Who'd a thought . . . on a .22LR

[flyrodr]

So I was at the range this afternoon, trying to brush off the cobwebs after a couple of weeks w/o shooting. Took my Ruger 22/45 Mk III, and a G19.5, both with red dots. The .22 had an older RMR w/ 3.5MOA, mounted onto the rail that came with the pistol, using a Trijicon adapter plate that clamps onto the rail (and onto which the RMR is bolted).

So, back at home after the range, I stripped the pistol to clean it (for those of you unfamiliar with the Mk III, it's the model that is a royal PITA to reassemble, at least considering the relative simplicity of the pistol otherwise). I was holding onto the RMR as I was reassembling the gun, and felt, I thought, an unusual wiggle. Turned out that 2 of the 3 screws holding the rail onto the receiver were loose. RMR to clamp, and clamp to rail, were both tight.

Disassembled everything, and it turns out that whatever idiot mounted the rail onto the pistol didn't use any Loctite (Yes, that idiot was yours truly). Don't know why I did it that way. Everything else was blue Loctite'd. Apparently, I "assumed" just tightening the screws would be sufficient for a .22.

Lesson learned: Don't assume. Clean, "glue", torque everything.

A note: The rail worked loose after some unknown thousands of rounds through the pistol.

Another: I did my normal session-ending drill of running a B8 center out to 25 yards and slow-firing 10 rounds. Shot a 98-5X. Apparently, the loose RMR was returning to its sighting-in position after each shot.

[Pnut]

I’ve got a 22/45 mkIII with a red dot too. I set it up years ago to dip my toes into the whole red dot scene. Now I’ve got red dot on EVERYTHING!!!

One thing I learned from others on this forum is to use thread locker AND to bed any mounting plates or rails with a product called E6000. This cured the problem with my STI/SRO where the mounting plate would work loose after every 200-300 round.