The first shot from my Ruger Mk III is the worst.

[scoobydoo6906]

its a fouling thing not a slide velocity thing. if the round chambers all the way what does it matter if it happen at a few ft/sec slower?

 

[JohnKSa]

I don't honestly know exactly what causes the difference--I would theorize that somehow the different velocity causes slight differences in how the slide/barrel/frame relationship settle as the gun goes into battery. I do know that some pistols tend to throw the first round of the magazine in a different group than the rest of the rounds. If it happens it seems to happen pretty consistently--i.e. whether the pistol is clean or dirty.

By the way, I don't recall hearing of the problem I described being an issue with rimfires.

 

[blume357]

My vote goes for the hand chambering problem... only suggestion:

let the bolt fly forward by using the release lever and not hand cycling.

 

[Delaware_Dan]

My MKIII does not share the same problem

 

[Creature]

Forward slide velocity is typically lower for a manually racked round than it is for a normally fired round.

I dont believe that for one second. Has this been documented...or is this just an armchair theory?

 

[DrLaw]

Ruger Mk II owner here. Never had that problem. Also had never heard of it before with any gun.

Learn something new everyday if you keep your eyes and ears open.

The Doc is out now.

 

[HisSoldier]

JohnKSa's answer makes sense. If you drop a ball bearing on a steel surface it will bounce. If you slam the slide back against the slide stop pin it has to bounce, to some degree. there's no way around that. If on the other hand you pull it back by hand there is no bounce, pretty simple really.

Oh, BTW, reading this I found the answer to how I could remove the mag safety, did that, so nice!

 

[rimfired]

My Mark III Hunter does not have this problem.

 

[herbie1]

I don't have this problem with my mark iii hunter, but maybe I am not good enough to notice the difference.

I'm wondering if there is something to the '1st round being manually cycled' theory.

With my Mark III sometimes the 1st round will jam because it is loose/not positioned right in the mag. When I manually cycle the round out, often the bullet is mangled. My theory is that some mangled bullets get chambered and then fired with compromised accuracy.

Any thoughts?

H.

 

[ƒORTE]

You may be anticipating recoil from your Springer.45 and then realize its only a .22 after the first shot. Sounds like a shooter problem, not a gun problem. Nothing to worry about.

 

[allenomics]

The rear sight dial might be in the wrong position? From 10 yards, for example, and assuming a 5.5" barrel, you should be able to shoot a 3" ring.

 

[B.N.Real]

props to micheal-j on that post.

mr.first bullet-magnificient bastard indeed.

 

[JohnKSa]

I dont believe that for one second. Has this been documented...or is this just an armchair theory?

It has been documented, but I can not provide any documentation.

A retired Ruger employee who posts on the Ruger Forum mentioned the results of some testing (high-speed videos) that Ruger did demonstrating that the rebound effect causes higher forward slide velocity during shooting than during manually racking the slide.

A very common misconception. When fired, the recoil spring does not stop the slide at the rear, the frame does. This is intentional. The slide is designed to bounce off the frame to give it a higher closing speed. Add the spring force to a slide that has already been accelerated by the bounce, and you end up with a higher slide speed for effective stripping and chambering of the next cartridge. This is standard practice in any semi-auto pistol or rifle. It also makes the gun less sensitive to the load variations of different ammunitions.

 

[blume357]

I know Coffee Pot from the Ruger Forum and he is always

right on with his info. He used to work for Ruger.

don't want to be specific...but it might even be a Ruger thing. My MKiii doesn't seem to do that...but I've got a Mini-14 that does... and oddly enough I've got a mini -30 this is the opposite...the first round is always dead on and then the next is about 2" off at 50 yards.

Ain't shootin wonderful!

 

[Pilot]

I have three Ruger MK II's in different barrel lengths. None of them display this behavior. If I do my job, the first shot is right on, just like the rest.