how hard to re-bbl a ruger mk II 22

[mike in co]

i recently picked up a ruger mk II 22 pistol,,,but with a 4.75 bbl...i think i'd like a 6" bull or heavy bbl. can bbl's be bought. ot do they have to be made ?
how much work involved ?

blued, but a blackened ss would be ok for a bbl.

it shoots fine as is, just me.

thanks
mike in co

[HeavyMetal]

I've been "piddling" with the Ruger 22 auto's for awhile.

Good luck finding a factory Bull Barrel in 5 1/2 or 6 7/8 or any other length for that matter!

I passed on a 5 1/2 bull about 18 years ago at a gun show at the old L.A. county fair grounds, the big three day one they don't do anymore, and I haven't seen another since!


Here's the deal: the barrels have the feed ramp built into them as well as an extractor cut so a bit of precision is required to make a new barrel for one of these.

Brownells used to catalog a replacement barrel by one of the big gunsmith guys but it was pricey!

If you only want to add a little weight and a better front sight what I've done is put the stripped reciever / barrel in the lathe and turned the taper off it ( this give you a straight tube about .515 in diameter) and then acraglassed a "fake" barrel the same diameter as the reciever over it! In the end it looks like a stock bull barrel.

If you want a longer barrel Numrich does sell the "Fixed" sight barrels in both 4 7/8 and 6 inches lengths you can do the same and get a 6 inch bull which the factory never made!

However these can be a hassle to put on!

In all Honesty the acraglassed "shrouded" barrel is the fastest least expensive way to go with these guns.

[Scrounger]

Call Ruger and ask them. If they tell you they'll replace it only if it is damaged, tell them it is damaged. And make it so before you ship it to them. Their prices are very low if they do it.

[Parson]

At one time Ruger would put any factory barrel on for you, I have had it done but was told that they no longer will do anything but exact factory replacement, so a call is needed. After market barrels have been available in the past but none of my current catalogs show any so I dont know, but if you find one, one of the biggest problems is getting the barrel off of the original reciever. Most Ruger barrels are a piece of cake. rifle, revolver etc. but those Mk 1 & 2's are sometimes a real bear and recievers have been damaged by those who dont know what they are doing, once off putting another factory barrel is easy, an after market barell will probably require a little machining to index properly

[Parson]

Mike, check with Clark custom guns, they show several factory take off barrels for sale on their web site

[mike in co]

Mike, check with Clark custom guns, they show several factory take off barrels for sale on their web site


WHERE ON THE SITE ??
i went everywhere i could see......where are the take offs listed...

thanks
mike

[Scrounger]

WHERE ON THE SITE ??
i went everywhere i could see......where are the take offs listed...

thanks
mike

http://www.clarkcustomguns.com/takeoffs.htm

[Parson]

Click on "take off parts"

[dragonrider]

Check out this link
http://www.gunblast.com/Pac-Lite-22Barrels.htm

[scrapcan]

dragonrider beat me to what I was going to post while reading through. I would like to see one of the packlite units installed and get to shoot it.

[HeavyMetal]

The Pac Lite's are cool no doubt about it!

Sadly these are sold as a "complete" reciever package which means you have to buy a new gun to get a Pac lite barrel!

I'm not interested in having a pistol with two serial numbers!

[mike in co]

WHERE ON THE SITE ??
i went everywhere i could see......where are the take offs listed...

thanks
mike


i got it.
when i went to the site and used the pull down menus, the last one had a non-gun name so i passed on it, yet when it was opened...it showed the takeoff button....very strange labeling.
thanks, i'll call them on monday.

mike

[dragonrider]

Heavy Metal,
The barrel/receiver unit on your Ruger comes off as one piece in less than 5 minutes and replace it with the pac lite unit. One doesn't replace just the barrel on the Mark II as it is too easy to damage the reciever.

[HeavyMetal]

Dragonrider:

I have heard that the MKI and II barrels can be tough to get off, but I saw an article in either Homeshop Machinist or Machinest's Workshop, I forget which, in which a fixed sight mkI had the barrel removed and a liner installed then reinstalled to the receiver. It wasn't a problem to get off but it was not something to be attemped in the high school auto shop class either.

My issue with the Pac lite barrel, and it's a good unit I've seen a few, is that it is an expensive answer to a simple problem. Plus the fact that it is treated exactly as a firearm, because of the location of the serial number, winds up leaving the customer with 1 and 1/2 guns that must be treated as two guns!

I may call Clark on Monday myself just to see what they have in stock. The BIL wants something different on his MK I the 4.75 inch fixed sight barrel is nothing to right home about!

[Scrounger]

A cheaper alternative might be to put a scope or Red Dot sight on it as is. Mounts are not too expensive, they don't require altering the gun. So if he doesn't like it, he can take the scope and mount off and sell them, no money lost, nothing changed. And with the .22 LR, an extended eye relief pistol scope is not required, an inexpensive 4X .22 scope shot using the "Taco Stance" works fine; A Red Dot scope can be shot that way or in the normal pistol (extended) style.

[HeavyMetal]

Scrounger:
Nice pistols! However both of these started life as Target models with 6 inch plus barrels to boot!

The handling quaility of these pistols is way above a standard fixed sight 4.75 inch barreled gun! Figuring out how to improve that "ballance" is why switching barrels is considered by many and done by few! The addition of sighting packages, such as yours, really throws the short barreled guns off!

As Dragonrider said not to many options and the Pac Lite is a good choice If your prepared to spend the money and deal with the extra parts you have left over that consitute a gun!

Me personelly? I'm gonna buy me a barrel and find out just how hard this is!

