I have shot it before today, but was shooting 300gr. cast bullets over a winchester larger rifle primer, starline full length resized/ over some IMR 3031. I had 6 shells that had to be struck twice with my fireing pin. On close inspection, it appeared to have a less than satisfactory indentation. A couple would go on the second try. I had no trouble with lower power loads and a large pistol primer. The cases have only been used with this gun. Do I have a defective fireing pin? Is this a head-space issue? Any help will be much appreciated. On the up-side, this gun is very accurate and fun to shoot. I shot probably 100 rounds of this load and 100 of the other load. The gun did not appear overly dirty, although it did of course get pretty well warmed up.

Would look to two things.

First, primer seating. Do need to be bottomed out in the primer pocket...not just "flush" but set frimly into the pocket even if that results in a slightly recessed primer. IF that is what was goin on, then the first pin-strike just set the primer to the bottom and dented it slightly.

Second:

IF you feel confident enough to dissassemble the rifle, go for it. IF not, just take the butt stock off and soak the action. Even if brand new, there can be congealed preservative gumming up the works.

Can try to clean the action with the stock attached and no dissassembly, but soaking the wood in solvent is never a good idea...and with the Ruger action, it's hard to keep the wood dry.

Thanks Ribonstone, I had decided that I had better tear it down. It is brand new. My primer seating is fine. The whole action is a bit gummy.

Dr. A

Check to make sure the hammer strut does not hit on the forearm when firing. It is possible that the forearm was not properly inletted (I had this problem with a Bell & Carlson forearm).

You can try shooting it without the forearm on the rifle to see if it makes a difference.

Thanks Ribonstone, I had decided that I had better tear it down. It is brand new. My primer seating is fine. The whole action is a bit gummy.

Use to shoot a #3 action converted to 6.5RM. Every so often (about 18mon. to two years) it would just start shooting badly...no missfires, but inconsistant ignition (the step before miss fires). Would take the action down and scrub all the gunk off...would find things like grass seeds, dust, wind blow grit, dead bugs, a deer tick, etc. Once clean, it would go back to shooting nice groups.

Thought it was just my action....but read a piece on a .22Hornet #3 in Guns Digest some years back...was it by Sells?..and he had the same problem...and the same solution.

I spent an hour and a half taking apart, cleaning and putting back together again. It was a learning experience. Dirty and full of a white lubricant that gummed up the pin! I hope that is all that was wrong. It amazes me how intricate that thing is.

Just a suspicion...but I believe that Ruger #1's (and some other models) are run off in batches (their expected sales for some period od time) rather than having the tooling set up for supply on demand. They tend to lhand arround distributors ans other wharehouses for a good bit before being placed for adoption....so they are well lubed and preserved.

Thing about lube is, the older it gets, the thicker/gunkier it becomes.