probably my only one this year

[Jonnin]

I finally saw a ruger mark that I liked and bought it at the gun show this weekend.   Bull barrel and oversized wood grips, at a reasonable $350 or so (I forget the exact list price now, but after taxes and tags it was just over 400).  

 

My old one still works but it has the plastic, can't be replaced grip/frame which I dislike and a number of very worn parts. 

 

Having modest experience with the old one (meaning its been stripped totally a bunch of times) I decided to do a cold (no internet research etc) tune up on the new one.   Took a bit of encouragement to get it apart, being new, and I decided I like the way ruger thinks.  Yes, they added a bunch of extra safety crap, but it was all easily fixed.   First I took a strong magnet and pulled the pin for the "loaded chamber indicator".   Out it comes and about 60 seconds later the metal bit that would interact with the bullet was popped off, and the rest put back in, rendered harmless.  I just did not like the look of it from a potential loading, feeding, ejection standpoint.   Next up, I put in my VQ trigger/hammer/sear system.  Easy enough, though it took some time to get the set screws loose from their position for the old gun.  Then I see the magazine disconnect, and tossed that over along with its spring.  I failed to note the new hammer design that accommodates this feature, so I wasted 30 min polishing a washer to replace it only to discover the VQ hammer did not need a spacer as it lacks the cutout.  So I have a highly polished washer for something now.   Rest was pretty smooth, the slide stop spring thingy is hard to get in with this design and the overloaded hammer pin (transfer bar, hammer, safety, slide release and if I had not removed it, disconnect would all be on this one pin) is downright aggravating.  Thankfully the slide release and safety can be put in place and held by the pin, then add the hammer & bar to finish, but that all had to be done while holding the sear out of the way against its spring else the hammer would not fit.   Then the final assembly, took a bit to align the barrel and frame holes for the mainspring upright bar, and the usual swearing to get the mainspring housing to not only go in but to align to the hammer strut (it went it misaligned easily enough, but that is a re-do). 

 

Should test it tonight, it dry fires properly and seems to check out.  Then lock-tite the rail, trigger set screws, and red dot.  Once I do that, pics of course.   Should be all set up for another 50k rounds or something :)