After 6 months of convincing my wife owning a gun does not mean someone is getting murdered, the FID/P2P wait, and the 8 day NICS delay I finally brought home my new to me 1951 Ruger Mark I previously owned by my grandfather. He passed away when I was 3 so this along with a few small items are all I have as a legacy of him.

Even have the holster that my grandfather wore!

 

Now I just need to keep hunting for some ammo!

Nice pistol! Congrats!

Very Sweet!!! The Holster looks like new! Congrats!

 Hi,

 

Just came across your post.  I too have a Mark 1, got it in 1971 in Florida.  You can still get mags from Ruger for it but you need to reverse the slide button.  Takes about a minute.  Just one warning.  Taking this apart to clean is pretty easy, reassembly will take some practice.  Download the instructions from Ruger if you don't have them.  

 

Good luck, its a fine old gun with a lot of history.

Hi I also just came across your post...SWEEET!!!....MINE is 1965...have fun!!

Just a beautiful pistol.  Re-assembly isn't hard once you get the hang of it.  And this well worn and well taken care of pistol, I predict, will have a mainspring assembly that slides out easy!

 

Very jealous with my mark III Target.

How did you find out what year it was made?

How did you find out what year it was made?

 

This helped me alot...http://www.ruger.com/service/productHistory/PI-MarkI.html

 

If yours has a "D" then a serial number, Ruger accidently made some with duplicate numbers (1960's)

So, in a cheap and legal way to get the gun out to the buyer

Ruger added a "D" before the serial number...like mine!!

(This info is not in the above link..)

Congrats, sweet little shooter! I have my Dad's MK1 from the mid 1960's. Great gun. Enjoy it!

Apparently mine was made in 78. Thanks!

Between a copy of the manual and a couple youtube videos the reassembly has gotten pretty easy now. The key is definitely to point the barrel up while swinging the main spring back into place. Doing that makes everything very easy.

 

  The only issue I've been having is consistent feed failures no matter what ammo I try in it (Federal Auto Match, Aguila, CCI Mini Mags, CCI Blazer, and Fiocchi plated). I am using a combination of the original mag and 2 MKII mags with the button swapped and I'm not sure if it's a mag, ammo, or gun issue. I'm going to clean it again tomorrow and ensure the feed ramp is completely clean and go from there. If anybody has any suggestions please chime in.

Here are the ads for the First Ruger's made - 

Click on a picture to enlarge it (Large) - go to the bottom of the page and click 'Original' - it will show the ads in detail.

 

http://www.pbase.com/rbreitz/sturm_ruger_co

  The only issue I've been having is consistent feed failures no matter what ammo I try in it (Federal Auto Match, Aguila, CCI Mini Mags, CCI Blazer, and Fiocchi plated). I am using a combination of the original mag and 2 MKII mags with the button swapped and I'm not sure if it's a mag, ammo, or gun issue. I'm going to clean it again tomorrow and ensure the feed ramp is completely clean and go from there. If anybody has any suggestions please chime in.

Make sure it's not an extraction failure.

On my III the extractor broke off and the sucker still would fire and cycle 2 out of 3.

I got this 1950 Ruger Standard from my Dad. This is the first gun that I ever shot. Your Mark I looks really nice.

 

Make sure it's not an extraction failure.

On my III the extractor broke off and the sucker still would fire and cycle 2 out of 3.

I should have posted an update a while ago.

 

I gave the gun a better cleaning and noticed there was a small burr at the bottom of the feed ramp. I'm betting that the cable lock that had secured it for years had gotten slammed into the feed ramp by the bolt causing the burr.

 

I used a very fine file for a few passes to knock off the burr and since then I haven't had any issues. It now feeds everything I put in it.