Reassembling a Ruger MkII .22 Pistol

From Henry Schaffer, in the rec.guns FAQ. "With the hammer horizontal put the receiver/barrel on the grip frame - and hit the front of the barrel with the plastic hammer if necessary - I always have to hit it, and give it quite a good smack. Before disassembling, note how far back the receiver has to go compared the the back end of the grip frame, and this will give you better guidance than the vague words in the manual. Point the muzzle up, pulling the trigger so that the hammer falls back and the hammer strut is hanging back, and put in the bolt. Now you want the hammer back forward - so either tilt the muzzle down and pull the trigger, or reach in with a small rod or screwdriver and push the hammer forward while pulling the trigger. Now insert the bolt stop pin through the holes in the grip frame and receiver - it goes in kind of hard because it has to push the back end of the recoil spring assembly out of the way. If it won't go in, the barrel/receiver may be just short of all the way back and needs another smack with the mallet! Now comes another trick - tilt the barrel up at about 45 degrees, and notice the little hammer strut swinging free - you want it to fit into the small canyon shaped depression on the forward top face of the mainspring housing, just below where the bolt stop pin latches. You swing in the mainspring housing so the hammer strut goes in there, and then the mainspring housing fits into the grip frame easily and you latch it in place with the housing latch." I will add one more little note -- when you're swinging the mainspring housing shut, it should close freely until the bottom tip is an eighth-inch or so out, whereupon it should encounter goodly spring resistance. You have to squeeze it shut that last eighth inch, then flip up the latch to lock it. If you don't get the resistance in that last part of the closing, then something's wrong and you should try again. By the way, an empty .308 brass casing is a perfect tool for opening the mainspring latch at the beginning of disassembly.

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