Ruger MkIII stovepipe jam fix

[cbrabham]

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. }

[longlane]

Everyone that I know loves their .22 rugers--mine's been a bit of a jammomatic. Will try fix soon.