Reassemble a Ruger 22 Pistol in 16 Seconds

If you have ever torn down a Ruger Mark series 22 pistol for cleaning, you know it can be tricky to get it back together correctly. This video by someone calling himself “Hammer Striker” shows what he calls “the best way” to do it. I’ve fought one or two of these in the past, so I figured I’d check it out.

A few decades ago, my father gave me a Ruger Mark I pistol, and I had a heck of a time getting it back together after I cleaned it thoroughly. The manual was no help, and in those pre-Internet days (the horror!), I had to figure it out for myself. Somewhere in my old gun paperwork is a sheet of paper with some handwritten text describing how to do this — because even in my early 20s I couldn’t trust myself to remember the tricks!

Now in these YouTube days, such knowledge can be accessed much more easily.

If you are not a fan of long intros, skip the first 30 seconds.

From the video description:

This process works on all Mark series guns, even the current Mark III and 22/45 Lite (note that magazine disconnect, if present, will slow you down but procedure still works).

These pistols are often ignored due to their infamously difficult reassembly. In this video we will demonstrate a step-by-step process to disassemble and reassemble this pistol without the nightmares. (I will show reassembling the action in just 16 seconds!)

It’s a thorough video which does a good job of showing what you do — and equally importantly, telling you why you’re doing it.

Enjoy… and maybe now you will use that nice old Ruger pistol more often.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.