Ruger Uncraps The Mk Series of .22 Pistols

The first pistol I ever bought was a Mk.II. Later I bought a Mk.III. My chief complaints about the Mk.III:

  • It was designed by lawyers. It’s got every awful “safety feature” you can think of.
  • It’s really difficult to strip and clean.

Tam managed to get a hold of a Ruger Mk.IV and it looks like Ruger has addressed those issues. I’m very happy to see this, because the Ruger Mk series is a first pistol for a lot of people, and it serves an important function in the community.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Ruger SR-556
  2. Advance Sales of Ruger LCP Brisk
  3. Review: Ruger LCP v. Kel-Tec P3AT

29 thoughts on “Ruger Uncraps The Mk Series of .22 Pistols”

  1. They look very nice, and you don’t have to do the Mark II dance to get it back together to find out that you missed and now it is jammed and going to take a long time to get apart and back together again. The only flaw I can see is the MSRP, they run from $550 to $790.

      1. MSRPs are $20-$30 higher than the current Mark III equivalents, so figure street prices from that. Nobody sells at MSRP.

  2. Tam’s review will likely kick off an application for a Permit to Purchase before too long.

      1. Enh – if I didn’t like living in NJ, I’d have moved when I was househunting a few years back.

  3. I’ve got a Mk.III 22/45 and once I put in an aftermarket bushing to get rid of the magazine safety, I didn’t find it difficult to field-strip. Certainly nothing like all of the moaning I’ve read.

    1. I actually managed to break mine trying to reassemble it, and I’ve seen gunsmiths take 30-45 minutes. I love the pistol, it’s just impossible to reassemble.

      This one goes on the Save Up for list.

  4. I have a MkII. Just a regular model, stainless. I’m not in the rush for another one.

    1. When I walk past a McDonald’s and I’m not hungry, I always make a point to walk in and tell them. I’m sure they wanted to know. :)

    2. I have, or had, a bull barrel stainless MkII. My son claimed it as his when given a choice of several handguns. I apparently raised him right.

  5. Meh, a day late and a dollar short. I already bought my S&W Victory 22, complete with the threaded barrel, for a fraction of the price Ruger is asking for the Mark IV.

  6. Have a MkIII 22/45. Disassembly is not really difficult (I understand MkIII not-22/45 are a bit more difficult) once you understand it.

    Magazine “safety” was gone as soon as my brownells order arrived, back then. And it now has a Volquartsen trigger.

    Here in France, we’re restricted to 12 category B firearms (the fun stuff: handguns, semi-auto rifles …) and I will still use one slot to keep that 22.
    And with the suppressor, it is oh-so-quiet.

  8. My first pistol was a Mk I. Same issues, except magazines are very hard to find these days.

    Then Bill Ruger pissed off his customers, and I haven’t bought a Ruger product since the mid 1980’s. I have the pistol, and a 10/22, what else do I need labeled Ruger?

    Now that Bill is decades dead and buried, maybe I would buy one of their products…but they don’t have anything that someone else doesn’t do better. So why bother?

    1. I understand the sentiment but Bill Ruger’s appeasement was buried with him.

      1. Yup. Theres’s no reason to boycott Ruger anymore. They are selling guns to the public that would make Bill wet himself.

        1. Sure, but they really aren’t making anything unique, or that I need.

          I have a bunch of 1911’s. I have better bolt action rifles than M77’s. I have better shotguns than red dots. I have S&W, Colt, and Taurus revolvers, I don’t really need a Ruger….

          I had a mini-14, and was quite happy to sell it…not that accurate or reliable, and third party mags mostly sucked.

          So, I am happy with my 10/22 and MkI (sort of), and might get a Mk4, but my Browning is just as good a .22 pistol.

          And that, boys and girls, is why companies should NOT piss off their customer base for any reason.

    2. Mk I magazines are “very hard to find”? Based upon what criteria? Ruger.com, CDNN, and Midway all have them, and that’s just the first three places I looked.

    3. If they reintroduced the Deerfield with a big magazine, I’d buy one.

      (Or a .357 equivalent.)

      I’m a sucker for a pistol-caliber carbine, especially a high-powered one.

  9. I also stopped buying Rugers when he did that appeasement routine.
    I made an exception a few years later, but it was already a pre-sold gun. I bought it because it was a model that Bill had declared would only be sold to .gov, and would not be available to the peon class.
    A high-end dealer had bought 10 NIB trade-ins from a police dept. The Mini-14 stainless, folding stock, GB(government barrel). The GB consisted of a threaded muzzle with the AR/M16 flash-hider/compensator, bayonet lug, and 20rnd mag. He kept one for his own use, and sold the rest.

    Some years later, my two best friends decided they were each going to buy a sailboat. I was thinking, where am I going to find another one of these boat guns? One ended up buying an ocean racer of some sort, and the other a live-aboard, so I figured the day racer didn’t need a gun on it as much as a traveling home would. Turns out a decision wasn’t necessary, as they both died the same week.

    A couple years later I sold it, still NIB, to a collector in TX, who had put a “wanted” ad in the “Gun List” periodical.

  10. Dude, Ruger deserves absolution just for putting a million LCPs in Americans’ pockets.

    Never doubt that the LCP is a culturally significant gun. A well-finished, reliable, unquirked retake of the brilliant but flaky KT P3AT. Distributed everywhere. With loads of useful accessories available on Ruger’s website. The 2016 equivalent of the 5-shot snubby. Decently effective little guns that people actually carry. And they’re $220 at my LGS.

    Freakin ‘Merica, man.

    We haven’t even gotten into the fact the new Ruger sells loads of defensive centerfire semi-auto rifles with 20- and 30-rd mags that would make Bill Ruger pop a blood vessel.

    The new Mk-IV looks like a clear improvement over the Mk-III in response to the S&W Victory. In this and other ways Smith, Ruger and the other big boys keep each other honest and press each other to improve constantly, almost like competitive markets work or something.

  11. Well, maybe. I don’t need an LCP, but I may want one one of these days.

  12. I stuck with the MK 2. Unlike some, I have no trouble taking it apart – nor putting it back together.

  13. Still appears to have the magazine disconnect :( but otherwise awesome. Would buy.

  14. A Mk II was my first gun purchase also – from the old Edelman’s store in Montgomeryville, for less than $200 back in the day, if I recall correctly. Still have that gun, still running fine after God knows how many thousands of rounds.

  15. My timing sucks.
    Just de-lawyered my MkIII 22/45 and spiffed up the trigger and Ruger does this.
    I do NOT need another .22 pistol.
    I do NOT need another .22 pistol.
    I do NOT need another .22 pistol.
    I do NOT need another .22 pistol.
    I do NOT need another .22 pistol.

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