And it’s not even February yet!
A few years back, I bought a Ruger 22/45 that could double as a plinker for me and also for the wife to use when she joined me at the range. At first, it was not uncommon to find up both making empty brass cases from loaded ammunition on a regular basis. But in the past couple years, the frequency has done a 180. I took it that with her working a schedule even more late night than mine, getting to the range while they were open had become too much of a bear for her to wrestle.
I bought the 22/45 because the wife has itty-bitty hands and it fit her pretty well and I would just compensate for the small grip by closely minding where my finger was positioned on the trigger and wrapping my pinky finger below the grip.
Then I started shooting the pins with Mr. Completely. The gun, while one of the ‘Target’ models, was wholly unsuited for me to compete with and I sat out the last few matches of last season and pondered my options.
As I said on Saturday, with the site down for repairs last week and me with hours of free time not spent blogging, I went looking at my options again, what with the pin season starting up again in just a few weeks.
Mr. C shoots High Standards so I looked into those and decided that they were out of my price range and went back to look around the market. But none of the other makes and models excited me or fit into my price range and I’d always had good luck with the Rugers, so off to their website I went.
That was when the bad news hit: They’ve discontinued almost the entire Mark II and series of .22 pistols and are now only making their new Mark III and 22/45 Mark III pistols. I remember hearing about them doing it, but I guess it just never connected with the actual firing synapses.
This is not a good thing for Ruger to do. All of the MKIII guns have a magazine disconnect on the trigger, making it so that the gun can’t be fired when the magazine is out of the gun. While only a minor change, I’ve been hearing that it makes getting a good, smooth trigger pull a bit more difficult and means you have to buy the more expensive MKIII magazines.
So after getting depressed about the lack of finding a 22 pistol I liked again, I went off to a couple of the firearms auction sites. I found numerous still new MKII’s with 6in and 6-7/8in barrelled pistols, 95% of which were in stainless, which I didn’t really want, and even a few 10in barreled models, all of which were in stainless.
Then I saw this
 (click for bigger)
Slap some wood grain target grips on that, and you’ve got one classy looking pin gun.
I’ve already got the HiViz front sight on order for it and I’ll be looking for a set of grips for it this next weekend. Other than that, I’m contemplating the Volquartzen trigger kit, but that may have to wait until later this year.
Now here is the pinch: I couldn’t afford to do this by myself. I talked with the wife about it and discovered that the other part of the reason she hadn’t been going with me to the range as frequently was because when I go, I go for hours. Usually a minimum of four. And that just didn’t work for her. She can handle an hour of handheld controlled explosions, maybe a bit more on an off day, but that’s it. Also, I hadn’t thought of it, but the 5-1/2 heavy barrel on the 22/45 tired her arms out pretty quickly.
So I sold the 22/45 to Mr. Completely to use as a traineing gun and am taking the funds of that sale to pay for part of the above pistol and one of these
 (click for bigger)
Except, because she’s like a racoon and likes shiny things, in stainless.
And everybody wins!
I’ve got a Mk II Competition Target Model, with the slab sided bull barrel and the thumb rest laminated grips. Mine’s got the 6″ barrel, and it’s in stainless ’cause I don’t mind the shiny and it’s slightly lower maintenance.
For the wife with the smaller hands, you might consider the Walther P22. I got mine for $220 last March. There’s also the Single Six, if she wouldn’t nind slower loading…
I would advise you to stay away from the Walter P22. My buddy bought one for his wife, and his will not fire double action unless you are pushing up on the magazine, due to some issue with either the mag catch or the magazine safety. Another fellow I talked to, who owned a Sig Mostquito (Sig’s .22 – looks like a P226 but slightly smaller) told me he had started with a Walther P22, but upgraded to the Sig after having lots of problems with the P22. Of course, whenenver I hear a pistol has a mag safety, I immediately feel much less inclinded to buy it…
Congratulations! Two guns are better than one!
My wife has the Ciener .22 slide for her 9mm Beretta 92, and likes it very much. We’ve used this combo to train several new shooters, and it makes transitioning to the “big” 9mm cartridges pretty simple. I don’t know if it’s “minute of bowling pin,” but it’s pretty accurate.
Hmmm…
I’ve read of some people having problems with putting their fingers on the magazine eject lever when firing and causing the magazine to eject. When they moved their fingers off the lever, it stopped happening.
And no offence meant, especially since your passing along second hand info, but I generally discount statements of “problems” that don’t list specifics.
The other problems I’ve read about with respect to the Walther P22:
Feed problems that were fixed by a redesign of the magazine. Walther America (run by S&W) will reportedly send you replacement magazines just by your claim to have the old ones.
Saftey lever that wanders to “safe” when shooting. Some had the shaft of the lever just a TCH too long. Disassemble the safety, and take a TCH off the shaft of the lever, reassemble and test. Repeat as required.
Nut at the end of the barrel comes loose during protracted shooting. A drop or two of locktite…
Overlubrication of the slide can accelerate the wearing out of the slide, since it’s made of a zinc alloy. Follow the manufacturers recommendation to lubricate “sparingly”.
I’ve yet to have a single issue with mine that wasn’t directly attributable to operartor error or crappy ammunition. I’ve had mine for about 10 months now, and it’s been to the range half a dozen times.
If The Analog Kid is in any way interested, I’m sure I could be persuaded to make a road trip, since he was generous with his CZ at the PNW Blogger Blasto-rama.
But I believe he’s already set on the Mk II. I would think the main reason being you would find it difficult to shoot one out, and the Analog Wife is already familiar with it.
Pingback: Random Nuclear Strikes » e-Postal Match
Pingback: Random Nuclear Strikes » The Best Part of Blogging
I have MKII 6″ bull and MKIII 22/45. I bought the 22/45 because my nephew has smaller hands. 100k rounds between the two of them, both peform flawlessly. I dont like the new dummy features on the MK III but Ruger is trying to make them PC.
100,000 rounds?!!!?!! Are you serious? I know the .22 rimfire isn’t exactly a barrel-burner like the .243 or a .22-250, but that’s awesome!
Actually it’s awesome at two levels: first, that the guns are still going strong (which shouldn’t be a surprise, I suppose), and second, that you and your family have been lucky enough to be able to shoot 100,000 rounds!
Hell, I go to the range at lunch hour sometimes, and I’m still lucky to burn through more than a few thousand total rounds total in any given year. My hat’s off to you!