Boy- what an adventure- I can't afford to fly my guns back & forth to Colorado anymore so i thought I'd get a few plinkers for CO & leave them there. I've wanted a Ruger 22lr and had read all the comments- very good and fun shooter- difficult to reassemble at first. I think I bought one just for the challenge of reassembly.

I sat down on a Sat afternoon expecting to spend some time. Luckily, I was in the right frame of mind.
Put magazine in, turn gun this way, pull trigger, take out magazine
Put magazine in, turn gun that way, pull trigger, take out magazine

It was almost comical. Supposedly the hammer is supposed to fall this way & that by gravity by pointing but my hammer only moved with a pin pushing it.

I had no trouble with all the instructions and videos getting as far putting the bolt stop pin assembly up & in but I could NEVER close it. There wasn’t room for the hook on the bolt pin assembly to “get by” the hammer. The catch or hook on the pin assembly would catch on the hammer upon closing and then further pressure would pull the whole bolt pin assembly back out instead of closing properly.

Instructions in various places say to move the hammer “fully forwards” with a tool. Fully forward isn’t defined well enough- at least for me. I had it "up & forward" but evidently not enough.

One time I moved the hammer really up & forward so I could put the bolt stop pin assembly in. Finally the hammer was far enough out of the way so that there was room for the bolt stop pin assembly to close on itself without catching on the hammer & pulling itself down & out. But then I couldn’t open the slide? I think the hammer didn't move back out of the way.

Frustrated, I left it over nite, came back in the a:m with fresh attitude. Moved the hammer fully forward again, everything fell into place, and all is well. Did it three more times- no problem.
It’s very aggravating at first, now it doesn’t seem so bad. Alot of the instructions I saw are technically accurate but this is the one that helped me most.

http://www.guntalk-online.com/2245detailstripping.htm

Regards & Happy New Year,
Tim