My thoughts on this? A man screwed it on so a man should be able to screw it off! No magic! Just some reasonable care and TLC, not dynamite and a 60 ton press!

[mike in co]

well folks ...i may have fixed the problem today
i'm on the election commitee at my range and the election was today. i was there from 9 to 2. bought 200 pcs of new un primed 357 cases a guy brought to sell. reading the bulletin board..discovered....guess....a 5.5 bull bbl in ss( i really wanted blue)...but no price, just best offer.
so i called the guy , he was out, called back, arranged to see the gun...he lived about 2 miles from me. bs'd for a half hour about guns and politics, the gun is 1991 near new, in the box with original recpt. he had an offer, i bumped it by 25 bucks and he said yes.

so problem solved.......

sorta.....
now the math says i need to sell the first gun.....i hate selling guns.....lol


they want $125 to change a bbl a $60 bbl !......that is ten bucks more than i paid for the new gun!
life is good.

thanks

mike

[dragonrider]

HM, true enough the pac lite units are expensive. And all so true removing a barrel should be accomplished with care. I would attempt it with two fixtures much like barrel vises used to remove a rifle barrel, one for the barrel and one for the reciever should do the trick.

[HeavyMetal]

Mike:
As I've always said pateinece is a virtue!

Dragonrider:
The guy in the magazine article did exactly: that a strong barrel vise to hold the barrel and a special tool he made to go on the recevier!

I figure a little Kroil and some time to let it work plus this gives me a chance to make tools I have been wanting and I think I can get this done with no sweat.

BY the way 125 to change a barrel is not unreasonable! I had a 32 special barrel swapped out on a pre war model 94 winchester last year and paid 75 to get it done plus the cost of the barrel.

[mike in co]

well i was think three tools . an inner tool to match the recvr internals, and exterior recvr tool with maybe a bolt thru the ejection port to the internal tool, and then a bbl tool/vice.

thanks
mike in co

[HeavyMetal]

Mike:
I think most guys who try to replace one of the MK I barrels make two mistakes:
First they hold the receiver in a vise, not the barrel, and try to unscrew the barrel.

The other mistake is they get the barrel in a vise and then figure to use a piece of square steel stock in the recess for the bolt "wings" on the very end of the receiver!

The first one collapses the reciever, the second twists the snot out of it!

Correct procedure: barrel in a good vise, designed to hold a tapered barrel, then use an action type wrench that is flat on the bottom, to match the area that sits in the pistol grip, and round on top to match the rest of the receiver contour. Then get it as close to the feed ramp end of the receiver as possible, without hitting the feed ramp when you turn the receiver, and apply pressure quick and firm to "pop" it loose!

As far as the insides go I don't see what you would get ahold of or be afraid of bending as almost everything comes off with either the bolt the grip frasme of unscrews with the barrel.

Of course we now come to the lazy mans way to remove a MK I barrel!

Put the barreled receiver in the lathe and cut the "ring" that butts up against the receiver as a stop. Once that is removed I suspect the old barrel will unscrew easily because it no longer has any torque on the threads! The down side is the old barel is now scrap!

[HeavyMetal]

Just an update on this thread!

I got a bull barrel for my MK I and switched out the old 4 5/8's fixed sight barrel today!

It wasn't as hard as everyone said it was supposed to be!

I will admit I got a couple false starts but once I got everything rigged up right the barrel popped loose.

I made an action wrench which was completely round. I then made a special Square post tool to fit into the bolt slot on the end of the reciever.

I chucked the barrel in my bench vise and attached the action wrench on the round part of the reciever just behind the barrel / reciever joint, I added a complete circle of friction tape around the reciever and then tightened the wrench on that real tight!

When I was ready to "break" the barrel loose from the reciever I added the "slot wrench" to the end of the reciever and pulled on both at the same time with the same amount of pressure! Applying equal pressure at both ends seemed to be the key to doing the MK I and II barrels as it snap loose in less than a 1/16 of a turn!

Once I had it off I was able to try the new barrel and found it was about 2/3's of a turn from being "straight" up. A little math showed me I need to take .010 of either the end of the barrel shoulder or off the face of the reciever.

Since this will only be re barreled once in it's life, and faceing the reciever was easier and faster, I took .0085 off the end of the reciever where the barrel butts up against it and tightens. A little work with some 600 grit sand paper and I was able to bring the barrel to within a 1/16th of a turn to full tight and the torque'd her in place making sure the feed ramp and the flats on the bottom of the barrel matched the correct area on the bottom of the reciever!

Everything is go!

I did have to fit the front lug to get the reciever back on the frame, the original was a little long and taking .020 off the length of the front lug got us back on tight!

I then found I had to take .010 or .015 off the end of the recoil spring guide to keep it from hitting the barrel on re-asymbly.

Things I new would happen did, such as I buffed up a couple spots on the reciever bluing during the take off.. This was not an issue as I planned on doing a Dura Coat finish when It's completed. I also wasn't worried about the old barrel so scaring it up wasn't a worry either ( yes I did scar it up!) As long as I have the chamber end to take measurements off of in the future, I will cut me a complete barrel from scratch one day, then I got what I wanted out of the project.

I can take it the range right now but it has no sight on it. This week I will add a "heads up" display dot sight and do a trigger job as well as adjust the head space.

It should be ready to shoot by next Sunday, if everything works out right!


So the hard part of this re barrel was finding the barrel! If I had to make one from scratch I think I'd have about 100 milling machine hours in it! That's the hard part!

[Willbird]

One thing to remember about Ruger mark 3's, the filler screws that are in the sight holes in the upper receiver(up front where the barrel screws in) , are drilled and tapped through the receiver and on into the barrel, you need to REMOVE them before unscrewing the barrel :-).


Bill