New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Semi automatic and single shot handguns, revolvers and other pistols

New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 07 Nov 2017, 4:17 pm

Hey all,

After an extended wait for my PTA to arrive i finally picked up my new chicken smasher / bullseye project a Ruger Mark III Target. Previously i have had Mark I and II and loved the accuracy for the price.

This is being built for rimfire silhouette match(chicken smashing) and bullseye if my club ever runs it again.

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Stripped it down and gave it a clean and discovered for myself what every review had said, due to Commiefornia and lawyers it now has a loaded chamber indicator and a magazine disconnect. The latter caused several issues putting the gun back together including loss of skin!

Off to the range and found the trigger was terrible, have to be the worst trigger i have ever shot! It would break randomly and was mushy, the reset was all over the place and the trigger pull is heavy.

Shot about 200 rounds to get used to the trigger and sighted it in for 25metres the results below 10 shots at 25m.

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Not bad shows lot of potential, a lot of the issues were due to trigger pull and mushiness.

Got home and ordered a TandemKross bushing which eliminates the magaxine disconnect and a Volquartsen Acucurising kit.

Today the bushing arrived but of course the VQ kit didnt.. given there is a rimfire silhouette match tomorrow night i stripped the pistol down and installed the bushing.

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Ohhh wow what a difference the bushing makes, clean crisp break, nice reset, still a lot of pre travel but thats managable and the best part, no skin donated, so much easier not having go stuff around inserting and removing the magazine to get it together..

Can’t wait for tomorrow night.. also cant wait for the volquartsen kit to arrive..

Brett1868 and Arisaka have some competition now at chicken smashing!
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by brett1868 » 07 Nov 2017, 4:44 pm

Guns are dangerous, if it wasn't for that gun you wouldn't have hurt yourself :) I lost some skin and donated some blood to the sport on the weekend so there's the proof that guns are dangerous :) Will be good to try it out tomorrow night and again once the balance of the goodies arrives just to see how it feels with each mod compared to the Ruger clone I use :) Nice pics as always mate.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Gun-nut » 07 Nov 2017, 7:35 pm

Didn't Ruger come out with the newer mkIV a few months ago? Any particular reason you chose the mkIII over the newer model? Either way that's a beautiful firearm you have there!
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by brett1868 » 07 Nov 2017, 8:55 pm

Gun-nut wrote:Didn't Ruger come out with the newer mkIV a few months ago? Any particular reason you chose the mkIII over the newer model? Either way that's a beautiful firearm you have there!


The Mk IV was recalled due to issues with the safety I believe which lead to delays. The only major improvement with the Mk IV was the simpler latch take down rather then the awkward hammer spring juggle and dance then get a hammer when you can't budge it. The Mk III was heavily discounted to clear stock for the new models release which makes it a bit of a bargain. The money saved buys the Volquartsen kit which is a vast improvement in trigger feel and by the time the dust settles you end up with a better pistol for less money if you can forgo the click and open takedown.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 08 Nov 2017, 6:38 am

What brett said :)

Ititially i was looking for a Mark IV but the recall happened and no eta on when Australia could get the parts.

So i went with the previous version. Since the purchase i was readingvthe Mark IV threads on rimfire central there are heap of issues with parts breaking, Trigger is worse than the III and now there are 3 versions of it. Pre recall, post recall and post post recall all with slightly different internals. This causes issues with volquartsen parts and you have to send the parts to VQ To be modified for your pistol.

I can’t wait to get out with it tonight..

Eta on the VQ parts is friday!
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 09 Nov 2017, 8:20 pm

Took it to the range on Wednesday with Brett1868 and Arisaka (yes Brett its Arisaka).

After getting used to the trigger in practice it it was grouping well and my confidence was high for a good showing at rimfire silhouette.

My confidence was short lived however as my score was terrible so bad i wont even mention it. Insert excuse here —> Clearly needing more trigger time to get used to it

Today the Volquartsen accurizing kit arrived and the wife at the movies with her sister, decided with the help of a frosty ale to install this kit

Stripped down the ruger completely for the 3rd time in 4 days and with no loss of skin this time! The pic below shows the comparison between the VQ parts on the left to the original.

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What amazed me was the level of polish the VQ parts have, so shiny and slippery it was difficult to grip onto the sear with the pliers

Pistol is back together in record time and tried the trigger and all i xan say is wow, a clean crisp break and once i adjusted the pre and over travel screws it is simply amazing. Video of the break

https://youtu.be/10-QVPN2CvA

I cant wait to get back to the range

Next upgrades

* New front sight
* Threaded barrel
* TandemKross Game Changer compensator.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by veep » 16 Nov 2017, 8:51 am

Wylie27 wrote:This is being built for rimfire silhouette match (chicken smashing) and bullseye if my club ever runs it again.


Made me lol :lol:
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Tonit » 17 Nov 2017, 2:04 pm

Wylie27 wrote:Stripped down the ruger completely for the 3rd time in 4 days and with no loss of skin this time!


Because you're getting better or because you have no skin left? :lol:
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 18 Nov 2017, 8:32 am

Tonit,

Haha a little bit of both i have to say.

Although i did speak to soon about it not taking any skin.

