It just happened to be sitting on the bottom shelf of my little Vermont LGS, in his display case all alone between rows of plastic fantasticks and a couple of alloy revolvers with neon colored pink and green grips. I had been following a few Mark IVs on GunBroker and watching Hickok45 and 22Plinkster YouTubes about them into the wee hours of the morning for a few weeks (that's my usual prepurchase routine as I ramp up to take the plunge) and had only stopped in to inquire about the possibility of ordering a Mark IV Competition model. I honestly did not expect to see one in that shop. The Ruger sign in the window drew me in. So...while I found mine totally by accident, they are out there.

While I think I would have preferred the iron front sight on the Competition model over the hi-vis sight of the Hunter, and despite being right handed, I preferred the Hunter's more symmetrical stock grips over the Competition's stock grips with the left side thumb rest. Each Model of the Mark IV had a detail I wanted and a detail that detracted. That was my dilemma (talk about luxury problems!), but I think adding a red dot sometime in the future will make the larger front sight of the Hunter a moot point at the distances I like to use a target pistol.