Assembly and Dissasembly Instructions for a Ruger Mark III Hunter Pistol

I recently aquired a Ruger Mark III Hunter pistol. As per normal, for me, I put a few clips of ammunition through it and then disassembled it to clean it. As it was my first time taking it apart I followed the instructions provided by Ruger on their website. (They have a VOD of a person actually performing the actions. It is a bit fast but considering you can pause it isn't too bad.)

HOWEVER! Once I had the gun apart I tried to follow the assembly VOD instructions and ended up unable to fully assemble the pistol. I called Ruger and tech support assisted me in fixing the problem. (Thank you tech support!)

I asked the tech support person to give me a complete set of instructions for assembly and disassembly and he gave me the following steps. (REMEMBER TO USE AN EMPTY CLIP AND WHEN PULLING THE TRIGGER TO POINT THE PISTOL IN A SAFE DIRECTION!)

Legal Note: These are my interpretations of his steps. This webpage is not sanctioned by Ruger at all. (It is mostly for me to remember how to assemble/disassemble my own pistol.) If you choose to follow these instructions you do so at your own risk/peril. (Don't come crying to me or Ruger if these instructions fail to perform.)

Disassembly:

1. Remove the magazine from the pistol.

2. Use your fingernail, or a paper clip, and pull the level embedded in the rear of the pistol grip. This small lever will assist in extracting the larger mechanism from the rear of the pistol grip. Once at about a 90% angle from its original posiiton, pull downward (toward the bottom of the pistol grip) to remove the rear pin completely. Set this piece aside.

3. Slide the bolt out the rear of the pistol. Set this piece aside.

4. Point barrel towards the sky. Hold barrel in left hand with frame pointed toward your right. Set the rear of the barrel on a soft surface, such as a magazine or work mat. With a rubber mallet hit the trigger guard area (as close to the barrel as possible) to remove the frame from barrel.

5. Now that the gun is fully disassembled, clean it.

Assembly:

1. Hold the barrel, pointed downwards on a soft surface. Hold barrel in you left hand and attach the grip frame. Hit the butt end of the frame to seat the frame into the barrel.

2. Insert the bolt into the rear of the pistol. The spring side of the bolt should be facing the top part of the barrel.

3. Keep barrel towards the ground and insert main pin (item from step 1 in the Disassembly instructions) into the cavity in the rear of the pistol grip. The long pin will slide up through the back of the barrel and will eventually stick out of the top of the rear of the barrel about 1/8 inch (right behind the rear sites). Don't force the pin all the way in, yet.

4. Pivot pin arm 90% away from frame and hit "elbow" of mechanism to drive pin to fully seated position. The pin should stick out of the hole in the rear of the barrel about 1/8 inch. DON'T CLOSE THE ARM INTO THE PISTOL FRAME YET! Set the gun down.

5. Hold your left hand in front of you, palm up. Put gun upsidedown in left hand with barrel pointed away from you and magazine slot pointed towards the sky.

6. Place your left thumb in trigger guard housing (don't push the trigger yet.)

7. Insert magazine to nearly locking it in place. (If you go too far the trigger will stay pressed in next step. Back out magazine a bit more.)

8. Pull trigger fully 5 times with your left thumb. On 5th pull remain pulling trigger. Don't release for the remaining duration of assembly.

9. With your right hand remove the magazine.

10. Hold main spring housing arm open (away from the pistol frame) in your right hand.

11. Simulatenously pivot barrel towards sky and insert main spring housing into frame. MAIN NOTE: There should be some spring tension the last 1/8 inch on insertion. DON'T LOCK IN PLACE IF THERE IS NOT SPRING PRESSURE!

12. Release the trigger and hold pistol in a normal way.

13. Pull bolt back 2 times (It should slide smoothly and will cock the gun).

14. Insert an empty magazine and pull the trigger (pointed in safe direction of course). You should hear the pistol dry fire.