DAMNED RUGER - HAS CHANGED MY THOUGHT PATTERN A BIT

I have never been much of Ruger fan and have owned all of one Ruger in my lifetime. I grew up with Smith's, Colt's, Browning's, Winchesters, Marlins, High Standard's and Remington's. I always thought of Ruger as a cheap reliable gun but always too large, too bulky, and the King of horrible heavy trigger pulls!

The last few years I have been instructing close friends on firearms safety, Range etiquette, accurate shooting, etc. A bunch of them wanted a .380 micro pistol for CCW/EDC and they wound up with Ruger LCP Max's. I have to admit, of all the .380 pocket pistols around, the LCP Max comes out on top - IMHO. 10+1 capacity or 12+1 with the extended magazine, great sights, reliable as hell and weighs all of 10.5 ounces empty. Small enough for anyone to conceal and carry all day.

After they had shot thousands of rounds through their LCP Max's, and became very proficient, they all wanted to get a 22 target pistol to hone their skills and be able to shoot inexpensively. Some got M41's, some got S&W Victory's and some took my suggestion of getting a Ruger Mark 4 (they were on a budget) along with a Volquartsen drop in trigger kit. I told them out of the box the Ruger triggers are horrible - I was correct! The trigger kits were a must IMO.

So long story short, the few that listened to me and bought the Ruger Mark 4 (mostly recommended because of budgetary reasons) are quite pleased with it. With the Volquartsen triggers installed they have incredibly smooth and light triggers and no creep at all. The new take down method is a breeze! IT'S ABOUT TIME, RUGER! LOL.

So yesterday we were shooting at the Range and one of my "students' asked me if I wanted to shoot her Mark 4. I know her gun isn't adjusted for my eyes because when she has shot my M41 or Gold Cup she normally shoots high and right. Anyway, I fired the very first shot and it hit low and left. I did some Kentucky windage and wound up putting the rest of the 9 bullets into the X ring at 50 feet. I have to say, I was REALLY surprised and impressed at how well a $500 Ruger can keep a group together! I expect that out of as High Standard, M41, etc, but this blew me away!!

So while I still think Ruger has one of the worst and heaviest triggers on the market today, I have gained respect of how reliable and accurate their pistols really are. I already own a bunch of 22 target handguns and am not in the market for another, however I would not hesitate to use her Ruger Mark 4 in any competition I shoot in should my M41 go down.

Now all we need to do is to get Ruger to send their roll marked TARGET MODELS out the door with TARGET QUALITY triggers! How they can sell "target pistols" with a 5.5 lb, non adjustable creepy heavy trigger on a so called target model is beyond me! Other than that - I take my hat off to them for their great accuracy and consistency!

NOTE: The one "flyer" is my first shot - did not know where it shot for me.

Filed under "Another cheap gun, polymer gun, or something from a manufacturer I don't like shoots better than it should".

There's a lot of it about. See most Caniks, Tisas 1911s, or the American Rifleman test of the full size Stoeger STR 9 that shot under 2" groups at 25 yards for $329.

LVSteve said:

Filed under "Another cheap gun, polymer gun, or something from a manufacturer I don't like shoots better than it should".

There's a lot of it about. See most Caniks, Tisas 1911s, or the American Rifleman test of the full size Stoeger STR 9 that shot under 2" groups at 25 yards for $329.

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I never thought of a Mark 4 Ruger as being real competition with the likes of a M41, High Standard, high end Colt or Browning. Well....... I have changed my opinion as of yesterday.

LVSteve said:

Filed under "Another cheap gun, polymer gun, or something from a manufacturer I don't like shoots better than it should".

There's a lot of it about. See most Caniks, Tisas 1911s, or the American Rifleman test of the full size Stoeger STR 9 that shot under 2" groups at 25 yards for $329.

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You gonna get hate mail.

ladder13 said:

You gonna get hate mail.

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Wouldn't be the first time as I am an opinionated kind of Guy - ya think! I guess it cuts both ways. LOL! And hey....... I am saying I've got a growing respect for a Company I never really thought much of in the past - that's a good thing!

Ruger's rifles are much improved as well. They were always solid as tanks but accuracy and triggers were often mediocre. The last few I've bought have been great though; Gunsite Scout in 450 Bushmaster, Hawkeye 77 FTW in 6.5 CM.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

A buddy of mine, quite awhile ago, and I went squirrel hunting. I had my Ruger 10-22 which I loved. And he showed up with a Ruger MKI or II? This was like 1983. Anyways I kinda chuckled.

That thing would shoot very accurately. I was in shock. I've been a fan ever since.

I have a MK IV now getting ready to put trigger in it as you say they're rough nowadays.

ladder13 said:

You gonna get hate mail.

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Which just goes to show that the industry turns out mercifully few real lemons these days. The Sig 320 and the Remington R51 are the only ones I can think of in very recent times, and my R51 works just fine. My threshold? "Is it as bad as a Rogak?"

