i'm planning on restoring my 22/45 mark ii pistol, and am looking for feedback along the way. the gun: 6" slab-side barrel, nice shooter, but was/is having a feeding issue. i haven't resolved it. i've done a few things to it, but haven't had the opportunity to shoot it to see if it worked. the rear sight is completely missing, and the rear dovetail is mangled. p.o. probably dropped it a long way. i'm not sure the dovetail is serviceable the way it is. the most forward of the 4 factory sight rail holes is not 90º to the barrel. this is the model with the molded polymer receiver with no replaceable grip panels. the ejection port had some dings, but overall the internals look good. needs a new sear.

the plan: figure out the sight business. i wanted some of those williams fire sights, but i don't have the dovetail piece of the factory sights to screw it to. dunno if the dovetail works. should i invest in an inexpensive optic? other options? i remember seeing someone made picitinny rail/rear sight thing. anybody seen that?
durocoat. i did some body work the other day, took a fine file and a green stone to it and got most of the high stuff off the dovetail and smoothed out the ejection port. very little rust. tiny specs. i can't tell if the crown is good, there is a tiny glimmer of a flat spot on the edge of the muzzle. is that an issue to take care of first?
grips: some dudes have been shaving the plastic grips down, installing 1911 bushings and scales. looks badass.
i'll post up some pics when i get a chance. btw, you guys see what 22lr is going for? those asshats at "cheaper than dirt" are the most gouging bastards i've ever seen. they had 100packs of mini-mags for $60

the site's a little slow right now, but it's:
gunbot.net deals can be had



thanks,
willy

I had an old Ruger Mark 1 bull barrel, inherited it. Heavy, shot well, target sights and all. Sold it to a friend, well, the upper was sold. I kept the fire control group and bought a Tactical Solutions drop in upper. The upper is the serialized part. Cost was $249 with tax, and less the $100 I sold the old upper for, it cost me $150 to get a new barrel, sights, etc. Upgraded with Hogue grips for another $30.

The TacSol upper drops onto Mark 1's, Mark 2's, and .22/45's.




I also added a picatinny sight rail, so that means I have a spare set of TacSol sights. Yours if you want them for free.

Added a cheap red dot sight I have to it, which makes it ugly as sin, but great for dealing with my late night masked bandits.


Without the funky red dot, the pistol fees about a pound lighter, seriously. Pleasure to have on your hip all day log.

Bought two 100 packs at Bi-mart a few weeks back, $6.99 each. Gotta be lucky. Mostly shoot subsonics now. You need some? I have a [Bleeeeep!] ton of supersonic stuff.

hey andy,

i'll take you up on the sights! thanks. I'll let you know on the pills, i have some coming in on monday. i'll probably not replace the upper yet, but i agree that slab barrel is heavy. i do like the picatinny rail/sight as well, was that a tacsol product?



willy

You are welcome to try mine out sometime. It is amazingly light. I'll dig out the sights.

Hey I just bought a bull barrel from a bud! Small world.



Your feeding issues are magazine related (most likely).

My original mag (1968) runs 100%. New factory mags wont run at all.
After using the pliers I have 2 new ones running now. I'll continue to mess around with the other two new ones.

i agree about the mag, i need to do a clean up inside the magwell too. sometimes the magazine doesn't catch quite right and I have to slap it in there. i have a little work to do.

looks like we might have to have a little shooting party, huh?



willy

here's a couple pics. i'd already started on the bodywork when i decided to take pics:

you can see the dinged up dovetail:





tiny little shiny spot at 5 o'clock



that's about all for now. going to do the trigger group dismantle this weekend.

Happy Father's Day to all!


willy

That sight that you should be getting tomorrow probably won't mate to that dovetail without drilling and tapping it from the looks of it. Are there at least two threaded holes on the top? If so, the TacSol rail sight is about $40. Allows you to skip dovetail issue, saving time and effort.

The crown ding may or may not affect accuracy. I'd get sights on it and test fire before scrapping the barrel.

yes, the 4 factory threaded holes are there, and I have a crappy scope rail from my 10/22. the pics of the dovetail make it look a little worse, and the damage is largely on the top. the sides appear fairly parallel. i'm not even sure it's a ding on the crown, but i do want to test fire before just about everything else. i've had some feeding issues, and want to see if i resolved it. seastrike sent me some info on magazine problems that some (a lot) have been having. and i toyed with that last night. if the sights come today, i may get a chance to shoot it tomorrow.

update:
the sight did not mate to the dovetail as DF mentioned above. I ordered an optic today (mueller quick shot) and am picking up a sight mount from seastrike this weekend, so hopefully i'll get a chance to shoot the damn thing soon. once i'm certain it's a shooter, the rest will commence. i have a friend who's making some replacable grip panels for me, modeled after 1911 grips. got to thank both Dogfish and Seastrike for helping me out on this one!


willy