New Lipsey's Ruger Mk III Review w/ Pics

[Animal Mother]

A few weeks ago I ordered a Lipsey's Exclusive Ruger Mark III from thegunsource.com. I was hesitant to order from them as I hadn't heard much about them, but the free shipping and no CC fee won me over. It did take about a week for them to get it and ship it over despite them telling me that it was in stock, but the wait wasn't excessive and I'd use them again. The model I ordered is the 5.5 inch blued slab sided barrel, with a gold trigger, fiber optic sight, and smooth cocobolo grips.

The original cocobolo grips that came with the gun had a tiny ding in them, which probably occurred when packing it up at the factory, but after emailing Ruger about it they exchanged them for a new pair. Ruger’s customer service gets a big thumbs up for that.

I had never had a gun with v-notch fiber optic sights before and while they were fine, I prefer the traditional square target sights, so I ordered a new front sight blade and target leaf and had the parts swapped out in about 15 minutes.

The slab sided barrel looks good and saves a few ounces of weight which makes the pistol a bit more balanced. The cocobolo grips also look great and feel much more comfortable than the standard plastic grips. Trigger is very nice; I think it breaks at about 3 or 4 pounds. I’ve shot a few hundred rounds of Winchester 333 bulk and Federal AutoMatch and haven’t had a single malfunction. Yesterday after getting my new sights calibrated I was able to pretty consistently shoot a sub 1” group at 20 yards using 333 Winchester bulk, granted that’s a seated two-handed group, but that’s very good shooting for me. Standing offhand, those groups opened up to 2”. I picked up a vintage Hunter 1100 series holster and it fits this gun very nicely, it also completely covers the trigger guard, which is something that I don’t think the newer 1100’s do.

I liked the fact that the gun comes from the factory drilled and tapped, so yesterday I mounted the factory rail on it and tried both a cheap red dot and a cheap scope on it to see how I like it, and I really did better shooting with the iron sights. My one gripe is that when I took off the rail I now a very thin line in the bluing caused by the rail, my suggestion to anyone mounting the rail on a blued gun would be to put a little piece of oiled paper (or something similar) between the rail and the upper to keep the rail from making metal on metal contract with the upper. Still it’s very faint and I should be able to touch it up with some cold blue. I’ve heard of good results with Van’s Instant Gun Blue on Rugers, but if anyone has a better suggestion, I’m all ears.

Right
Left
Holster
Seated Group
Offhand Group

 

[withdrawn34]

Thanks for the review. Glad to hear you joined the MK III club. I have one as well, although it is the "cheaper" one with the tapered barrel and not so many of the extras. Still works, though!

Of course, you'll probably change your mind the first time you attempt to break down and put the gun back together again

But then you'll shoot it again and all will be forgiven

(luckily these things rarely need to be cleaned - some would argue they never need to be cleaned... I do so every bulk pack box or so - so about every 500 rounds).

 

[Animal Mother]

Paul34, I initally planned on getting a tapered barrel Ruger because I really love the lines of that version, but I just had to have adjustable sights. If Ruger had made a 4-5.5" tapered barrel with adjustable sights I would have snatched that up immediately. It's a real shame they don't because the tapered barrels can be just as accurate as the bull barrels, but with less weight. If I get another one, it will be the version you have.

I haven't tried taking it apart yet, everyone talks about how difficult it is. I'm going to keep it as clean as I can without having to take it apart, but when it needs it, I'll just take a few deep breaths, set aside some time and have some YouTube videos available for reference and get it done. I'm betting it won't be as bad as everyone makes it out to be.