Ruger 22/45 Mark III Lite Bolt Replacement

[gerritm]

The gun ran about 95% with mag fixes & some polishing. Jams were always the same where it pinned the round just above the chamber. Sometimes so tight had to be picked out with a knife.Not good when it is your 17 YO granddaughter who is going into the RFPO division after winning all of the local SC matches with RFRO and tuning her Rugers 10/22 rifles to 99.5% efficiency.

 

I decided to upgrade the stock bolt with a Volquartsen Competition Bolt which requires removing the loaded chamber indicator. From what I have read this is one of the feeding problems with these guns. Started by breaking out the plastic parts, got it down to just the pin & metal flag. 

 

So after watching & reading the how to's getting the pin out, I tried everything I could think of with magnets and tapping the upper to try & drive it out. Nothing worked. Center punched the pin and set up my drill press to start drilling it out. Of course the first 1/16th bit walked slightly so trip to the local hardware store to buy new good bits. 

 

Cleaned up the top of the pin got the first 1/16th  bit centered and kept drilling it out increasing the bit size  till the last bit was a 1/8th. Tried screw extractors & driving torx bits into it with no luck. Finally got it to break out. Removed the pin & metal piece. 

 

Replaced it with a Tandemkross cover insert to blank it off. Surprised at how bad the casting was inside where the LCI was. Might have been the problem where it was sticking. The cover insert would not even go in half way. Had to clean up the rough spots in the casting with a dremel until it dropped in.

 

All good with only 1 slight fixable scratch in the upper. Will do some testing, but man that bolt is a work of art.

 

gerritm

Edited January 7, 2020 by gerritm

[gerritm]

We have shot 3- SC matches with this set up so far. About 500 rounds without a single malfunction using CCI mini mags. Haven't even cleaned it, but will do before next match. Kind of wanted to see what it took to get a malfunction. 

 

gerritm