Jack23
09-22-2012, 15:48
I know we have been over this before but I just gave mine a good cleaning and it actually went pretty well for a change.
Mine is the stainless steel, slab-sided, 6 1/2" bull barrel. I bought it in the summer of 2005. Now I'm the kind of guy that I always clean every gun I shoot every time I shoot it. However after about 4 years I got to where I'd just clean the bore and breach and lube the bolt on the Mark II. That doggone hammer strut always gave me fits on reassembly. It continued to shoot very well but after 1600 rounds I caved in and took it apart and was totally disgusted with what I saw. It was absolutely gross. I'll never let it get that dirty again. I don't care how good it shoots.
So I adopted a policy that I'd break it down every 500 rounds. For me that's about 3 trips to the range or one trip to the country. Only once in all the times I've cleaned it did it go back together for me easily on the first try. It has taken me as long as an hour to get it back together and one time I had to put it down and come back to it the next day.
Today I gave it a good going over. It has had 600 rounds through it since the last cleaning but it wasn't all that bad. And to my surprise and delight it went back together on the 2nd try. I had a little trouble getting the bolt stop pin holes in the upper and lower lined up but that has never happened to me before.
This is the most accurate .22 I have and almost the most accurate gun I own period. I had a Bushnell Red Dot scope on it for a while but I took it off because It doesn't show up very well in bright sunlight. Besides I shoot it better through the open sights that came on it.
I guess the bottom line is I do love my Mark II after all. It is a real hoot to shoot. It's like I always say, you don't have to have a big gun to have big fun.
Mine is the stainless steel, slab-sided, 6 1/2" bull barrel. I bought it in the summer of 2005. Now I'm the kind of guy that I always clean every gun I shoot every time I shoot it. However after about 4 years I got to where I'd just clean the bore and breach and lube the bolt on the Mark II. That doggone hammer strut always gave me fits on reassembly. It continued to shoot very well but after 1600 rounds I caved in and took it apart and was totally disgusted with what I saw. It was absolutely gross. I'll never let it get that dirty again. I don't care how good it shoots.
So I adopted a policy that I'd break it down every 500 rounds. For me that's about 3 trips to the range or one trip to the country. Only once in all the times I've cleaned it did it go back together for me easily on the first try. It has taken me as long as an hour to get it back together and one time I had to put it down and come back to it the next day.
Today I gave it a good going over. It has had 600 rounds through it since the last cleaning but it wasn't all that bad. And to my surprise and delight it went back together on the 2nd try. I had a little trouble getting the bolt stop pin holes in the upper and lower lined up but that has never happened to me before.
This is the most accurate .22 I have and almost the most accurate gun I own period. I had a Bushnell Red Dot scope on it for a while but I took it off because It doesn't show up very well in bright sunlight. Besides I shoot it better through the open sights that came on it.
I guess the bottom line is I do love my Mark II after all. It is a real hoot to shoot. It's like I always say, you don't have to have a big gun to have big fun.