woodentoe 14 Posted March 4, 2012 See below some pictures of my very first, one and only firearm. It is a Ruger Mark III Target 5.5" Bull Barrel SS finish. $459.99 at Heritage Guild Rahway. Overall a good experience. They are a Ruger dealer and had it in stock. The other prices I got were a little lower ($20), but were far enough away that it wasn't worth it to burn the gas to go elsewhere. All good. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RubberBullets 65 Posted March 4, 2012 wow had no idea how much those rugers cost. nice looking shooter there Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woodentoe 14 Posted March 4, 2012 This one is a mid level model. The blued finish of this gun is $100 less, but I wanted SS. You can get a Mark 3 standard with the short barrel (which is a nice little shooter) for under $300. I think if you want a 22/45, you can get one for like $220.00 I wanted Stainless, and I wanted the bull barrell, so I paid a little more. The Hunter model has a fluted barrel and fiber sights it's like $500. Then , the top model is Competition. 6.88" slab sided barrell and thumbrest grips. That one is up there at $625 or so. The competition is a very nice gun, but I'm a lefty and I didn't see the sense in dropping $600 on a gun with modeled cocobolo grips just to take them off and use flat grips. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4redz 2 Posted March 4, 2012 the SS is beautiful. I have the blued version. I know a lot of people go wild with mods to it, but I've yet to see the reason to do many of them except: I bought the LCI filler and "blast shield" from Bruce on rimfirecentral, and I recently defeated the mag release saftey with a replacement bushing...I can take it down without having to insert a mag (and the mag drops free without getting hung up) just like the mark II. best of luck with it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JackDaWack 2,895 Posted March 5, 2012 It would be worth it to put a small cheap red dot on it, everything else is just preference. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
liquidskin 3 Posted March 5, 2012 I picked this same one up a few months ago, love it! An absolute blast to shoot... I was even able to get my gf to enjoy shooting it. She hit bullseye at 15yds, stock sights! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woodentoe 14 Posted March 5, 2012 The pics above were snapped during her maiden voyage at Lake Island in Careret thanks to an invite by John Fox. I was certainly beaming while I was showing her off to the others. I ran 100 rounds of Cci Mini mags through her with one round that failed to fire. No jams or gun related malfunctions. Came home and stripped It down and cleaned it with "shooters choice" on a hoppe's bore snake, cleaned and lubes the frame, receiver and finish with rem oil. Went back together as advertised. I have the hang of it but definitely have to apply the mallet to both remove and reseat the bolt stop pin. I hope it loosens up with use. She's a shooter. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Underdog 1,593 Posted March 5, 2012 I think the Target model is very nice. It has a tad bit more weight than the Hunter with the fluted barrel. 5.5" is a perfect barrel length and it has the square rear sight while the Hunter has the V sight. I actually prefer the square sight and the extra weight on the barrel to tame that fierce recoil. You may want to get the fiber optic front sight for it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woodentoe 14 Posted March 5, 2012 I'm happy with it. I would have liked the slab sided barrel that the cOmpetitiOn has, but I like the weight of it. I really cAnt see mug of a downside to this pistol. True that disassembly/reassembly is a little tricky. But, definitely not impossible and not the nightmare that some present. I can see nO reason why I wouldnt clean thIs gun after every range visit. I'm sort of shocked that I've read so many comments advising people to NEVER clean this gun. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Richard 2 Posted March 5, 2012 I just got the long barreled Hunter a few weeks ago from Arms N Ammo at a very good price. It's also my first firearm of any kind. I love it. It's eaten about 500 rounds of the Mini-Mags w/o any problems whatsoever. Fired 30 rounds of Federal Auto Match w/o problems. I tried 50 rounds of Federal Champion in the middle of all the CCI and had four malfunctions: 2 FTE, 1 FTFire and 1 FT Feed. I'll stick with the Mini-Mags. Didn't clean it until it had 580 rounds through it. Stripping and re-assembly were really not a problem. I also needed the rubber mallet to remove and install the barrel. Two or three sharp whacks did the job. Oddly, I needed to use a pliers (jaws wrapped in rubber) to swing out the mainspring housing. I flipped out that little unlocking lever and pulled on it but the housing wouldn't budge. Once it was clear of the frame it swung freely. Pulled it out of the gun w/o any tools. Gun functions perfectly though, so I'll assume it will loosen up with time. I don't mind the V-notch rear sight and like using the smallest green fiber optic front sight. Looking forward to using it again this week at the range. Good luck with yours. Richard Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
woodentoe 14 Posted March 5, 2012 Richard, When the mainspring housing is stubborn, I put the Mag in and hold the trigger down as I jiggle the mainspring housing. When the hammer falls, the housing will just fall out. Funny, I don't need the mLlet strike to remove the barrel at all. The fit of the gun is just very very tight Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Richard 2 Posted March 5, 2012 Richard, When the mainspring housing is stubborn, I put the Mag in and hold the trigger down as I jiggle the mainspring housing. When the hammer falls, the housing will just fall out. Funny, I don't need the mLlet strike to remove the barrel at all. The fit of the gun is just very very tight I'll try the mainspring trick. Thanks. As far as the barrel goes, I pushed on it for all I was worth. Wouldn't budge. Then again, I'm just a weak old guy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
