Tell me about your Ruger MKIII

[Raoul]

I'm looking for another .22 and recently shot one of these. What do you think about yours?

[ccarrier]

most fun gun i own.

[dats82]

I have one in the stainless target model, and it would be a toss up with my 10/22 as to which would be the last sold if I had to sell guns.

I do not particularly care for the sights, but they have not bothered me enough to change them out. They are simply a joy to shoot, and I have had no problems from mine.

There will undoubtedly be someone to chime in shortly talking about how terrible they are to strip, but don't let that deter from buying one. First off, it is really not as difficult as people like to make it out to be, and secondly, unless you are just anal, you really do not need to strip them that often. I run a boresnake through mine, but other than that, I cannot tell you the last time I had it apart.

[KJ48]

My last one was badly finished on the inside, usual PITA to take apart, had to go back for light strikes too (replaced mainspring assy). Worked OK with mini-mags and that was about it, didnt care for the loaded chamber indicator, good looking and easy shooting pistol for sure. I had nice MKII I kick myself for getting rid of though, it was a 'good' one and taking them both apart you wouldnt think they were both made by the same company. Hard to go wrong with a MK .22 though, the MKIII I had must have been a Monday gun..

[Guest dubaholic2]

cant beat them. i have the mkIII hunter and its one that ill have til the day i die. never had a problem out of it, and shoots fantastic. doesnt look bad either.

[JGunner]

Don't own one yet, but it is very very high up on my list of pistols to get. I still kick myself for getting the Beretta Neos over the MKIII. Soon enough I will have both tho

[Mdunntn]

Just bought a 22/45 and love it!

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

[Mike.357]

mine is a 22-45. it is a great pistol.

The stock sights sucks but I replaced the front sight with a hi viz and it is good to go now.

I run bulk pack ammo through it and it is accurate enough for plinking or punching holes in paper.

yeah they are a pain to strip and thats why I don't bother doing it. I have never found a valid reason for doing it. Whatever I can clean with a boresnake and a rag is plenty good enough to keep it running and staying accurate.

It usually goes to the range every time.

[Oh Shoot]

I'm looking for another .22 and recently shot one of these. What do you think about yours?

You shouldda shot my Beretta NEOS yesterday. It will make you appreciate the MK trigger.

- OS

[hipower]

22/45, MKIII Hunter. and MKII Target. Great, all of'em.

[Oh Shoot]

You shouldda shot my Beretta NEOS yesterday. It will make you appreciate the MK trigger.

- OS

Meant to add, most .22 semis will do the same. Browning Buckmark is only other one I've shot that has about as effective a trigger out of the box. Really makes a difference, even with a poor shot like me.

- OS

[mav]

I did not like the trigger on my Mark III Hunter, but that was remedied very quickly and inexpensively. Other than the trigger, I think they are absolutely fantastic and they are amazingly accurate.

[LCPfraTN]

I have two 22/45 MKIIIs, one with a stainless target barrel and red dot scope and the other with a stainless slab-side barrel. They are great shooters and I will probably never get rid of them....they are that much fun.

[graycrait]

I've had at least a dozen MKI, II and IIIs. Nearly every one I replaced the trigger and sear on with Volquartsen or back in the day Marvel Precision triggers. I think the newer Volquartsen triggers are great. You can adjust over and pre travel externally without again breaking down the gun once the trigger is installed. With a little practice you can completely disassemble these in your lap. I didn't want to but the other day a Special Forces weapons sergeant wanted to see how to dismantle and reassemble one so I did it in an inconvenient place, replacing his trigger and sear at the same time. Due to the Ruger's mechanism the gun will always have a little pretravel due to the required reset distance when you replace the trigger with an adjustable one.

I think the Ruger is a thousand dollar pistol you can get for around 300.00. Slap in a new sear and trigger, mount a a good red dot on it and you can shoot with nearly anyone this side of a Pardini or Benelli.

The Ruger is a solid mass production pistol that with a little attention can become much more than it is out of the factory and out of the factory isn't bad.

Here are some good links:

Gun Talk Online

www.1bad69.com

[gnmwilliams]

Love my Mark III Hunter. I put a red dot on it and replaced the trigger and sear with Volquartzens and I can say that would be the only things I'd add to another one.

[Caster]

Once again, I'm the weirdo. I hated mine. It was a SS MKIII bull barrel and I absolutely loathed the thing. I was glad to be shed of it. With the exception of the XD45 I sold recently, I have never had a pistol that I could not get along with as bad as this one. For one, it would not cycle ANYTHING made by federal, the white box match stuff, the regular federal, even some older federal lightning. Not even once. That's forgivable though, it's understood that .22's are picky eaters sometimes. The intolerable was the fact that I couldn't hit a barn door at ten paces with it. Everyone else could so it was obviously not the gun, but I hated it nonetheless. I've never liked .22 rimfire and this one put the final nail in the coffin; I don't own a single .22 [pistol or rifle] of my own. I'll stick with my other pistols that I can actually hit something with.

I'm somewhat jealous that other people have such great luck from an obviously well made pistol.

[cflatt]

I love my 22/45. Yeah it's a pain if you choose to strip it. I have a couple thousand rounds through mine and it's always been a fun range gun.

