the trigger and the brass seemed to blow out the back of the chamber. I thought that there was some defect in the brass, made sure that my barrel was unobstructed, and kept shooting. A few rounds later it happened again, I started trying to put 2 and 2 together and thought that maybe I had one round that I had fired normally and a second round that had slamfired, but it happened so quickly I wasn't sure, and by this point I finally learned my lesson and stopped shooting it.
I thought I must have done something wrong putting in the firing pin and rebound spring so I came home and took the bolt back out, but as far as I can tell everything is in there correctly.
Attached is a picture of one of the shells of a round that I believe slamfired. I circled what I believe is a light primer strike that shouldn't have happened. Also I've attached a few pictures of the bolt and firing pin. I would like to maybe set a fired brass in the chamber and release the bolt onto it, then check for a new primer strike, but I don't know if that is a good idea or not.
Any ideas what I did wrong here? Is the new recoil spring playing a bigger role in these problems than I thought? Have I completely misdiagnosed what is going on here? I look forward to any insight you guys could provide.