Ruger Mark II

[North Country Gal]

I have nothing against the MK IV. I understand why Ruger offers it. Ruger more or less pushed themselves into a corner and had to offer it. There were some MK IIIs that were so tight as to need a mallet and a punch to disassemble. They must have been assembled with a hydraulic press at the factory. I know, because friends brought them to me to work on. That was a time in Ruger production where the QC was pretty miserable and Ruger was struggling to keep up with demand. Once tuned and polished as needed, though, an MK III is every bit as good as any other Mark.

As for the mag safety on the MK III, I have witnessed beginners making the mistake of thinking a semi-auto MK III was safe and unloaded by only removing the mag. When a friend handed her MK III to me, claiming it was unloaded after only dropping the mag, I pulled the bolt back and out popped a live round. Oh, yeah, friend notwithstanding, she got an earful from me on that one that she still talks about to this day.