Riomouse911
Member
After losing several auctions for S&W Model 63 kit guns over the past few months, I went out and bought a blued Ruger MK IV 10” and a stainless/walnut 10/22 International from Buds Gunstore online for a tiny bit more than the used (but nice) Model 63’s were selling for.
Due to the ‘rona shutdown, I haven’t had a chance to really get out and shoot the gun and check it out until yesterday. The indoor range is again open, so off I went.
The good:
The fitted box it comes with is an absolute suitcase. It’s big, but it had to fit a pistol that’s 14 1/4” long from stem to stern. It’ll hog up room on your shelf and in your vehicle on the way to the range, but it is a good protective case.
The function was Ruger-simple. Loading the mags was easy with the button on the mag and the charging handles on the bolt are easy to grip. It came with two nickel-plated 10-round mags, which will make it easy to tell apart from my other Mark pistol Mags.
Being used to the heel-located mag release of my other Ruger auto pistols the thumb release location took me a bit to get used to, but it is much easier to utilize. As it touched my thumb as I held it, I could even feel it pop out a fraction of an inch on the last shot. I knew when the mag was done the instant the tenth round was fired.
Fit and finish was flawless. Not a tool mark or thin bluing spot or other flaw was seen on any part. They also moved the litigation banner under the barrel when it should have been since the day Curtis Numbnuts, ESQ. convinced Bill Ruger that plastering it all over the gun would somehow reduce his liability in a defective product lawsuit.
The barrel has a recessed crown that my 6.5” MK II Govt Target doesn’t have. I like this tiny bit of possible damage insurance, especially with the muzzle sitting so far out there. It is a bit easy to knock the muzzle if you’re not careful.
The front sight was a flat-patridge style, not the undercut front on my MK II. I have to paint my front sights now with the white/orange model paint treatment so I couldn’t tell any difference. Out of the box it was right on the money at 20 yards with the Armscor 36 gr HP I decided to shoot through it, so I didn’t have to fiddle with the sights at all.
Accuracy was as expected with the MK IV, it shot point of aim and is more accurate than I am at 20 yds. I will admit that holding the gun out in a two-hand hold while shooting one per second for a few magazines in a row can sometimes make me get a little bit wobbly by shots 8-9-10, so tossing the one out of the 10 ring was my fault entirely. (My 14 yr old LASIK procedure causes the left of center grouping, I’ll be adjusting the sights accordingly next time out.) This is 50 of the plinking-grade Armscor 36 gr HP, fired two-hand at a one per second cadence at 20 yds on an NRA B-27:
The one-button takedown for cleaning is awesome! The person (or team) who designed this system should be knighted! (I also have a Standard 4.5” Ruger, both it and the MK II are not fun to take down and put back together!)
The fair:
The trigger is a bit gritty and the pull weight measured 3 lb 6 oz on my Lyman gauge. (This compares to a crisp 1 lb 9 oz for my Standard and another crisp 1 lb 11 oz on the MK II. ) For a pure target gun it should have come from the factory at 2 lbs +\-. Since I don’t want to peen the chamber dry-firing is out, so I hope this smooths up more with more use. If not, I may have to go aftermarket (Volquartsen) to bring the trigger up to snuff.
Upon release, the magazine launches from the grip like a torpedo from the bow of a submarine. On a combat pistol that’s good because it drops out when a one-handed or high-stress combat load is needed, but with the plastic-buttplate on the MK IV mag it will bounce of the concrete a lot and eventually crack unless you put a hand underneath or tilt the gun sideways and catch the mag in your palm.
The grips are a bit thin for such a nose-heavy pistol. These guns should come with thumbrest grips with an off-side palmswell like the slab-sides target Ruger MK IV’s do. I ordered a set of walnut thumbrest grips from E. Arthur Brown for 50 bucks, once these are on I think it should be a lot easier to hold and shoot...especially for a long string of multiple magazines or a slow-cadence mag full.
Since this was the first time the gun was fired I should have done a better initial cleaning and lubing before bringing it out. I didn’t, and the result was several failures-to-extract in the first 150 rounds. I have numerous bricks of the Armscor rounds so I chose this just to burn through some, I’ve found it pretty reliable and accurate enough. I’ll try others next time to be sure it wasn’t just the rounds causing issues. This situation pretty much rectified itself by around the 175-round mark, and the 50 I fired for record at the end went bang every time. This showed to me why all guns need to be cleaned and properly lubed when fresh out of the box, and I think this really was more my fault rather than the guns’.
The bad:
I found nothing truly bad. The trigger teetered on fair/bad because it was a bit gritty as well as a tad heavy, but I’m spoiled with the fantastic triggers on my other Rugers so I’m a bit picky there. If you’re not shooting a trigger pull heavier than you’re used to on similar guns it may not bother you like it did me. That being said, the pull weight wasn’t as bad as many other guns I’ve shot so I’ll rate it as fair with the hope the grit goes away with more use.
All in all, it was a good day. I’ll never, ever place at Camp Perry that’s for sure, but I’m looking forward to ringing in a new .22 dueling tree I’m having made and also my rimfire silhouettes when the heat dies down in the fall and I can head our to the desert again.
