Ruger Mk III recoil springs

I would like to try a lighter recoil spring spring in my Mk III 22-45.  It will not shoot consistently with some SV ammo.  The problem is failure to feed.  I can't figure out how to remove the recoil spring from the recoil rod.  Plus I can't find any makers of lighter recoil springs.  Any suggestions?
Thanks 
Doug

The recoil spring cannot be removed from the rod.  What you can do, is take a dremel tool and cut off a couple of the coils.  If you screw it up, they sell replacement springs/rods on eBay.  I took two coils off mine and it made a difference with std velocity ammo.  I also replaced the Loaded Chamber Indicator with a blank, since it can cause misfeeds as well.

@cdrt 
Have you noticed any changes in the recoil characteristics of the gun?  If you're shooting the slower ammo I would suspect the guns have more spring force than needed so perhaps it would also reduce recoil?

Before you modify your existing spring, check if there's any extra friction between the bolt and the receiver. My Mark III eats everything, CCI SV, SK Standard Plus, etc, without any problem. FTF can be caused by a number of reasons, too strong recoil spring is just one of them.

All of my Rugers, Mk I's, Mk II's, Mk III will cycle any .22 LR ammo except subsonic.  Your feeding problems may be with the magazine.

I've shot Eley, R50 and Lapua (low recoiling ammo) through Rugers with no issues. I've never altered a Ruger recoil spring. I'm not saying not to, but it's not a typical thing to do.
Jon

I have a Ruger Mark III 22/45 that gave me absolute fits with FTE, FTF, and stovepipes.  It was so bad with some ammo, I could not make it through five shots without an alibi, at times it would have a problem every other shot.

This gun had feeding problems from Day One and is kept VERY clean, so let's just get the "your gun is old and dirty" argument out of the way.  

It took a multi-part cure.

1.  Found the most reliable ammo that would cycle, in my case it was CCI SV.  I tried Federal 325 bulk .22 and it was OK as well, but CCI was the best feeder/cycler.  Aguila .22 was not that great, but the Winchester Super X was laughably bad.   I measured the cases and the Super X were a couple thousandths oversized if I recall.
2.  Replaced the extractor with a Volquartsen.  Nice and well machined compared to the stamped Ruger part, works great.
3.  Replaced the LCI indicator with a blank filler.
4.  Got to work on the magazines.  This almost more about making all the magazines identical, as they each needed their own tweaking a bit this way and that.  I think TandemKross had a Youtube video about some of mag polishing work.
  a.  Gave the 2nd set magazine lips a slight rounding at the front.
  b.  Finely sanded and polished the mag follower button shaft and groove.  Also sanded the flashing fom the follower and lubed everything lightly.  The mag action went from gritty to slick as a whistle.  I recommend doing this, just as a general improvement overall.
  c.  Adjusted the rear mag lips for parallel, then opened the front of the rear lips just slightly and polished them inside and out.
  d.  Did some VERY LIGHT passes on the bottom of the stamped out magazine catch area.  This lowered the magazine just a hair in the gun.  Don't just do this last mod for fun, you can make a good magazine useless quickly. Your particular magazine may not need this and some may need more than others.  Insert your mag and check to see if there is a small gap (couple sheets of paper thick) under the extractor.  I had a couple mags that sat high and did a few light passes with a file so they all sat at the same height in the gun.
5.  Bought a .22 chamber iron from Brownell's and put it to use.  I was worried that the extractor had dinged the chamber edge causing issues.

In reality, I should have sent it to Ruger, but after reading many accounts of similar issues and returns to Ruger for fixing and returns back of "fixed" guns with the same problems they left with, I decided to try everything I could find that might cause the trouble.  I don't live where it is convenient to shoot, so I did not want to do one mod, and see how it did and then another and so on.  So cannot say that any one fix solved my problem, but over a period of a couple weeks I got it figured out.

I was so happy to shoot my first match with no alibi I didn't even care what my scores were.  The gun continued to perform well, but I kinda lost faith in it.  Plus, this was a Ruger 22/45 LITE, which I purchased three days before discovering Bullseye shooting.  It is kinda the opposite of the gun you want for Bullseye in many aspects.

In the end, I solved all of my Ruger's issues by purchasing a Hammerli 215 from a fellow BE shooter.  

This is the first I have read of cutting the spring coils.  That sounds reasonable.  A high percentage of my issues were stovepipes that were just barely caught in the bolt and if an intentionally weaker spring would cause the slide to dwell in the open position a fraction of a second longer, that may have helped solve some of the problems I had, but not all of them.

Saladman wrote:@cdrt 
Have you noticed any changes in the recoil characteristics of the gun?  If you're shooting the slower ammo I would suspect the guns have more spring force than needed so perhaps it would also reduce recoil?

I got the idea to cut the recoil spring from a pistolsmith friend of mine.  He said it was sort of SOP for him to do on Rugers.  I have noticed a slight change in recoil with std velocity but very minor.  Have not had a problem with the mags and that really did not fit what it was doing.

When I had feed problems with my Benelli and then my Xesse, My solution was to buy a Nelson conversion kit......

I have the same issues with my 22/45.

Thank you all for your answers.  I think I will tweek the mags and see if that helps.  If not, I will cut a couple of coils off the spring.  
Thanks
Doug

My Ruger Mark III will not shoot any SV ammo.  I've tried many of them at least 200 rounds of each. I have 10 magazines and FTE, FTF is identical in everyone of them.  It shoots CCI mini-mag or any other HV ammo flawlessly.  I purchase CCI mini-mag by the case.  I always have 1 case in reserve because of the ammo shortage a short time ago.    Its been said countless times by countless people, find the ammo your 22 likes and stick with it.

Well, Volquartsen answers the call yet again! 

https://www.volquartsen.com/inventory_configurations/1086

Interesting find, Saladman. Make sure to get the VQ trigger, sear, and extractor when you order.