Ruger 22/45 Lite range review

tahunua001 · September 4, 2012, 06:39 PM

hello all.
I recently purchased a ruger 22/45 lite from my LGS and have been gradually putting it through it's paces. over all it's everything you would expect from a 22/45, good trigger, good ergos, solid construction but with all the lightening cuts the gun does seem a little back heavy with a full mag in it, empty though it is perfectly balanced.

at first it was a little discouraging with several fail to fires, fail to cycles, fail to feeds and just about any other malfunction you could imagine. however taking into account that I was using very poor Armscor ammo that has caused problems in every other 22 I've tried I switched to american eagle value packs after 50 rounds of the bad stuff and only had 2 fail to cycles out of 80 rounds.

took it home, sprayed a little CLP in the mags and worked it in and did the same for the bolt and took it back out with 100 rounds of remington bulk pack and 40 rounds of american eagle. no failures but it seemed that after the barrel got hot the groups got very wide from 1 inch groups at 7 yards to barely able to keep it in center mass.

I was pretty happy with it so I took it up to the mountains over labor day weekend and put 100 rounds a day for th entire 3 day trip. I did have issues when I fell into a lake with the gun in my pocket and the ammo got water logged but once I got new ammo in it and gave it a precautionary squirt of CLP it went right back to firing. never did fire fast enough to see if the hot barrel issue went away or not but for cold barrel accuracy I was able to hit smaller frogs at 5 yards and medium pine cones at 25 yards so I am perfectly happy with that accuracy. if I could do it again however I would go with the target model rather than the lite. the longer sight radius is nicer and it's better balanced with a full mag.

I hope this was helpful to anyone considering purchasing one of these fine pistols.

m_liebst · September 5, 2012, 08:46 PM

fell in the lake

Hope ya got all the internals dry.

Seems good accuracy for pine cones at 25 yards.

I do like the threaded barrel, lighter weight, and compactness compared to the target and the hunter. There's always a compromise unfortanutely.

Did ya try any rested shooting for groups?

Keeper dry.

mike

tahunua001 · September 5, 2012, 10:04 PM

not really, I have always had more trouble getting accuracy out of pistols resting than free hand for some reason, probably just a lack of practice I suppose. I doubt the water would hurt much since it's mostly plastic and aluminum but like I said I gave it some CLP just to be safe, it is horribly arid in the mountains this year despite the long wet spring so coupled with the water from the lake I also had to combat some pretty bad dust accumulation. overall it did behave admirably considering the conditions.

September 4, 2012, 06:39 PM	#1
tahunua001 Senior Member Join Date: July 21, 2011 Location: Idaho Posts: 7,839	Ruger 22/45 Lite range review hello all. I recently purchased a ruger 22/45 lite from my LGS and have been gradually putting it through it's paces. over all it's everything you would expect from a 22/45, good trigger, good ergos, solid construction but with all the lightening cuts the gun does seem a little back heavy with a full mag in it, empty though it is perfectly balanced. at first it was a little discouraging with several fail to fires, fail to cycles, fail to feeds and just about any other malfunction you could imagine. however taking into account that I was using very poor Armscor ammo that has caused problems in every other 22 I've tried I switched to american eagle value packs after 50 rounds of the bad stuff and only had 2 fail to cycles out of 80 rounds. took it home, sprayed a little CLP in the mags and worked it in and did the same for the bolt and took it back out with 100 rounds of remington bulk pack and 40 rounds of american eagle. no failures but it seemed that after the barrel got hot the groups got very wide from 1 inch groups at 7 yards to barely able to keep it in center mass. I was pretty happy with it so I took it up to the mountains over labor day weekend and put 100 rounds a day for th entire 3 day trip. I did have issues when I fell into a lake with the gun in my pocket and the ammo got water logged but once I got new ammo in it and gave it a precautionary squirt of CLP it went right back to firing. never did fire fast enough to see if the hot barrel issue went away or not but for cold barrel accuracy I was able to hit smaller frogs at 5 yards and medium pine cones at 25 yards so I am perfectly happy with that accuracy. if I could do it again however I would go with the target model rather than the lite. the longer sight radius is nicer and it's better balanced with a full mag. I hope this was helpful to anyone considering purchasing one of these fine pistols. __________________ ignore my complete lack of capitalization. I still have no problem correcting your grammar. I never said half the stuff people said I did-Albert Einstein You can't believe everything you read on the internet-Benjamin Franklin

September 5, 2012, 10:04 PM	#3
tahunua001 Senior Member Join Date: July 21, 2011 Location: Idaho Posts: 7,839	not really, I have always had more trouble getting accuracy out of pistols resting than free hand for some reason, probably just a lack of practice I suppose. I doubt the water would hurt much since it's mostly plastic and aluminum but like I said I gave it some CLP just to be safe, it is horribly arid in the mountains this year despite the long wet spring so coupled with the water from the lake I also had to combat some pretty bad dust accumulation. overall it did behave admirably considering the conditions. __________________ ignore my complete lack of capitalization. I still have no problem correcting your grammar. I never said half the stuff people said I did-Albert Einstein You can't believe everything you read on the internet-Benjamin Franklin

September 5, 2012, 08:46 PM	#2
m_liebst Senior Member Join Date: February 2, 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 301	fell in the lake Hope ya got all the internals dry. Seems good accuracy for pine cones at 25 yards. I do like the threaded barrel, lighter weight, and compactness compared to the target and the hunter. There's always a compromise unfortanutely. Did ya try any rested shooting for groups? Keeper dry. mike