[KJ48]

Once again, I'm the weirdo. I hated mine. It was a SS MKIII bull barrel and I absolutely loathed the thing. I was glad to be shed of it. With the exception of the XD45 I sold recently, I have never had a pistol that I could not get along with as bad as this one. For one, it would not cycle ANYTHING made by federal, the white box match stuff, the regular federal, even some older federal lightning. Not even once. That's forgivable though, it's understood that .22's are picky eaters sometimes. The intolerable was the fact that I couldn't hit a barn door at ten paces with it. Everyone else could so it was obviously not the gun, but I hated it nonetheless. I've never liked .22 rimfire and this one put the final nail in the coffin; I don't own a single .22 [pistol or rifle] of my own. I'll stick with my other pistols that I can actually hit something with.

I'm somewhat jealous that other people have such great luck from an obviously well made pistol.

You arent a weirdo, its a well made 'classic' pistol and they are popular. Mine shot well, but I have yet to figure out what people do to make them work with cheap bulk ammo, maybe if I never cleaned mine they would have worked lol. The 22/45 is a lot easier to shoot for me, the original grip takes me a few rounds to get accurate, but no doubt they are accurate pistols, but unless you are bench resting the thing 95% of people will shoot any other 4" + barrel .22 as well as the best MK at 50 feet with the same trigger pull.

They are not fun taking apart or putting back together, add that with enough sharp edges inside to make a knifemaker proud and I can see why people dont clean them

I'm no fan of .22s either, but with two kids on an outdoor plinking range that can pop off 500 rounds in an hour its a necessary thing. I'm not that anal but after 1-2000 rounds those MK pistols get dirty inside, as does any .22. The kids shoot a S&W 22A-1 now that so far in I would say after probably 10000 rounds it has had one FTF using Federal Champion bulk. Not to mention takes 30 seconds to take it apart with no swear words or blood involved, it does have a little buffer that fell apart at the 5000 round mark, pistol came with 2 extra and S&W will send you more for free if you call and ask.

I dont slam them too bad because I do kind of like the Rugers, luckily the .22 pistols are inexpensive enough to try them all after a while and draw your own conclusions. Its not like buying a 1500.00 1911 and regretting it.

[smopoim86]

I love the MK pistols. I have a standard MK II and a MK III Hunter. I've recently put a MK II VQ kit and MK II hammer bushing in the MK III the trigger is very nice now and the gun will shoot 1 inch groups at 50 feet (probably better).

[R1100R]

I like my MKIII better after I took out the mag disconnect and put in a Lam's Hammer bushing. I still like my Hi-Standards and Hammerli Trailside better.

To me it is a heavy pistol even compared to my all steel Hi-Standards. I do want to try a 22/45 due to the polymer frame.

[I_Like_Pie]

Have considerable experience with these guns...the reason why they have problems if anyone wants to know the real secret - is

...wait for it

...wait for it

The extractor. they are stamped parts and for whatever reason some just don't grab the rim right, don't reset over it when the gun is in battery, or hits against the barrel channel relief cut. The "easy" fix is to buy a top quality extractor. The one that is free, but a little work is to use the extractor tuning tutorial for the 10/22 found on rimfirecentral.com. FYI the extractor for the 10/22, MKI, II, III, 22/45 and Standard automatic are exactly the same part.

Other than that they are pretty much trouble free guns. I don't care for the features of the MKIII and prefer the previous versions, but they are all solid guns.

[Oh Shoot]

...The extractor. ...

Agree. Every .22 that Ruger makes should have extractor changed to Volquartsen or similar spec first thing. It's definitely the weakest link in a stock 10/22, too. Almost all FTF, FTE, stovepipes, whatever are at least partially extractor related, even when you don't initially suspect that.

Actually, all their .22s will "extract" with no extractor in there at all (the blowback does it) but what the extractor really must do is hold the spent casing in precise position to be ejected off the post. And there ain't much tolerance between perfect and fail.

Same with most any semi, of course, but with small .22 diff is even more pronounced, and Ruger's .22 extractors have a long history of probs -- their very angle just isn't optimal, even on the majority that do work. Many a frustrated owner has about given up chasing down probs only to have a Volquartsen extractor miraculously cure them.

- OS

Edited January 10, 2012 by OhShoot

[Guest Don't-Tread-On-Me]

I have a pair of 22/45 and a Mark II...Lovem...Most fun and cheapest to shoot...Buying hotrods parts for them now one at a time...

[charlessummers]

You need to go see one of the rental guns at your gun store if they have them. I know that Guns and Leather in Hendersonville and ASP in Greenbriar both do. The one at ASP is estimated to have about a million rounds through it! He said he doesn't clean it until it's absolutely necessary... and that isn't very often.

I love my MKIII and it will be the very last thing I part with when that time comes. (Please don't tell my wife... I think she's a little jealous of it already.)

[East_TN_Patriot]

I have a MKIII target Talo Edition. I love it. I replaced the trigger with a Volquartsen MK II trigger kit to do away with the mag safety. The trigger pull with this kit is fantastic. I'm not a big fan of the chamber loaded indicator, but that's a cosmetic issue and one that can be fixed with a metal filler that I have seen sold on the web. My MKIII is very accurate and I love shooting it. Buy a bunch of mags to go with it and you are good to go!

Edited January 10, 2012 by East_TN_Patriot
I can't spell.