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Down Range Radio #490: The Flavors Of The Ruger Mark IV
Michael Bane and Dave Spaulding at the FTW Ruger Event where the Ruger Mark IV was introduced.
This week Michael catches everyone up on the new Ruger Mark IV .22, fun times at the FTW Ranch and how to tank a 3-Gun match…
Episode #490.
Scroll down for reference links on topics discussed in this episode.
Host: Michael Bane
Producer: Marshal Halloway
Find this episode of Down Range Radio on: iTunes | Stitcher
More information and reference links:
MyOutdoorTV (The future home of Shooting Gallery Online)
Like magic, you can have all that and more, and thanks to SHOOTING GALLERY and Michael Bane, you can get your first month for only $0.99! That's less than any toll road in New Jersey! Go directly to MY OUTDOOR TV , hit “Sign Up Now,” fill out the first page and click “Continue.” Fill out the Billing page, and where you see the box marked PROMO CODE. Enter the top, super-secret-don't even tell your worthless bum of a brother-in-law code: SGO
You'll be signed up and get your first month for $0.99! Then, for a measly $9.99 a month from then on, you get all the OUTDOOR CHANNEL you can handle. Starting the first week of September, you also get SHOOTING GALLERY ONLINE (SGO, get it?), an original online series that you'll only be able to watch online. Think of the DOWN RANGE Radio podcast turned into a broadcast show. We'll be there the first-est with the most-est! Guaranteed! Insider coverage from SHOT and the NRA Show? Done deal. Coverage of the newest technologies by people not living in their Mom's basement? No problemo. SGO will rock.
FTW SAAM Training & Hunt Class
The Difference Between Hornady Critical Defense ammo and Critical Duty ammo
Hornady Critical Defense Ammunition
The Best Defense: Mass Casualty – Strategies For Survival
Award-winning producers of THE BEST DEFENSE, Michael Bane and Jeff Murray, decided to tackle that question head on in a compelling, and terrifying special premiering on OUTDOOR CHANNEL at 8:00 PM ET Wednesday, September 28, encoring November 2 (Time to be announced).
“'What if' is a simple question with a hellish answer,” said Bane. “Literally days before the San Bernardino attacks, Jeff and I began discussing an idea to create the most realistic terrorist attack simulation possible, then use the tools we've developed in THE BEST DEFENSE over multiple seasons to help people survive.”
The producers' number one goal was to create a scenario so realistic that it was hard to turn away. Working from the basics of the Paris concert hall attacks, Bane and Murray reached out to both law enforcement and military counterterrorism experts and trainers who studied mass casualty events, THE BEST DEFENSE training team of Mike Seeklander and Michael Janich, paramedics specializing in first response and even renowned mental health experts to build the scenario and capture as much as possible the reality of being trapped in a mass casualty attack.
“We made the decision to use FX to make the scenario more realistic,” Bane said. “We were lucky enough to have the help of the Larimer County (CO) SWAT team and local paramedics. The Mass Casualty Event is certainly the most complex sim I've ever been involved with.”
A film team headed by award-winning documentarian Brandon Green shot the whole event in ultra-high resolution 4K. Green worked with the FX team to make every shot fired as realistic as possible.
“Essentially, this is the most 'vetted' scenario we could build. Every move, every action taken is based in reality and run through some of the most knowledgeable experts in the world,” Bane said. “Even the crowd reaction is based on cutting edge research from Dr. William Aprill… as each 'extra' arrived, that person was given a card explaining how he or she should react when the attack started. We were lucky enough to have Michael Janich's highly trained cadre of martial arts experts to create an even more realistic sim. In fact, our main 'terrorist' served in the Israeli Defense Force as a sniper and Master Breacher, and is an expert in counterterrorism techniques.”
