That’s exactly the same Ruger I got for my (patiently awaited) suppressor.I don't know how long I will have to wait for my can, but I have a list of mods that I will be applying long before that. I even have a dummy Gemtech suppressor on order just to get used to handling properties so I don't embarrass myself when the real thing arrives.
Meanwhile, here's the results after remembering to read the instructions on zeroing the red dot sight.
Afterwards, I gave it a thorough cleanup, including giving the back of the receiver a light rap with a plastic mallet to remove it from the frame. After several dozen light raps didn't accomplish anything, I decided to go with my ultra-precise Mexican screwdriver takedown tool.
The receiver came off with the fourth solid whack. I did a bit of precision fitting with Nanolube, so the next time it will disassemble in a more controlled manner. I keep forgetting how filthy .22LR ammo is, but I'll become intimately familiar with cleaning procedures.
I also realized that the 1/2x28 barrel thread is the same as used on AR15 barrels. Just for grins, I put on the Noveske "flaming pig" flash hider for this photo:
After I install the trigger mods, I'll be doing a lot of testing with every brand of subsonic ammo I can get my hands on. Meanwhile, I'm debating getting a threaded barrel for my Walther P22.
I can hardly wait until the gun grabbers discover this "loophole", and have multiple cows.
This edition of
Saturday Night Gun Pron, posted, as usual on Sunday morning, is the first for 2012. Best wishes to everybody for a year better than 2011. Please forgive me if it takes four months for me to start writing "2012". :)
More baby steps on the long road to achieving a real suppressor on my Ruger 22/45. But that's okay, because I have a lot of work yet to do on the pistol itself. Most of it involves undoing the "improvements" that Ruger's product liability lawyers put into the Mark III.
First, new results after the aftermarket kit got rid of the magazine safety mechanism. It basically turns the Mark III into a Mark II, but at extra cost, and some user-unfriendly gunsmithing. Here are the first results with a trigger that is more normal for a Ruger .22.
The target on the left was made with RWS subsonic ammo, the one on the right with Remington. At seven yards, the Ruger should be able to chew out the "X" ring with 50 rounds, so we're mainly looking at my current level of skill.
Still, the results came with the much-improved trigger pull. These were the parts I exorcised from the original configuration.
On the left are the hammer, disconnector, bushing, and fiendish spring of the original. That dark smudge on the side of the hammer is powder fouling being ground into the precisions surfaces of the hammer by the disconnector parts. It works well if you're aiming for a lousy trigger pull to go along with the false sense of safety a magazine disconnector brings.
On the right is the original main takedown pin. The new two-piece one makes quick cleaning actually quick, and a total takedown marginally less agonizing. The conversion took about two hours of trying to stuff five pounds of parts into one pound of handgun, but now that it's done, it doesn't need to be done again. I would recommend three extra hands for anyone considering doing it themselves.
St. Barbara must have taken pity on me, because my next project, done on a whim, went so smoothly I was done before I realized it. On a hunch, I thought the Magpul mid-length MOE handguard would work on the M4P(piston), and would look and feel much better than the factory one. A half-hour of careful grinding of the guide ridges inside the front of the upper half of the handguard left things a perfect fit. To top it off, the lower half then fit perfectly with no effort on my part.
It's slimmer, trimmer, and feels better than the original. I think it also looks more sexy, almost like something off a FAL, which, being ancient, still gets high marks for exotic beauty. Of course, I had the benefit of my specialized handguard fixture and removal tool, which were the equivalent of five extra hands. This isn't the first time that my $100 investment in tools saved me a million dollars of grief. It was so easy, I'm almost tempted to do it again.
And for a second easy project in one week, I installed a threaded adapter on my Walther P22, awaiting the day when I can put the real thing on it. Some of the newer .22 pistols, like this Walther, and the Sig Mosquito, use the new euro-style "tension" barrels, where a front nut compresses a sleeve around the thin rifled liner, providing "tunable" stiffness to a light weight barrel that would previously needed a heavy barrel to do the same thing.
In this case, all I did after unscrewing the standard barrel nut was to put on the threaded one. Finding the special wrench was a bit of an adventure, but that was my own fault for forgetting where I put the important stuff so it won't get lost. It wasn't lost, but it took me about two hours to find it again.
The Ruger with the dummy can attached looks like "business". On the Walther, it just looks and feels "cute".
And yes, the sights are still high enough to work with the suppressor in place. Now to see how the Walther likes subsonic ammunition. It wasn't very fussy with the regular stuff.