best ruger mkIII ammo

[railer12]

Recently purchased a Ruger MKIII Talo Target. Great gun but haven't found the best ammo for it. First day out I ran about 300 rounds of Walmart bulk Winchester Xpert 22 hollow points. I had about 4 jams, but gun was new.
Today I bought 50 rds of Remington 22 Golden bullet( plated round nose) and had no jams but I had about 6 no fires(?). Very cold today.
Field stripping and cleaning this pistol is a real PITA! After several hrs. and several assemblies I've got it down, but wow.
Any suggestions on best ammo for a Ruger mkIII.

[El Paso Joe]

Most generally, each gun is gonna be different and have its own personality. The only way you are going to know is to do a lot of shooting. I have a Mk II 22/45 that I gutted and put in a new set of Volquartson innards. I have a Weaver scope on it (2-7 as I recall). I bought a couple boxes of just about every brand and flavor of ammo and went to the range.

I fired 5 ten shot groups at 25 yards of each type and looked at the closest nine shots (will get a rough 2 standard deviations) of each.

The overwhelming winner was Remington High Velocity hollow points. I still have some difficulty believing it but that is what the test showed.

I would suggest that you replicate that kind of test and see what your Mk III likes.

[Creeper]

What Joe said.

I don't know how accurate you need your Mk3 to be, but you might want to look into match grade ammo.

www.22ammo.com sells a sample pack of pistol match ammo for $95.

PISTOL MATCH SAMPLE PACK:

CCI Green Tag
CCI Pistol Match
Eley 10X Pistol
Eley Pistol Xtra
Eley Pistol Match
Lapua Pistol King
Fiocchi SM340
Federal 711B
Federal 719
Lapua Super Club

A semi-inexpensive way to try lots of brands of quality ammo without all the searching.

C

[boomstick]

mine eats cheap federals from wally world like a champ.
I've run about 500 or so rounds through it no jams... knocks on desk for continued reliability

[hogdogs]

Only ran bulk in mine with nary a jam or hiccup. Remington had the most duds and federal is fairly rare to find a dud so I stuck with it. I have 1,500-2000 rounds thru mine give or take.
Brent

[zippy13]

My Ruger is happy with Federal 711s; but, every gun has its favorite. Creeper's suggestion to get a sample pack seems like a great way to start your evaluation.
Yes, reassembly of a Ruger Mk I, II or III can be frustrating. Did you make sure to maintain the pistol in the recommend orientations to let gravity align things internally? If you didn't get a manual (with assembly instructions) with your pistol, here's a link to a .pdf file.

[darkgael]

+1 about the sample pack. I test a dozen types/brands of ammo when I get a new .22. With any luck at all your gun will like something that doesn't cost a whole lot. My H-S Victor likes the Federal 711. My Ruger Mk.II likes CCI SV.
Pete

[bumnote]

Congrats on the new gun. I've got the Competition model...but have been seriously thinking about picking up your model also.
I use Federal Auto-Match in mine and have had zero problems. Plain old Federal bulk ammo works just fine, but the Auto-Match seems to be a little cleaner and more accurate. My MKIII doesn't like Winchester or Remington.
The stripping gets real easy after a few cleanings, but it can be a PITA at first.

[railer12]

Thanks for all the good advice! I think I'll run some Federal through next, and try El Paso Joes method.
As for the field stripping method, forget the point it up, point it down, let gravity move the hammer. Never happens on mine. A small screwdriver is needed to move the hammer. Once I figured that out, reassembly is a snap.
By the way, I love this gun, very accurate and affordable to shoot, however I don't understand the six different HiViz sights that came with it. Three green, three red. I can see why you might want a different color, but don't get the different diameters.

[Brian48]

Too me a while to find the right load, but Federal Value pack from Walmart works best in my 22/45.

[clayking]

Mine's just a plinker so the Federal bricks from Wally world are the only food it gets. Tries the Rem Golden's at first and all they did was freeze up the gun after about 70 rounds. Did the same to my 617 after about 20. Gave the rest of the brick away. Cleaning, I rarely take it apart anymore, run a bore snake down the barrel and spray out the junk with brake cleaner after every 1000 rounds or so..........................ck

[tom234]

+1 for WMT FEderal Value Packs. Stay away from Remington bulk ammo.
http://www.guntalk-online.com/service.html

[btolliverjr]

I have never had any problem with the Remington golden bullets and they are what I primarily use. However; the Remington thunderbolts are junk in my opinion. (way too many duds). I have also used the federal bulk ammo (copper plated) and the winchester xpert 22 with no problems. Stay away from the thunderbolts though.

[boomstick]

someone correct me if im wrong... I think the different sizes, even though they are small increments, will allow you to let the front site sit lower or higher in the rear when aiming... kinda of an adjustment for anybodys eyes and style of aiming

[dajowi]

At the range where I RO we see the worst problems with feeding and misfires with Remington golden .22 ammo. Federal copper plated has less problems with feeding and misfires in all of the .22 automatics that I've seen. CCI Mini-mags are also as dependable as .22 ammo gets. The rimfire priming system unlike centerfire primed ammo is prone to have occasional "duds" that is one reason why .22 caliber ammunition is not recommended for self defense purposes. Plated or copper jacketed ammo is better than non-plated lead ammo.

[Hook686]

http://www.gunblast.com/Ruger-LipseysMKIII.htm

[TargetRanger]

I am having nothing but trouble with the Federal Spitfire .22 amo - won't load, jams 80% of the time right at the chamber ramp - won't even load into the chamber in the first place...what gives?

I've had much better luck with Remington Yellow Jackets - about one stove pipe in every ten to fifteen rounds, but that's it. However, this has got to be the dirtiest amo I've ever used; 80 rounds, and the entire receiver, chamber, and most of the magazine/grip are covered with soot. Then I get to disassemble and clean - which, as you all know, is not an easy task with this gun.

How people can ever rely on this gun for target practice (much less small game) is beyond me - jams on everything it seems.

I'm at the point where I'll try anything that works better - any suggestions in addition to the above posts? (I'm all ears...)

[paperboy]

My MkIII likes the 550 box of Federals. I have tried the Federal Spitfire 22's but they won't feed. As far as pistol jamming, mine was doing that as well. I did the magazine fix where you file down the rear feed lips and that helped a bunch. I only get FTE's once in a while. If you do a search on the fix you will find the instructions. I was concerned about my gun purchase at first but since I have done the fix I really like it. It is super accurate. I can hit empty shotgun shells at 25 yards open sighted. Luckily I own a Buckmark 22 as well. It is as accurate as my Ruger and it will feed anything. It has never jammed on me and I have shot many different bullets through it. So, if my Ruger won't shoot it I know my Buckmark will.

[paladin-34]

i have a ruger mkII with about 9k rounds through it, most of which were remington targets. they are a good pistol round giving better than average accuracy out to 50yds.

Joe