Ruger .44 carbine

[blaster]

I have an old style Ruger .44 mag carbine that is giving me a fit. it shoots fine but randomly wont chamber a new cartrige. sometimes the first, last or anywhere in between. I've had it apart many times and cant find any obviously worn, dented,loose or broken parts. I've checked the trigger group frame for cracks and loose fitting pins and the magazine tube for dirt and dents but cant find nothing wrong. does any one have experience working on these rifles? the carrier seems to be working fine but I was wondering if the springs were not up to spec.

[xtriggerman]

Hi,
I think you are saying the bolt cycles closed on a empty chamber with shell in the mag or does the bolt lock open with shells still in the chamber. It is possible the magazine spring is a bit on the light side and I would also check the amount of drop the lifter has. The shells are a bit slopy up and down in the magazine mouth so be sure the lifter is actualy timing a little lower than need be to pick up a new shell. Also iv seen enough of a lip in the mag well where the tube stops into the reciever to "hang" up on just long enough to miss the lifter cycle. If you can feel a lip just inside the feed port, you will need to chamfer it smooth to the mag tube ID. I assume you have cleaned the gas system and you are getting nice ejecting of all cases?
The bolts are very slopy in these actions so look hard at the bolt/lifter pawl engagement. Good Luck

[blaster]

thanks for the comeback xtriggerman. the bolt cycles and the cartrige comes out of the mag. but doesn't chamber the result is a cocked empty chamber with a shell caught between the bolt and lifter. when it does function properly, ejection is strong. I kinda thought it was a lifter problem but it seems to work fine and its spring seems strong. I will check for the lip in the mag. well, that seems like a good reason for the intermittent malfunction.

[blaster]

no lip on the mag tube.

[xtriggerman]

OK, To continue a process of elimination, we must determine the action is cycling fully. I took a look at my 44 and see that it might be possible for a weak ejection to take place with the fixed ejector while not fully cycled to the rear. In this case the lifter pawl may not be engauged enough to put the next rd up in front of the bolt. Considering the gas cylinder is good clean (no rust piting) and freely working condition, I would normaly tape off the last 1/8th inch of bolt handle travel and fire the gun, check the tape to see that it has been disturbed, retape, fire and so on to see if when you get a disturbed tape on the dry fired empty chamber. Although a short cycled bolt would either stove pipe, tumble the spent shell or leave it in the chamber. These guns realy wing the spent brass out, so if you make a point of watching the velocity and placement of the spent shells to see if the shot prior to the dry fire is in the same place as the good cycled shots, you can usualy make the assumption you are getting a full bolt cycle event. If you find you are getting a ocassional short cycle and your ammo is factory, go over the gas system very closely (check for lead fowling/pluging from a prior user) also with the action closed and the hammer down put a brass rod down the barrel and carefully aply pressure on the bolt face while pulling the action open. once the action opens, "feel" for any noticable resistance'es in the movement of the bolt to the rear of the action. The bolt should "break" free and clear of the locking lug recess smoothly. burs and rough machineing can soak up recoil energy. Also you can put a string up around the lifter through the loading port and pull on the lifter in a downward fasion while you dry cycle the action and see if the lifter pawl still engauges the bolt reliably and smoothly. any rough or jittery movement should be traced back to a visably poor engaugement (use dykem blue if need be). There is a answer here somewhere. I happen to have a lifter assembly in shop since back in the late 80's I converted my 44 carbine to use L.A.R. Grizzly magazines. If you would like to see a photo of this camp carbine before there was such a thing, pm me your email and Ill send you a couple of photos. I use a ithaca X15 bolt hold open button on this for a nice clean job. What a great little gun!
Hope your glich is revealed sooner rather than later in the process.
Be Well

[nathangdad]

O.K. - before you start laughing please give this a try.

Disassemble the gun to the greatest possible degree. Thoroughly degrease and clean with an industrial solvent (but do check a small amount on the bluing to make sure it is safe). Another suggestion would be a steam cleaning with some of the portable units for homeowners. Just make sure it delivers steam not warm water in mist. Then lubricate with a light gun oil and reassemble.

Sometimes years of buildup of chemicals can occur that are not necessarily visible to a human and may not respond to your usual cleaning chemicals.

This may help. At the least you will eliminate a potential problem and give your gun a good cleaning and lubrication.

[blaster]

thanks xtriggerman for the info and pics of your excellent conversion job. It looks like a great improvement on the carbines design. You should get a patent on it. Ruger should have made it with a detachable mag in the first place. I'd bet the newer style carbine's mags could be re-done like the aftermarket high capacity 10-22 mags. I wonder why Ram-line or one of the others havent done it yet?
nathangdad; thanks for the simplest of suggestions, but a very thourogh cleaning was the first thing I tried. although not with steam.