On-screen experts, in addition to the TBD Team of Seeklander and Janich, include Ken Hackathorn, considered one of the top firearms trainers in the world; Gabe Suarez, probably the most experienced trainer in studying and dissecting mass casualty events and teaching civilian response; Dr. Dan Olesnicky, SWAT team physician, a first responder in terrorist events and one of the leading trainers of tactical medicine; Dr. William Aprill of Aprill Risk Consulting, considered the national expert on criminal and terrorist mindset; former SEAL Jimmy Graham, who also served as Lead Instructor for elite Federal Government Protective details in high risk environments and presently heads up the Active Shooter Response Training Center in the Denver area.
“Our team is tremendously proud of this effort, and we thank OUTDOOR CHANNEL for putting this information in front of so many people,” Bane said. “Since we began planning for this special, there have been 12 terrorism events in the United States and literally one a day around the world. We believe this information is critical, and we hope our viewers never have to use it.”
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The Best Defense “Mass Casualties” Special
On Outdoor Channel: Wednesday September 28: 8:00PM ET
Reference Links:
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Ruger Mark IV – The Latest Evolution of Bill Ruger's Greatest Dream
Ruger Mark IV Target in stainless steel with a 5.5 inch bull barrel.
A few seasons ago on GUN STORIES WITH JOE MANTEGNA, Joe told a story that probably everybody in the industry had heard in one form or the other. The great Bill Ruger went to sleep one night and, in a dream, God revealed to him the plans for the Ruger Standard, the .22 pistol that would launch one of the greatest gun companies in the world and would quite literally “set the standard” for all .22 semi autos that would follow.
God meticulously showed Bill Ruger how to take the new Luger-like .22 apart, but, sadly, Bill Ruger woke up before God showed him how to put it together again.
And from the time of its introduction in 1949, the Ruger Standard, and later the Mark series through the current Mark III, have indeed set the standard that all other .22 semiautos aspire to. In fact, in its early days the legendary bullseye shooter and gunsmith Jim Clark Sr. won a bullseye national championship with an out-of-the-box Ruger .22. And despite its extraordinary record of success after success, the thing is still a damned bear to reassemble.
I have disassembled for cleaning and attempted reassembly of I don't know how many Ruger .22s, and I have the scars to prove it. I would rather drive a staple into my forehead than reassemble a Ruger .22
Until now.
The clouds clear, the sun shines forth, and the Ruger Mark IV rises like a great stainless steel Phoenix, a masterpiece of a .22 that…wait for it…wait for it…disassembles with the simple push of a button.
When Brandon Trevino handed me the Mark IV Hunter at the Ruger event at FTW Ranch last weekend, he said, “Look at the back of the gun, below the bolt toggle. See that button? Push it.”
I pushed the button with my thumb, and as if by hand of the occult, the Mark IV broke apart, like popping the rear pin of an AR. I lifted the barrel up and off the frame (be still my beating heart!), then slipped the bolt out into my waiting palm.
Incredible! Push one button and you've got a disassembled Mark IV ready for cleaning.
“What's the catch?” I asked. “There's some sneaky secret to putting this puppy back together, isn't there?”
“Nope,” said Brandon. “Even you can do it.”
And I did.
Then we gun writers, faced with buckets of OPA* (Other People's Ammo) proceeded to shoot the living heck out of the gun. All the Mark IVs ran like tops (we were shooting Eley Force high-velocity .22s, which isn't exactly chopped liver. Whether the guns will run with mystery metal .22s manufactured by Yetis in Umgowwastan, I neither know nor care. The new Mark IV looks like the old Mark III, mostly, but the grip frame is machined from a single piece of stainless steel (or aluminum…more about that later), as opposed to the two-piece grip frame pioneered by Bill Ruger in the late 1940s. Precision stamping and welding was state-of-the-art immediately after World War II, which why Bill Ruger went down that path.
But modern CNC machines have changed all that, and Ruger remains on the cutting edge. Almost nothing interchanges with the previous Mark series guns (The III and IV do use the same 10-round drop-free magazines). Gone are the small nubs for the safety and the bolt release, replaced with extremely serviceable - and flat, as God and John Browning intended - controls.
