Ruger Mk III stovepipe jam fix

[charlesb]

My Ruger Mk III pistol was prone to stovepipe jams. It would get one and sometimes two of them in each magazine full of ammo.

I kept asking around different forums until somebody told me that the magazine could be modified to fix this problem.

There are two pairs of lips on the magazine, separated by a gap through which the rim of the case rises while feeding. The rear pair of lips have a squared-off edge that the case sometimes contacts after firing, before it has a chance to move backward far enough to hit the ejector.

When this happens, you get a stovepipe jam.

By rounding off and polishing the front edge of the rear set of magazine lips, this problem is eliminated.

I rounded and polished the front edge of the rear set of magazine lips with a Moto-Tool and some #400 grit wetordry sandpaper, and polished the upper edge of the front set of lips. - After that, no more stovepipe jams!

In the picture which follows, two magazines are shown. Both have the follower held down and out of the way with a toothpick. The rearmost clip is stock, the one in front is modified.

{ Click the image to see it magnified. Click the magnified image to see it even bigger. }

[Bob_W]

Charles:

My brother and I both have 22/45 MkIII's and when they were new it was not uncommon to have a least one or more jam per magazine. The jams were typically failure to eject, sometimes failure to feed and a few stove pipes. I eventually removed the loaded chamber indicator and have not had a problem since. My brother waited a while and then removed his also. I will take a look at my magazines and try your modification and see what happens.

Thanks for the info.
Bob

[charlesb]

It made a dramatic difference on my particular gun. It went from averaging one or two smokestack jams per magazine to the point where I experienced one jam out of 250 rounds.

The one that jammed was some ammo I normally only fire in my TC Contender, some un-plated, low power target stuff. ( Winchster T22 ) The bulk Winchester plated hollowpoints did not jam at all.

I would not miss the loaded chamber indicator, but hate to disable or remove it unless I really need to. It can be disabled by taking it out and removing the metal part, and then putting the plastic part back in, to fill the gap in the receiver.

I've noticed that I never actually use it... When I'm curious about my pistol's condition, I pull the slide back slightly and look inside, just as if the LCI were not there.

[ctrmass]

Common problem with the MK series. I have a MKII govt stainless and never had that problem.
I'm told you can also remove a few thousandths off of the mag release. If I had a bunch of magazines I think I'd go that route.
Dad's Mk1 had a jam problem but I dont think it was ever cleaned prior to him purchasing it.
I gave it a good thorough going through and it's been 100% since.