I managed to get slide bite from the pistol last night. Being a leftie i always feel stupid manipulating a pistol, ended up nicking my finger while working the bolt while showing it off to someone.. lol

Few of us hit the range last night, Brett1868 and a couple of his mates, Arisaka was a no show and we had a lead slinging-athon seceral rifles and pistols were on the benches and we all rotated through each bay having fun.

With testing of the mods underway i quickly started having issues issues with the trigger reset. I had got to excited and didnt give the trigger enough room to operate effectively and ended up adjusting pre and over travel screws to remedy that. Still more tuning is needed here.

The changes made to the trigger had an effect i didnt expect. The point of impact has changed significantly and i didnt bring any tools with me to adjust the sightz doh.

Sent about 30 rounds down range to work out the hold over and decided to go log a rimfire score which is 10 shots at 25 metres. Results are below.

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The Volquartsen accurising kit is well worth the price the only thing i will take out at this stage is the extended bolt release, being a leftie it just gets in the way.

Good news my package from tandemkross has left New York and should be here soon. They are sending me their halo ring, this attaches to the bolt and makes operating it easier.

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Next up is to clean all the pistols and rifles i took last night! Gotta love friday night lead slinging! It seems the shadow 2 was a hit with one of the guys talking about buying one today.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by junjun » 01 Jan 2018, 11:46 pm

If I order a Ruger MK IV everything kit from that website, can I just ship it straight to my address?
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 02 Jan 2018, 5:46 am

Junjun,

Best to contact them regarding shipping for the VQ kit. They do ship to Australia obviously, they just have some rules which i cannot quite remember now.

I will put an update soon about this pistol, been to the range a few times. Shot 455/480 for a match called Barricades at St Marys.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by junjun » 29 May 2018, 12:18 am

So after reading this post a few months ago. I was excited about my Ruger Mk IV. I ended up spending lots of money buy parts for my pistol. I have the Vorquartsen accuracy kit put in, I have the Tandemkross trigger and charge handle put in, also the extended magazine release and the rail for a red dot. Still waiting on the extended slide release. I sourced all my parts from Brownell.com.au and Tandemkross in the States.

Now the pistol is super nice, all after market parts are silver, certainly looks sexy. Pic will be tomorrow. The trigger now is super light, scarily light. My very first shot I pulled the trigger without intentionally. The trigger pull travel is incredibly short. Super happy with the trigger. The accuracy is too good. I fired about 200 rounds today without really trying, and most of them are in the centre black area from 25m. Sorry forgot to take a pic. One thing however is about 10-15% of the shots didn't go off due to light hammer or spring. Something I will have to look into. Once I get this fix, I will get a Vortex red dot to put on. At the end I think I will spend nearly $900 on parts. The pistol is surprisingly easy to dissemble and put everything back together.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 29 May 2018, 6:47 am

Junjun,

Awesome work :) my trigger is around 500 grams and breaks like glass. I have shot probably 5000 rounds since making the change and it still brings a smile to my face.

I had an issue with the trigger screws coming undone as i didnt clean the parts properly and the loctite didnt take.

I have different grips depending on which match i am shooting. I have different sights as well i picked them up off the tandemkross site, 3 fibre optic upgrade. Also have a cheapy red dog when i want to beat brett1868 in rimfire silhouette matches.

We run NRA Bullseye at my club and the mkiii holds its own..

If you think the trigger is too light then put the factory spring on the plunger and that will bring it up a few grams.

I have the LCI replacement and the firing pin replacement from tandemkross on its way. Its like a drug i cant stop changing things.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by junjun » 01 Jun 2018, 5:33 pm

I think the trigger is just sweet!!!
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 17 Jun 2018, 3:54 pm

Been a while since my last update for the Ruger. I shot two matches in two days at St Marys Pistol club, friday night was Bullseye match, i shot 420/600 with 7 failure to feeds in the match.

FTF were due to the pistol being super dirty, i would say i shot 1500-2000 rounds since its last clean and it was just time.

Saturday arvo match was Barricades which is a match i love. Involves left and and right handed shooting with reloads using Service match targets.

Course of fire is shot at 25 metres

* 6 shots right hand side of the barrier in 15 seconds
* 6 shots left hand side of the barrier in 15 seconds
* 6 shots right and side, reload 6 shots left and side in 120 seconds

Repeat that for 2nd round.

So after a detailed clean and replacing the extractor with a tandemkross one i came away with 456/480 which i am pretty happy about! Had one misfire in the match which was ammo related.

Here is my target from the night.

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I have some new bits in transit, new firing pin, extended mag release and loaded chamber indicator.

I am loving this pistol and its modularity, i can change it to suit different matches easily
Last edited by Wylie27 on 17 Jun 2018, 4:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by brett1868 » 17 Jun 2018, 3:59 pm

Just as an FYI for others, that match is shot at 25m which makes the score just that more impressive.
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Re: New Project: Ruger Mark III Build

Post by Wylie27 » 17 Jun 2018, 4:08 pm

brett1868 wrote:Just as an FYI for others, that match is shot at 25m which makes the score just that more impressive.


Ahhh yes! Shot at 25 metres!
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