I learned about 50+yrs ago a Ruger MK-1 Target was not in the same class as S&W, Colt, HS or Brn of the time. And 95% of it was in the trigger. I never look for Ruger to do much in way of adjustable triggers in the low end models. I think it's a hang over from the court case a guy won against them. Even their rifles have lousy triggers, didn't use too. I've got a m77 bought new 68 or 69 and it has nice trigger. The 10/22 were always a little stiff. Put a Volquartsen Target hammer kit in and brings it down 3.5 lbs area.

I no longer have the eye sight to shoot small groups with open sights as I wear trifocals . But thanks to dot optics I can shot our ruger mk3 with a red dot well and Volquartsen trigger kit upgrade for a 2lb + a few ounces . Its still not as good as the colt but OK. I learned to shot with a '61 colt 6" huntsman back in '61 as a 6 year old . What a pistol it has been over the years . The trigger pull is 2lb with no perceivable take up or over travel and makes a highly tuned 1911 trigger pull feel like nut'n special . That old cols been reliable with standard pressure ammo for the 25 years and is still all stock . The ruger neded lite recoil spring to scycle standard velocity ammo reliably .

My wife and I use to shoot at 12ga hulls on stick's at 25 yards with the colt . My wife typically out shot me to 8 or 9 of 10 I was more of a 7 to 8 of 10 kind of guy . Today with the ruger and red dot it serves well but those 25 yard 12ga shots are more likely set at 15 yards.

I feel compelled to toss this into the mix. When Ruger bought the Marlin piece of Remington bankruptcy #whatever, I thought "here we go again." Then crickets for a relatively long time. Suddenly Marlin is reborn in a greenfield factory in Mayodan, NC and their rifles are as good or better than any Marlins made in the past 50 years. Well done Ruger!

I liked the Ruger Single Action revolvers, Single Six and the Blackhawks. But when I was making good money I sold them to buy Colt Single Action Armies.

I shot a Ruger Security Six once. It had a nice trigger right from the factory. I am sure some small agency approved them. But I never heard of any big Law Enforcement Agencies that did.

Of course when agencies started to adopt Berettas and Glocks with the swing to 9mm. That surprised me at the time.

When Colt rolled out the new Python my LGS, where they know I favor high end revolvers, tried to sell me one. There was also a GP100 in the case and I asked to see it, too. After dry firing both I told the salesman that if I spent $1500 on a .357 I'd buy two Rugers and a couple boxes of ammo. The trigger was heavier but smoother and fit and finish were at least as good as the snake.

We used to laugh about the "Ruger Recall of the Month Club" back in the day in the squadroom. Those days are over, since then I bought some New Vaqueros, New Model Blackhawks, & SP101's. All were flawless right out of the box and I'm proud to own them.

Let me just say this.........

Even though in the past I have not been a Ruger fan, I have ALWAYS thought where Ruger truly shinned was in their customer service. Ruger is IMHO one of the fastest improving company's in the firearms business along with Colt. All my Marlin's are JM stamped from years ago, but they have respectfully and tastefully resurrected the Marlin name from Remington's disastrous ways.

Like I stated above in my original post, Ruger has impressed me quite a bit as of late. Now if we could only get them to ship target pistols and rifles with target triggers.......

I've got a couple of Rugers, but not a .22.

Maybe we could get a Ruger MK IV "Distributor Exclusive". Add the Volquartsen trigger at the factory, some new barrel configuration, and call it the Mark IV "Match Champion".

My inexpensive great shooting .22 is a S&W 22a. With its favorite ammo, which oddly enough is Remington Golden Bullets, it shoots pretty darn close to my High Standard. Unlike the Ruger, it has a good trigger from the factory. But I don't know how long it's going to last. There's a lot of aluminum in that thing. So far so good.

chief38 said:

... All my Marlin's are JM stamped from years ago, but they have respectfully and tastefully resurrected the Marlin name from Remington's disastrous ways...

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I own several Marlin lever action rifles, all JM marked. I really like Marlin rifles. I would be proud to own one of the new Ruger/Marlins.

Just finished installing a Volquartsen trigger kit in my Ruger Mk IV 22/45 and it's like a whole new gun. Trigger pull with factory trigger was 5lbs. 4oz. right in there.

It's now right on 2lbs. couple pulls came in touch over 2lbs. nice crisp break, still need to adjust travel screws. It's way better!!

Only issue I had was took several tries getting sear and spring in correctly.

Now I just need a new red dot. Bought a low end Firefield and that thing is junk.

A friend who was with the Marine Corps Pistol Team told me that they had several kinds of guns available but from a Ransom Rest while testing lots of match ammo the Ruger Government Model would outshoot everything else...

I've got three MKIII Hunters with 4.5, 5.5 and 6 7/8" barrels...paid as much for the three of them as most people pay for a S&W 41. Only one needed a trigger job...

Bob

Ruger MK "Target" pistols have always been very accurate and reliable. The poor trigger actions and barely passable sights have always been their biggest drawbacks. Nowadays those issues have many vendors ready to sell aftermarket parts to rectify that. I'd take a Ruger MK IV over a current production S&W model 41 or a current production High Standard .22 auto pistol.