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Budget Rebuild of Sad Mark II Target

7K views 15 replies 14 participants last post by  frog4aday 
#1 ·
Well I posted this on the "other place" but thought some of you here would be interested:

Well I did the unspeakable act of buying something I knew I shouldn't!
An Auction place on the net had a Mark II target pistol & nobody was bidding on it....it was ugly! Someone tried to take off all the blue on a blue gun probably thinking it would look like SS. Why I placed a bid I do not know but it became mine!!!. Too Much For such an ulgy duck!
Well first off Yes it was ugly but on my way home from from my FFL agent, I took it to the range & put 36 shots off hand into a 4 " bull at 25yds,,,,, I don't think I ever did that before.

Well It became my project gun:
I decide that since my funds for this project would be limited . no sending it out for a blue job so since I have the knowledge, I went ahead and did a "rust blue" on it. Yes it was a lot more work but it was all my own time.
It came out pretty good but the barrel is obviously a different type steel then the receiver. The rusting took place at different levels and show a slightly different blue color.

Before Blueing the barrel I spent a lot of time de-leading the bore ( don't think it was ever cleaned) I noticed the muzzle had a dent in the crown and also a gouge inside the bore at that point.
Almost like someone put a screw in it at some point in time. The darn gun shot great when I got it but that really bugged me. So I took it across the street to my good friend who is a machinist. I asked him to face off the barrel to a recessed target muzzle. The recess being deep enough to get rid of the gouge in the rifling Then put a 60 deg crown on the inside face of the rifling.

Unfortunately I had to order 2 *$2.00 parts from Ruger ( Safety Detent Spring & Ball) which ended up costing me $15 with shipping & I ordered 3 Blast shields from Bruce Patza ( one for each of my Ruger Marks) Great price at 3 for $10!
& I rebuilt the rear sight that was really a mess but I was able to salvage all the parts.
I just touched up blued the frame since it only had a few scratches.

Put in my last custom ATM trigger From Numrich and got it all working last night. At about 2 1/2 lbs trigger pull.
Now just to re-sight it in and see how it now shoots. *I removed every little piece from this gun & got it all back & working ( I'm pretty happy about that)
Anyway here are some before & after photos:





 
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#4 ·
Those first photographs looked sad.
Came up good considering what you had to work with initially.
Crown work looks good.
Long as it shoots well.
 
#5 ·
WOW!! Looks awesome!!
There is something about taking an old worn gun and bringing it back to life
that is just plain fun and rewarding.
I just did it to two Standards recently.

Well done!
 
#11 ·
Last week I finally got a chance to get to the range. I guess I didn't ruin it!
Sure did shoot smooth. I only had a short amount of time so I only wanted to be sure it was shooting well, so at 25yds I just rough bench rested it. Amazingly after having the sights off & in pieces then putting it all back together......rough adjusted the sights using "I think that looks centered on the barrel" the first target was pretty much on center but high by about 1.5 inches. I adjusted elevation by "ruger clicks"(what ever they may be) and dropped it about 1.5 inch low for the second target.
Guessing at some more clicks in elevation I shot these last two targets and then was happy enough to head in to work.


I only have post sights on all my rugers .22's so I'm use to the "pumpkin on the fence post" hold however when I got this pistol someone had painted the top part of the post with red paint so when I shot it the first time I centered the red point on the target center and it shot right on. When I re-finished it I painted the recessed "U" outline on the ruger rear sight and the top of the front post with brilliant green nail polish Then I used that dead on hold again when I shot these targets.
I'm not sure if I like this system better ( I think the 6 o'clock hold is more accurate to hold consistantly) I'm waiting for a fiber optic front sight to come in. Maybe I may get use to it with that on it or I may just stay with the post & scratch the paint off of it & go back to the old "pumpkin & post" hold
 
#9 ·
First off I just want to mention that in the photos, the Serial number on the gun has been purposely jumbled for security (A few folks thought it had been over stamped)

gvthnks asked about the bluing process: well rust bluing has been around for hundreds of years It is nearly the same as rust "browning" (if you are familiar with the muzzle loading guns) except after a "rusting period" the metal is "boiled" in distilled water for 20 minutes then carded off then the solution is applied again and left to rust for hours then it all gets all repeated ( usually takes about 6 to 8 rustings)
First off the metal is polished up to at least 400 grit the browning / bluing solution is applied ( in this case I used Laurel Mountain Forge barrel brown which is something I have all the time in my 18th C gunshop hobby)
The polished metal is coated and put into a warm humid area 4 hours later the metal gets another coat and sits for at least 6 more hours in the humidity again. After this it looks nasty ( covered with rust) It is boiled in water then the now blue/black scale ( which was the red rust before being boiled) is carded off back down to bare metal ( I use degreased 0000 steel wool) then it is wiped down with a clean rag and the solution is applied again very sparingly. I then let it sit for 12 hours in the warm humid area....then just repeat this for 6 to 10 times Then when you are satisfied with the color neutralize the metal in an alkaline bath ( baking soda & hot water) then rinse and oil well.

It shot so good when I got it I was afraid the work on it was going to affect it negatively But I had it to the range last week & I'm very pleased with the way it is shooting now

The gouge in the rifling was a bit deeper then I thought. I was thinking .125" deep however after cutting the recess ( on a lathe) my machinist friend told me it was still visible & I made the decision to go deeper so the recess ended up close to .325" At that point I had him cut the face back about .200" ( on the lathe) which pretty much eliminated the original Ruger target barrel's "truncated cone" Pretty scary for me at first but once I saw it I liked it & now I have good rifling out to the muzzle
 
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