In 1949 my Great Grandfather Lynn, who I had the luck of having around well into my teens, bought a Ruger MK 1 in the local hardware store for 32$. I remember the old man plinking away with it when I was a kid and I was always excited when it came out. I have it now and shoot it rarely.(it shoots great btw) It still looks new and in the box and I would like to keep it that way. So as a target pistol, few if any have the fame and numbers sold as Ruger does. Naturally when I decided to buy a new 22 semi auto the choice was made it has to be a Ruger.
So this is my review of the Ruger MK 3 22 cal Target model. The 22/45. I saw a review from Kingpin on TGR where he discuss’s a pistol he had that was much the same. From his pictures though he had a metal lower receiver and grip. I have a polymer one. Other than that they seem to have the same upper half. 5.5 inch bull barrel, target crown and adjustable sites. He voiced some displeasure with it and initially before really firing (1 round more on that later) he looks to be right on. The trigger isn’t conducive to shooting a precision match. I used to shoot that slow fire, one handed precision stuff in my early 20’s as they had a league not far from my base on Monday nights, this trigger would not allow you to shoot a dime, one handed at the ranges we were shooting them. The magazine does not drop out in this one either but it pops out far enough to be easily pulled out, good enough, this isn’t a “duty” pistol. Additionally it came with 2 mags which is nice. So I am not as displeased as Kingpin. In no way am I taking away from what he said just I looked at the pistol in a different perspective. When I think of “Target” as it says on the thing, I think of introducing new shooters on a nice, sunny day, I think of a half dozen pop cans lined up on a railroad tie 25-30 feet away and knocking them over. I think of standing back 100 yards and shooting at paper plates. I don’t think of that boring Monday night match I used to shoot, for that I would expect to see “Match” on the gun, THEN I would have expected a better trigger. So from that perspective I am content with my purchase. I got the thing delivered for $256 from Budsgunshop online (their 259$ now) to my ffl transfer guy and he charges me $10. So for 266$ even I have a brand new, very nice pistol. Perfect for what I wanted it for.
Ruger MK3 22/45
Around here I have a little game I played for the last 3 years, I call it “big game hunting” 🙂 My friends tell me I’m the only one on earth that would think of this, I bet there are others though. So I have an old remodeled farm house and from time to time mice get in. I had 4 of them 3 winters ago, none last year and 1 this year. Well once I see where they hang out I have those Aquila rounds from Spain with no gunpowder in them, the primer shoots a 20 grain pointed bullet 🙂 There not very fast and not like REALLY shooting a gun in your house. DO NOT think they are just a cheap bb gun round tho!! They are coming out of there pretty good, like a good pellet gun. Still dangerous to living things and your property so fire with care. So anyway 3 years ago I got all 4 mice with those rounds in my old Ruger MK 1. I just got the one I saw this year while he was trying to hijack a piece of food out of Jack the Dog’s food bowl. I did it with the new Mark 3 at about 4 feet. So one confirmed kill so far. So that’s my only hunting experience, its more fun than setting traps and those 22’s in a mouse must be like a 458 win mag on a deer:) I do this sober too. 🙂
Ok, I will be back as soon as I head out and shoot this thing for real.
Ruger MK3 22/45
Alright back from the range, well that sure was satisfying, what a nail driver this thing is.(total sarcasm). At about 25 feet from a weaver stance it just didn’t really impress me. I tried 4 kinds of ammo, American eagle 40 grain lead, Remington thunderbolt 40 grain lead, Stingers from CCI at 32 grains and Aquila Super Maximum Hyper velocity. The 2 speedy rounds, the Aquila and the stingers were the worst groupers, the only one that remotely shot OK were the thunderbolts. There about 10 million more kinds of ammo to try as we all know, so the search will continue but this wasn’t the day for the Mark 3 to shine I guess. Definitely not winning any matches here and target shooting wasn’t so hot either. I will update when I finally find whatever it is the thing likes. I might have even blamed myself but I was on the money with some other stuff so I don’t think the usual cause (me) was it today. I do think we’ll find something good to shoot though, it seems/looks like a very nice pistol.
Ruger MK3 22/45
Overall not all that impressed yet, not giving up on her though. I’m confident I will find something she likes to shoot better than this. Another to be continued.
As always thanks for reading and happy shooting.
By: Cary Kieffer
Ruger MK3 22/45
Cary Kieffer
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