This is a 'shoebox gun' I picked up from a kid who'd taken it apart and couldn't get the mag catch back in. I've bought a few of these over the years, giving as little as $15 for them back in the 80's. Counting inflation, this one wasn't much different. I probably wouldn't have purchased this but the price was right and I needed a .22 auto 'loaner' for CCW students.

The pistol was made in '74 and it's had a hard life... dings all over it, hammer dents around the takedown latch, the lower frame is sprung a little at the rear and somebody filed too much off the front sight.

I fixed the mag catch & cleaned the trigger up a little. It seems to group 'just OK' but I don't shoot well holding way under the bull'. It did run perfectly with a couple hundred rounds of Federal 36 grain bulk HP, from both magazines that came with it.

It's a testament to the design and durability of these guns, that they can suffer 40+ years of abuse and still run and shoot OK.

better life now...

Sarge, can you file some off the top of the REAR sight, and then deepen the notch? That should get it back "shootin' where it looks".

sight calculator I am within about 0.040" so I'll probably do just that. If it don't work out, parts ain't that scarce or expensive.

Plue you can use the better Mark II magazines by swapping the follower thumb piece from one side to the other..

Bob

Beaters up here are still priced over $200 and some approaching $300...

Even though I have a few, I'd buy up more at those kind of prices just to pass on new shooters, grandkids or, hell, even random people on the street!

I toyed with the notion of putting different sights on this old Ruger .22 auto. But I always attempt to file and/or drift whatever is on the gun. Since this one was shooting high, I mounted a pair of reinforced Dremel cutting wheels on a mandrel, which worked out to be almost exactly the width of the sight notch. I deepened it, filed the rear sight down and pecked away until the POI was good. The last nine rounds of the day got sent away from 50 yards... it ain't the most accurate Ruger .22 I've owned but I deem it 'minute of coyote' and will pack it while out on the tractor.