A Review of the Ruger Mark-II Pistol

Today I am reviewing the Ruger MK-II pistol. This is a target pistol which uses the .22lr cartridge. The model I'm reviewing is stainless steel and has a 5.5 inch bull barrel. This model came out before the more recent MK-III design. The MK-II does not have a loaded chamber indicator and the top of the pistol is not drilled for a scope rail. However, for these reasons I like the MK-II better. The loaded chamber indicator while adding another factor of safety on the MK-III takes away from the pistol's appearance.

The only time I had a jam was when I was using CCI Velocitor rounds which appeared to have a slightly fat bullet face. I've not had a single problem with any other ammunition in this gun. I would say that the MK-II is more liable in a .22 caliber revolver. This is because the .22 long rifle round has a rim that needs to be struck sufficiently hard for the primer base to fire. In the MK-II the firing pin has adequate force to fire the round.

Some negatives about the gun are that takedown and cleaning is a hassle. One can get better at it with practice but there are other .22 pistols that are much easier to take apart and clean. So if you get a MK-II or III get ready to spend a little time with this aspect.

As far as accuracy goes, the MK-II is about as accurate as the shooter firing the pistol. I wouldn't say that it is as accurate as a revolver but it is close nonetheless. There is a little pop of recoil on the semi autos that I didn't find on the heavy barrel revolvers such as those made by Smith & Wesson. I suspect that accuracy can be improved through the use of a scope or red dot site.

I think one of the factors adding to the reliability of the pistol is its magazine design. The thin angled magazines in MK-II pistols are easy to load and easy to fire. They have a thumb knob that you press down in order to load the rounds with. One can buy 10 of these magazines and shoot off a hundred rounds before having to load a magazine again. The magazines are fairly cheap. I got mine new for about $14.95 on eBay.

The MK-II came standard with checkered plastic grips. The sharp checkering may take some getting used to but one can replace the grips if they wish. In fact, there's a huge marketplace for aftermarket parts for this pistol. You can get target grips that greatly enhance the controlability and accuracy of the pistol. If you wish, you can spend thousands of dollars building the ultimate MK-II by building out of aftermarket match grade parts. However, for me I'm quite happy with that way they came from the factory.