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Green Top has moved their primers to behind the gun counter and put them next to the used handgun rack. Noticed a couple Ruger Standard models. One was a 50th Anniversary edition and seemed way overpriced. The other was a beat up old MKI. After a little haggling, I decided that $130 might be worth the fun of playing around with it.



The serial number says it was made in 1973.

The bore looks good. The receiver to grip frame fit is loose, but a shim should fix that. The frame fit is so loose that the receiver tries to fall off when reassembling it. Some of the finish looks rough as well as worn. I've thought about messing around with the cold bluing, but I may just give it a good cleaning and let it look well-used. The magazine ears were pinched in enough that I couldn't load ammo the normal way.

The pistol fired CCI-SV and Federal 510 without any problems. Accuracy was terrible. Can't decide if it is the pistol, loose grip frame-receiver fit or the shooter. I only put 30 rounds through it just to see if there were any problems before I did a thorough cleaning and tightened the receiver up.

At worst, I've got something else to tinker with.

Possibly a semi old worn shooter? Also a loose trigger nut?

Trigger nut wrenches seem to be hard to find.

greener wrote:Trigger nut wrenches seem to be hard to find.

Not sure if trigger nuts are adjustable or not.

Several hundred woman-years invested in adjusting this trigger nut and no failure has been admitted.

greener wrote:Several hundred woman-years invested in adjusting this trigger nut and no failure has been admitted.

Some of the older trigger nuts are not adjustable, better known as fixed, and others have their adjusters rusted shut.

I would've picked it up for $130. Sounds like you have an A-100 framed Standard model. Lots of folks call these Standard model pistols Mark I's but technically they are not. I like to refer to them as 'Mark I' because for me that is the genus of the model. A little surface corrosion can be cleaned up with some light oil and #0000 steel wool. Check the barrel and chamber very carefully, there could be some leading issues causing your accuracy problems. How does the barrel crown look? A loose fit between the barrel and frame can be tightened with some hard wood and a vise if the shim method isn't working well enough. Give it a good deep cleaning and see how it shoots again.

R,
Bullseye

The serial # starts with 11-9. Does that make it an A-100 frame or a MKI?

I think the crown looks ok.

You may be right there Rob, it does look a little flawed, but not badly. You may be able to lap it back to good.

It's a A-100 if it is manufactured in 1972 or later. Your magazine follower button is on the left side of your mags, right? Ruger's stamping dies wore out and in 1972 they went to a new set with the button track on the left side of the pistol's grip frame. If you remove the left grip panel you will see "A-100" stamped about mid-way up the frame.

Your barrel crown looks fine from that picture. Hard to see if it is worn from that far away but the edges look sharp and I cannot see any dents or nicks.

R,
Bullseye

I thought I could see a little flaw at about 12:00 o'clock, but am far from an expert, maybe it's just a shooter problem and not a shooter problem?????

Bullseye wrote:It's a A-100 if it is manufactured in 1972 or later. Your magazine follower button is on the left side of your mags, right? Ruger's stamping dies wore out and in 1972 they went to a new set with the button track on the left side of the pistol's grip frame. If you remove the left grip panel you will see "A-100" stamped about mid-way up the frame.

Your barrel crown looks fine from that picture. Hard to see if it is worn from that far away but the edges look sharp and I cannot see any dents or nicks.

R,
Bullseye

Thanks for the update on Ruger model nomenclature. Sure enough, A-100 is under the left grip frame.

Gave it a good cleaning with particular attention to the bore. There wasn't any evidence of lead build up but it took a couple of bore treatments before I got clean patches. I made a blast shield that tightened up the loose fit some. Took it to the range (better than yard work ). It shot a little low at first. When I got accustomed to it, I fired pretty consistently about a half inch-low and a half-inch left at 12 yards. The only problem I had in about 200 rounds was when I tried to adjust the mag feed lips. They had been pinched in so much that it was hard to insert rounds into the mag. I widened them and then had to bring them in a bit because rounds would come up so high they wouldn't chamber.

The other shooting variable is that I've shot almost exclusively two-hand isosceles for over three years. It now puts a strain on the tennis elbow in my left arm which gets quite painful even after cortisone. Yesterday I switched to one-hand shooting and I'm on the (re)learning curve. The scatter I had yesterday was with two hands and the initial 20 rounds today were with two-hands. Tightening the receiver and cleaning the bore seem to put the accuracy back to the shooter.

bearandoldman wrote:I thought I could see a little flaw at about 12:00 o'clock, but am far from an expert, maybe it's just a shooter problem and not a shooter problem?????

Moi?

If you hadn't seen me shoot, I'd tell you just how good I am.

greener wrote:

bearandoldman wrote:I thought I could see a little flaw at about 12:00 o'clock, but am far from an expert, maybe it's just a shooter problem and not a shooter problem?????

Moi?

If you hadn't seen me shoot, I'd tell you just how good I am.

Right, that was an enjoyable day. But you did impress me.

bearandoldman wrote:

greener wrote:

bearandoldman wrote:I thought I could see a little flaw at about 12:00 o'clock, but am far from an expert, maybe it's just a shooter problem and not a shooter problem?????

Moi?

If you hadn't seen me shoot, I'd tell you just how good I am.

Right, that was an enjoyable day. But you did impress me.

If I recall correctly, while you were driving tacks I was coming up with some line about not being able to see through your scopes. I was pretty agile at finding excuses. But it was an enjoyable day.