scruffy
Well-known member
I recently shot a friend's Ruger Mark II & IV. What fun!! I knew it was time to take a break from my usual .38/.357 routine and LGS had a Ruger Mark IV Target and S&W Victory. Both felt good in my hands and after checking out the triggers on both, the Victory was the clear winner my a wide margin. Lower price, standard FO sights and removeable threaded barrel made it a no brainer.
I'm glad I spent a lot of time reading about the Victory prior to it's maiden range session as the only gun related issue I immediately had was it failed to eject almost every other round. I used the well known solution of gently bending the ejector pin very slightly towards center. Fixed. The only other problem was one magazine didn't want to feed Winchester Super X ammo, (tight). However by the end of the 300 round session that mag fed the Super X fine. The pistol just ran great firing everything I fed it and locking back on every last round. Range time was mostly hitting steel checking for function and not shooting from a bench for groups although I did a quick sight adjustment for elevation since it seemed to be hitting a few inches high.
Even with the easy one screw takedown, cleaning was a PITA compared to my revolvers, 1911 or P365. the .22 ammo is some dirty stuff and some lead build up in the new barrel took a bit of effort to remove, (see bottom pic). Not being able to dry fire without a spent case or snap cap is a pain also. I'm guessing normal for rimfire. When I did check trigger pull after reassembly, it was a clean break after some slight but smooth creep and broke cleanly at 2 3/4 lbs. I'm very happy with the stock trigger.
In the end, getting 300 rounds of mixed ammo for under $30 and very easily hitting small steel plates out to 25 yards put a HUGE smile on my face. I really should have gotten into this sooner.
I'm glad I spent a lot of time reading about the Victory prior to it's maiden range session as the only gun related issue I immediately had was it failed to eject almost every other round. I used the well known solution of gently bending the ejector pin very slightly towards center. Fixed. The only other problem was one magazine didn't want to feed Winchester Super X ammo, (tight). However by the end of the 300 round session that mag fed the Super X fine. The pistol just ran great firing everything I fed it and locking back on every last round. Range time was mostly hitting steel checking for function and not shooting from a bench for groups although I did a quick sight adjustment for elevation since it seemed to be hitting a few inches high.
Even with the easy one screw takedown, cleaning was a PITA compared to my revolvers, 1911 or P365. the .22 ammo is some dirty stuff and some lead build up in the new barrel took a bit of effort to remove, (see bottom pic). Not being able to dry fire without a spent case or snap cap is a pain also. I'm guessing normal for rimfire. When I did check trigger pull after reassembly, it was a clean break after some slight but smooth creep and broke cleanly at 2 3/4 lbs. I'm very happy with the stock trigger.
In the end, getting 300 rounds of mixed ammo for under $30 and very easily hitting small steel plates out to 25 yards put a HUGE smile on my face. I really should have gotten into this sooner.