My good pal Ed Head has a longer evaluation here as well, but I wanted to go in a slightly different direction. As one of the three co-founders (along with Ken Jorgensen of Ruger and veteran .22 competitor Nelson Dymond) of the Ruger Rimfire Challenge, which became the NSSF Rimfire Challenge, I have shot a lot of rounds through Ruger .22 semiautos in virtually every flavor and numerous “hybrids,” built by such excellent makers as Tactical Solutions and Volquartsen. I think I shot my first Ruger Standard when I was eight years old, the year I learned how to reload .357 magnum ammunition.
I know these guns as well as I know any gun made. I have fired literally hundreds of thousands of rounds through them, stood on the firing line more times than I can remember waiting for that buzzer to go off. I have taken them apart, painstakingly reassembled them, changed pretty much every part in the gun that can be changed, given numerous custom gunsmiths ulcers with my pissiness on exactly how I wanted the little Ruger to feel.
If you recall, I went on a crusade a couple of years ago to build what I thought was the perfect NSSF Rimfire series pistol. I had been shooting Ruger 22/45s, the polymer-framed version of the Mark series that mimicked the grip angle and feel of the 1911. While the Tac-Sol upper'ed guns were crazy accurate, I wanted a little more weight. I changed over to a Mark III Target with it's bull barrel, but that little bear was just too heavy (I said I was pissy already). I finally settled on a 6-inch Tac-Sol upper on the Mark III frame that had the trigger overhauled by Majestic Arms on Statin Island. One of the other modifications, BTW, was adding a “Speed Strip” kit to make the gun easier to disassemble…and reassemble.
It was the single best Mark series pistol I'd ever fired… until last weekend.
Ruger rolled out three of the new Mark IVs, a stainless steel Target with the 5.5 inch bull barrel, a blue Target with an aluminum frame (which comes in at 35.6 ounces versus the stainless 42.8 ounces) and the stainless Hunter with its 6.88-inch fluted barrel and 44 ounce weight. I kept coming back to the stainless Hunter.
Even though I wasn't crazy about the rear V-notch sights (an easy fix), the fiber optic front was excellent. The trigger was far more than adequate…call it about 4 pounds. The gun just felt right. Occasionally, rarely, a firearm becomes more than the sum of its parts. I would say the Mark IV Hunter is the single best Ruger Mark series gun I have ever shot, including my own customs.
It is Bill Ruger's greatest dream.
Armed citizen's heroics prove trained gun owners save lives
Introducing The New Ruger MarkIV
The good news is, with the introduction of the Ruger MKIV pistol, takedown and re-assembly is so easy anyone, even me, can remember how to do it. The process is simple and can be accomplished in less time than it takes to read this:
Unload the pistol by removing the magazine, pulling back on the bolt and inspecting the chamber. Put the safety on (up). Grasp the barrel with one hand and the grip with the other, press the button on the back of the pistol with your thumb and tilt the barrel up and off the frame. The bolt is removed by lifting it from the back of the receiver.
Folks, if this isn't revolutionary it is certainly evolutionary and something everyone who owns an older model of this pistol will appreciate. Over time, various models of the MKIV will replace the MKIII pistols in the Ruger lineup, with the Hunter and Target models being the first to be introduced.
My first range session was squeezed in between thunder storms and, as is usually the case when I'm testing a 
185-1, this 3/32 allen wrench bit fits the stock screws, Brownells part #080-185-100
120-1, the tiny, narrow slot bit needed for the windage screw, #080-120-120
210-1, the narrow slot bit for the elevation screw, #080-210-120
120-2, the narrow slot bit that fits the mount screws atop the receiver, #080-120-225
The hollow handled bit driver to store the bits, #080-088-006
How does the MKIV shoot? Exactly as you would expect, it is entirely reliable and superbly accurate. We'll get into this in more detail later, as I plan to mount an optic on the pistol and see what I can do with it. Lastly, I want to tell you this is a beautiful pistol. The fit and finish is outstanding and Ruger has instituted a new process of deeply laser engraving and polishing the lettering that really makes it stand out. When you open the box for the first time you're going to say, “Wow”, like I did when I first laid eyes on the young lady who became my wife.
For more information:
www.ruger.com
www.brownells.com
About the Author:
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