The MK IV 10” is a bit more of a specialty pistol rather than a do-all trainer/hunter/kit gun/plinker like my smaller MK II and Standards are, but it really is a hoot to break out at the range and shoot.
Stay safe.
Due to the ‘rona shutdown, I haven’t had a chance to really get out and shoot the gun and check it out until yesterday. The indoor range is again open, so off I went.
The good:
The fitted box it comes with is an absolute suitcase. It’s big, but it had to fit a pistol that’s 14 1/4” long from stem to stern. It’ll hog up room on your shelf and in your vehicle on the way to the range, but it is a good protective case.
The function was Ruger-simple. Loading the mags was easy with the button on the mag and the charging handles on the bolt are easy to grip. It came with two nickel-plated 10-round mags, which will make it easy to tell apart from my other Mark pistol Mags.
Being used to the heel-located mag release of my other Ruger auto pistols the thumb release location took me a bit to get used to, but it is much easier to utilize. As it touched my thumb as I held it, I could even feel it pop out a fraction of an inch on the last shot. I knew when the mag was done the instant the tenth round was fired.
Fit and finish was flawless. Not a tool mark or thin bluing spot or other flaw was seen on any part. They also moved the litigation banner under the barrel when it should have been since the day Curtis Numbnuts, ESQ. convinced Bill Ruger that plastering it all over the gun would somehow reduce his liability in a defective product lawsuit.
The barrel has a recessed crown that my 6.5” MK II Govt Target doesn’t have. I like this tiny bit of possible damage insurance, especially with the muzzle sitting so far out there. It is a bit easy to knock the muzzle if you’re not careful.
The front sight was a flat-patridge style, not the undercut front on my MK II. I have to paint my front sights now with the white/orange model paint treatment so I couldn’t tell any difference. Out of the box it was right on the money at 20 yards with the Armscor 36 gr HP I decided to shoot through it, so I didn’t have to fiddle with the sights at all.
Accuracy was as expected with the MK IV, it shot point of aim and is more accurate than I am at 20 yds. I will admit that holding the gun out in a two-hand hold while shooting one per second for a few magazines in a row can sometimes make me get a little bit wobbly by shots 8-9-10, so tossing the one out of the 10 ring was my fault entirely. (My 14 yr old LASIK procedure causes the left of center grouping, I’ll be adjusting the sights accordingly next time out.) This is 50 of the plinking-grade Armscor 36 gr HP, fired two-hand at a one per second cadence at 20 yds on an NRA B-27:
The one-button takedown for cleaning is awesome! The person (or team) who designed this system should be knighted! (I also have a Standard 4.5” Ruger, both it and the MK II are not fun to take down and put back together!)
The fair:
The trigger is a bit gritty and the pull weight measured 3 lb 6 oz on my Lyman gauge. (This compares to a crisp 1 lb 9 oz for my Standard and another crisp 1 lb 11 oz on the MK II. ) For a pure target gun it should have come from the factory at 2 lbs +\-. Since I don’t want to peen the chamber dry-firing is out, so I hope this smooths up more with more use. If not, I may have to go aftermarket (Volquartsen) to bring the trigger up to snuff.
Upon release, the magazine launches from the grip like a torpedo from the bow of a submarine. On a combat pistol that’s good because it drops out when a one-handed or high-stress combat load is needed, but with the plastic-buttplate on the MK IV mag it will bounce of the concrete a lot and eventually crack unless you put a hand underneath or tilt the gun sideways and catch the mag in your palm.
The grips are a bit thin for such a nose-heavy pistol. These guns should come with thumbrest grips with an off-side palmswell like the slab-sides target Ruger MK IV’s do. I ordered a set of walnut thumbrest grips from E. Arthur Brown for 50 bucks, once these are on I think it should be a lot easier to hold and shoot...especially for a long string of multiple magazines or a slow-cadence mag full.
Since this was the first time the gun was fired I should have done a better initial cleaning and lubing before bringing it out. I didn’t, and the result was several failures-to-extract in the first 150 rounds. I have numerous bricks of the Armscor rounds so I chose this just to burn through some, I’ve found it pretty reliable and accurate enough. I’ll try others next time to be sure it wasn’t just the rounds causing issues. This situation pretty much rectified itself by around the 175-round mark, and the 50 I fired for record at the end went bang every time. This showed to me why all guns need to be cleaned and properly lubed when fresh out of the box, and I think this really was more my fault rather than the guns’.
The bad:
I found nothing truly bad. The trigger teetered on fair/bad because it was a bit gritty as well as a tad heavy, but I’m spoiled with the fantastic triggers on my other Rugers so I’m a bit picky there. If you’re not shooting a trigger pull heavier than you’re used to on similar guns it may not bother you like it did me. That being said, the pull weight wasn’t as bad as many other guns I’ve shot so I’ll rate it as fair with the hope the grit goes away with more use.
All in all, it was a good day. I’ll never, ever place at Camp Perry that’s for sure, but I’m looking forward to ringing in a new .22 dueling tree I’m having made and also my rimfire silhouettes when the heat dies down in the fall and I can head our to the desert again.
The MK IV 10” is a bit more of a specialty pistol rather than a do-all trainer/hunter/kit gun/plinker like my smaller MK II and Standards are, but it really is a hoot to break out at the range and shoot.
Stay safe.
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