I don't know who makes the best .22 semiautomatic pistol, but my money is on Ruger.
The one I'm thinking of is a MkII with a 6-inch bull barrel. After last weekend, it impresses me more than ever.
According to my receipt, I bought it from Gene Lockwood's Sportsmart on Markham Street, on Dec. 8, 1988, at 8:37 p.m. The total price, including $11 in taxes, was $230.99.
Since then, it has been my constant companion. It quite likely saved my life, and my family's lives, in 1999 when I used it to thwart an attempted home invasion in Spencer, Okla. I did not fire a shot. The perps scattered like roaches into the wee morning darkness when I deployed the weapon, which thank goodness was in a kitchen cabinet where I could get to it easily. I used it to qualify for my Arkansas concealed carry permit, and I've successfully hunted squirrels with it.
With its adjustable sights, it's super accurate. In 1995, my older brother from Chicago visited me in Hartford. We took his new AR-15 to the U.S. Forest Service Brushy Hollow shooting range near Waldron to sight it in. We set up clay targets at 100 yards, but we couldn't hit them with the rifle.
Disgusted, I broke them all with the pistol. At 100 yards through open sights.
That really ticked off my brother. He put the rifle in its case, and I don't believe it has seen daylight since.
I have no idea how many rounds I've fired through the old Ruger, but it's well more than a thousand. When it was new, it had problems feeding and ejecting Remington Yellow Jackets or CCI Stingers. It preferred Winchester Super X hollow points, but after a few hundred rounds it loosened up and hit its groove. Now it cycles every kind of ammo flawlessly.
Early on, the front sight frequently worked loose, too. Luckily, I always caught it before one or both of the screws fell into oblivion. It took three different applications of Loktite to finally anchor it permanently.
I take meticulous care of all my firearms except for this one. Of course, I've kept the bore and chamber spotless, but not once in 26 years did I ever break it down for a thorough cleaning. The MkII has a reputation for being overly complicated and difficult to disassemble, and especially to reassemble.
All the literature said it's easy "once you get the hang of it," and that was enough to dissuade me. I have a knack for breaking things, and I'm really talented at losing small parts. The gun kept shooting with no hitches, so I never saw the need to tear it down.
At least, not until 2003 when I went to Springfield, Mo., to do a story on the Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State) pistol team. They used bull-barreled Ruger MkII pistols, and I was astonished at how filthy they got after one session. At that point, a full cleanup was one of those get-around-to-it-someday things.
Thank goodness for YouTube, where you can find tutorials about anything. Like how to cheat at dice. My son spends an inordinate amount of time watching those. He should watch more videos on gun-related stuff, such as the excellent tutorial I found on how to strip and reassemble a Ruger MkII pistol, with a bull barrel no less.
I won't bore you with the details, but the procedure is really easy, once you get the hang of it. You can see it at youtube.com/watch?v=CZ_wTmiko0g.
Suffice it to say that in 26 years, the guts of my pistol were a mess. Nearly three decades of powder fouling and residue had entombed the pistol's interior like the ruins of Pompeii under Vesuvian ash. It was like concrete. It was amazing the firearm still functioned.
For hard cases like this, nothing beats aerosol brake cleaner. It eats through the worst gunk and dries quickly without a mess. I put the parts in an old pie pan and sprayed them down. Within minutes, they sparkled and gleamed. I removed all remaining deposits with a nylon brush and Q-tips soaked in M-Pro 7 gun cleaner.
A few drops of Lucas gun oil slicked up the moving parts nicely, and now my MkII is young again, if not in appearance.
It deserves better treatment, and henceforth it will get it.
Sports on 12/25/2014