My pick for best small game/plinking semiauto

[PALADIN85020]

As much as I enjoy revolvers, I concede the utility of a good .22 semiauto pistol, particularly for small game and just general plinking in the field.

After giving it some thought, several years ago I settled on this one as a pistol that most closely approximates what I would design and make myself if I could.

This is a Ruger MKIII 22/45 stainless "Hunter" pistol. Here's what I like:

1. The grip. It almost exactly duplicates the grip of the gun I'm most familiar with: the 1911 .45 pistol.

2. The sights. It's equipped with a "light pipe" front sight, which can be exchanged in various colors - these come with the gun from the factory. The rear is a v-notch to aid in fast acquisition, and fully adjustable to suit the ammunition of choice. The factory provides a scope mount if that's your cup of tea. I myself like the handiness of iron sights.

3. Accuracy. A stiff fluted 6 3/4" barrel, giving adequate velocity, as well.

4. Trigger. Very nice let-off, and I've installed a trigger shoe to give a better feel and limit overtravel on this one.

5. Ease of cleaning. The upper assembly is stainless; easy to clean (once the more complex MkIII takedown procedure is figured out). No worry over corrosion, and the polymer lower assembly isn't going to rust, either. No need to laboriously clean each chamber of a revolver cylinder.

6. Rapidity of fire. 10 shots quick with no need to adjust grip or thumb-cock a revolver.

7. The manual of arms more or less duplicates the 1911 .45 auto; muscle memory is the same, so there's not much to learn and unlearn.

Here's what I don't like:

1. I think a loaded cartridge indicator and a magazine safety are sops to political correctness. If this gun came in a MkII version, I'd really prefer it.

2. The takedown procedure gets annoyingly complex due to the magazine safety and the need to insert the magazine as part of the drill. As I said, it's annoying.

At any rate, here's my pick. Your mileage may vary.

John

 

[Rule3]

I agree except for the version. I much prefer the M-II

 

[jkc]

I completely, absolutely, and unequivocably agree, almost...

I just bought the "standard", all-stainless steel framed version of the MKIII Hunter, for most of the reasons you mentioned, and because it's especially handsome with the cocobolo grips. Mine's "in the shop" being modified. The barrel's foremost .400" are being threaded to accept a suppressor (newly approved for hunting in AZ), a Novak Picatinny rail segment (which, serendipitously, perhaps miraculously, while designed to be attached to the dust covers on 1911s, shares the same radius as the Hunter barrel, and is a perfect fit...), so as to permit mounting a weaponlight beneath the barrel, and the rear sight is being replaced with a Burris FastFire base in the dovetail. This is hoped to provide a campsite skunk and rattlesnake eradication tool not requiring ear protection, corrective lenses, or another tool illuminating the target.

This is not to say that I'm not still charmed with my 617, only to mention that different problems/missions require different tools.

 

[NE450No2]

The Ruger is a best buy no doubt.

However for me, IF, I am going to carry a semiauto that big and heavy I will carry a S&W Mod 41. In fact I bought a 7" S&W specifically for the "Woods". I had been using a 5" heavy barrel for several years as a Bullseye competition gun...

The 7" Mod 41 is my Primary hunting 22 LR handgun.

However, for just a carry/backup 22 LR, I use either a 4" or a 2" S&W Kit Gun.

 

[kennyb]

lately for me as far as a 22 cal. semi its been the sig sauer 1911-22.now talk about the look/feel of a 45 !

 

[586L-Frame]

I like my Ruger MKIII 22/45 Stainless Target Model with a 5 1/2" bull barrel.
586L-Frame

DLC’s MKIII 22/45 with Finger Grips

x

 

[5Wire]

I have a MKII (10 +1) and an old Ruger Standard (9 +1) but my fave is a 4-inch 617 Plus (10). The Ruger Standard has seen the most plinkification, though.

 

[feralmerril]

Since this is my only .22 auto, its got to be this one. A old hi-standard HDM. I havent shot it in ages. It was accurate. I backed off some shooting it as I herad not to shoot hi velocity in it and I have other guns anyway. The grips are fine old carved ivory. The gun is a blood gun.

 

[Bat Guano]

I started with a Ruger standard auto back in 1959; let it go in a moment of idiocy. Tried other versions of it now and then but never came up with one I liked. Eventually succeeded with a beater 4 3/4" that I rehabilitated, refinished, and did a trigger job on. It is unquestionably ugly but does it ever shoot. I prefer my M18 S&W on nice days but the old Ruger comes along in all kinds of weather. It's such a good little pistol that if I miss what I'm shooting at, I have no valid excuses to fall back on.

Sometimes ugly has a beauty all its own.

 

[Texas Star]

Mine is the stainless bull bbl. MK II. All I changed is to swap the black plastic grips for Ruger's checkered wooden ones.

 

[NE450No2]

I love to eat small game. IMHO the best small game gun is a Shotgun...

Second best is a 44 Mag or a 45 ACP with Speer shotshells.

 

[Class III]

My favorite small game/plinker/BUG while big game hunting is the Ruger 22/45 Mk II. The only thing I have done to mine is get rid of the top end and replace it with a Tactical Solutions Pac-Lite upper. Actually the Pac-Lite is the receiver/frame as it is the serial numbered part, so now I have a TS Pac-Lite with a Ruger 22/45 grip. I can carry my Pac-Lite ALL DAY and NEVER know that it's there. Three loaded magazines weigh ALMOST as much as the entire upper. My TS Pac-Lite is ALMOST as accurate as the M41 7" I stupidly sold a few years ago. Over the last few years my TS P-L has dispatched a few deer that were not DRT, dropped a few coyotes that got too close to the gut pile and taken a bobcat that decided he wanted the squirrel I had just popped. It's the second most accurate 22 caliber handgun I own, second only to my M17. It IS the most often fired 22 handgun I own.

Class III

 

[David LaPell]

I have had this pistol now for 15 years and it used to belong to my grandfather. He bought it in 1950. This Colt has outshot every other .22 handgun I have ever owned, including a Smith 22A, a K-22, and two Ruger Single Sixes. I have killed alot of small game with this gun and I hope there are alot more to go.

 

[Tyrod]

This is my favorite.

This is quickly becoming my 2nd favorite

 

[BearBio]

For hunting, my bull-barrelled Mark II. Sighted for 50 yards and mostly used for ground squirrels in Cali. Also, not an auto, but a single six or super single six if just a smidge more power is needed.

Plinking: I have several: the Rugers, together with a S & W 41 (my current favorite and most accurate) and a Woodsman (First Model).

 

[Gary]

I bought a SS Ruger MKII Competition Target Model a few years ago when the MKIIIs first came out. A gun shop near me had a bunch of them on sale. I guess that Ruger was trying to get move them to make room for the MKIIIs. It came with scope rings so I put a scope on it. The trigger pull was pretty good out of the box. It has proven to be accurate with most brands of ammo I have tried in it. The only downside to it is that the bull barrel causes it to be a little heavy.

 

[Bat Guano]

That Woodsman is definitely old school! My Dad, who was not particularly into guns, once said that the Woodsman was the only pistol he ever wanted.

Some years back I picked up a decent 6" made in 1940. I sort of think of it as "his" gun.

 

[forresth]

I've been liking my 7" 22a. I like the tool free and simple field strip. I like the integral rail, not to mention the lifetime coverage from Smith and Wesson. I am not so fond of the factory sights, and the lack of aftermarket support for it, but I usually don't "aftermarket up" a gun anyways.

If I could have found a reasonably priced 22/45 lower end, I would have paired that with a Pac-Lite in a heartbeat.