Ejection ProblemsBack to Ruger MKII StuffOrigonally posted by Bh122lge on the MKII.org board quote: Ok guys, I haven't posted this one yet. I have had this problem on a older gun after a few years of shooting, and on a brand new gun. On the older gun I have posted already how I fixed it by polishing, cleaning the chamber etc, etc. Check my old post for a copy of that. It does wonders for reliability and ease of cleaning even if you don't have a problem. Now for the real reason for my post. I now have a new opinion on what is causing these problems everyone keeps discussing. "it's almost always an empty case lying across the back of the feeding round" Ok you ready, I'm putting this debate to and end forever, and no one is going to have a problem again! I hope:) The most common problem is your magazines. I know, I know, you're going to say " it does it with all your magazines". That's right ALL your magazines have a problem. At least for some guns tolerences. Actually there is no problem except you got a gun with closer tolerneces. The stovepipe happens because the empty case is being thrown loose from the extractors grip BEFORE the it ever gets to the ejector. Try this. Remove the bolt and take out the firing pin (for safety's sake) from the bolt. Slide the bolt back in, do not put the take down assembly back in the grip frame. Now, put a empty clip in the gun, and put a round in the chamber and push the bolt closed so the extractor grips the round, now very slowly pull the bolt back, I'll bet if you pay very close attention, it is difficult to spot at first, you will see that the round falls loose before it gets to the ejector. What does it hit? The lip on the top- front end of the clip. Look close and you will see that the tolernce is very very close, there is a valley in between the lips of the clip, even with a round loaded, that the empyt case must pass through in order to make it all the way to the extractor. If it falls out before this point it will not be thrown free through the ejection port and the next round will try to load, and you now have a stovepipe! Ok, how to fix it. I will try to post a pic but can't promise how long this will take. A fellow shooter modified his clips by taking needle nose pliers and bending the lips outward and then back inward, and down a little. I did mine differently I used a dremel tool with a grinding wheel. I simply put the wheel in between the lips and ground away a small amount towards the front of the lip (where the lead bullet is out on the end), the I used the grinding wheel hrizontally across the top of the lips, to actually make the lips ever so slightly shorter. This made the "valley" that I was talking about a little wider and a little deeper, giving more free room for the empty case to clear the next loaded round. I had this problem with one gun that progressed from a stovepipe here and there to a stove pipe every magazine. I modified 3 mags. Problem was gone instantly. The modified clips still work great in my other Mark II with no problems. The unmodified mags will only work in the other gun. My point is my second gun just fit much tighter. I am going to modify all my mags so I can use them all for either gun soon. I also discoverd one other problem with this gun, in my normal routine at a match I use a toothbrush inserted through the ejection port between stages to clean the chamber face build up, I noticed that my tooth brush would not fit in one gun, but would the other. the problem was a slightly bent recoil spring rod. This could cause feeding and stovepipe problems also. To check this , simply pull the bolt back till it is held open. By doing this you expose the rod which is now sticking out on the ceiling of the chamber area, it should be perfectly straight out, mine had a slight downward arc, which did not leave enought room for the toothbrush. This I was able to fix by removing the recoil spring rod, and just bnding it back straight. Try it, you may be delighted to find a little tinkering with the mags will go a long way. Also note, I did not think anything was mag related, and only tried it after a fellow shooter insisted that was the problem because his did the same thing. 
It was also brought up on the MarkII board that there are 2 more mods that will accomplish the same thing, by allowing the mag to sit lower in the grip. Either take just a bit off the mag base plate, or take a bit off of the mag catch. The advantage of doing the base plates, is that they are cheap, so if you mess up, no big loss, but chances are you will have to do all your mags. If you do the mag catch, then probably most mags will work in stock form. 
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