looking at a ruger .22 hunter

[mxadam579]

Hay guys and gals im in the market for a new pistol .22 was wondering what u all think about the ruger mark III hunter 6 7/8 barrel ss pros and cons thanks.....?

[trickyvic]

I've had one for a while and the only con that I can come up with are the sights. I hated the rear V-notch sight, Ruger sent me a square notch blade for free.

Once you learn to shoot with the irons, slap a red-dot on it. Mine has a Fastfire II and it's soo much fun.

[trob]

i love the MK series. the only drawback I heard about the III is that its harder to take apart, but i have no idea because i dont own one.

They look amazing

[X-NewYawker]

I love mine. Two buddies shot it and each bought one for themselves. Accurate. I like the fiber optic front sight -- the green one is VERY fast to acquire visually.

ALL rugers are "hardt o take apart" but I have had ruger pistols for 30 years and haven't had to strip one down that far to clean it yet.

[jinggoyd1967]

Ruger Mk pistols are harder to take down than some other designs but I think it's worth it. However, it no more involved than having to clean a Ruger 10/22 rifle. It is relatively inexpensive and is a de-bugged product.

[glockman19]

I love my MkIII Hunter. Get the Fluted barrel...it's much lighter.

[mxadam579]

dont all hunter edition have fluted barrels 6 7/8 length

[Kiba]

dont all hunter edition have fluted barrels 6 7/8 length

All the Hunter models are stainless fluted but you can get them with either a 6 7/8" or 4 1/2" barrel.

http://www.ruger.com/products/markIIIHunter/models.html

I like mine, over 10K rounds down the pipe now (all too easy with the magazine speedloader.) Very accurate, not really picky about ammo, and it typically goes around 1500-2000 rounds before it starts to have little hiccups and requires cleaning. As someone else mentioned, I didn't care for the supplied V-notch rear sight either. If I were keeping it iron sighted I would get a traditional standard square notch rear sight. The front fiber optic sight is great though.

The most common gripe you hear about the Rugers is people complaining about the take down and reassembly. I've never understood it... other than making sure you engage the hammer strut into the mainspring there really isn't anything too out of the ordinary. The Mark III throws a little curve ball at you though because of the magazine disconnect-- you have to insert a magazine to drop the hammer prior to reinstalling the backstrap/mainspring housing. It's one small step to remember... and easily fixed by either removing the magazine disconnect and spring and shimming the hammer or changing to a Mark II hammer bushing and hammer.

Depending on how dirty your ammo is, after several thousand rounds the little spring cavities in the LCI (loaded chamber indicator) will eventually fill with debris and fouling. This makes its action stiff and puts more drag on the rounds as they feed and eject and can lead to FTF and FTE's. If you lock the bolt back, push on the LCI with your finger and if you feel it's gritty, dragging, or doesn't return to the "unloaded" position after you let go it's probably time to remove and clean the LCI. You can also make sure the problems never occur by removing the LCI entirely and installing a filler piece.

I put a Mark II Volquartsen trigger kit and Mark II hammer bushing in it to lighten the trigger and eliminate the magazine disconnect and I also removed the LCI and replaced it with a filler piece. Sight is a Burris FastFire II-- clear and very light, it replaced an Ultradot which was a great scope but switching to the FastFire saved 6+ ounces. One of my favorite pistols to shoot.

[bucktooth7]

Will the sq notch rear sight work with the fiber optic (lite pipe) front sight?

[RimfireJim]

Will the sq notch rear sight work with the fiber optic (lite pipe) front sight?

That depends on what kind of sight picture you prefer. Would seem strange to me. The rear blade is only a couple of bucks, or you might get Ruger to send you one free (probably not worth their time processing the credit card transaction). I use mine solely for target shooting, so wanted a square front post as well, like all my other pistols. I ordered a front "target" sight and a rear "target" blade over the phone on Monday and it came in the mail today. $15.75 total, including S&H. I installed them and I like it a lot better already. The rear blade is a little tricky to change - there is a bump in the center of the bottom edge that you have to line up with a notch in the sight base to lift the blade out. When you put it in, you have to compress the lateral spring (I used a little screwdriver) at the same time you are lining up the notch & bump with your other hand, while holding the gun with your third hand.

[trickyvic]

Will the sq notch rear sight work with the fiber optic (lite pipe) front sight?

Works great on mine.