Cougar reminded me of something about the Ruger .22's. They are extremely reliable. I have had a half dozen over the years and everyone would shoot any brand of cheap and expensive .22 ammo I could find. The only ammo I ever had a problem with is the Remington Golden Bullets. And I had a problem with them in all of my semi-auto pistols and rifles. And they will run reliably even dirty as hell. My father had the Mark 1 I mentioned earlier and I bought it from him, I took it to the range and shot it then took it home for a good cleaning. It took me almost 2 hours to get all the gunk out of it because he never cleaned it in all the years he owned it. I couldn't believe it would still run reliably as dirty as it was.
I've got an early Ruger Standard which I've lost count on the rounds, but it shoots great, digests just about anything, and strips and reassembles easily, except if you hold it pointing down while engaging the backstrap catch, the hammer strut falls away from its detent in the hammer spring plunger, which locks it up. I regarded that as a "safety feature," because all you have to do is undo the backstrap catch, point it up, and close it again and you're in business in an instant.
That gun went a looong time before the little fork in the recoil spring broke around 1975 or so, but it still functioned on one of the tines --see attachment. I wrote Ruger about it asking aobut price, shipping costs, etc, and within a couple of days I got a new one in the mail, free.
I recently got a Mark II and heard about the re-assembly problem, so I'm going to shoot it until it stops, then bring it over to my son's for an un-disassembled (except for the grips) ultrasonic cleaning and lubing. That's the plan, anyhow.
On the other hand, but with respect to centerfires, I've got a PF9 which I call my two-shot Deringer with a convenient in-butt storage compartment for spare cartridges. Can almost never cycle a full mag through it without either a nosedive jam or a stovepipe. Hey, don't make any suggestions to improve the situation --nothing works and I've tried everything including sending it back to KelTek.
I'll never sell that PF9 because I'm too honorable. Besides, it's the gun I love to bitch about at every opportunity.... like now.
Terry, 230RN
The recoil spring on the Ruger: