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My Ruger Mark IV KMK678 stainless heavy taper

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4.1K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  fullauto01  
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#1 ·
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Mark IV Target KMK678 stainless heavy taper – left side

Three years ago I decided I wanted to celebrate a milestone birthday with a new version of my first pistol, a Ruger Mark I Target with 6-7/8” heavy taper and adjustable sights. I measured my heavy taper pistols and drew up dimensioned drawings with the specific profile and sent them to several gunsmiths that I thought would welcome the job. Unfortunately nobody was willing to take on the work. So I made a post asking for other recommended gunsmiths here:
https://www.rimfirecentral.com/thre...th-to-make-a-mk-iv-kmk678.1218277/?post_id=12240737&nested_view=1#post-12240737

I received a lot of good suggestions, but unfortunately, every gunsmith I asked (over 30 in total) turned me down. (Everybody wants to tweak 1911s and revolvers.) The project languished for a couple of months until I finally found a gunsmith that accepted the job in August 2021 with the condition that they had two 1911s that they had to build first.

It has been a long three years, but I now have my heavy taper 6-7/8” Mark IV Target to match my Mark I and Mark II versions. Per the discussions on my first thread, a 10” bull barrel model was utilized to make this 6-7/8” heavy taper. The front sight base and barrel is all one piece just like the original pistols.

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Mark IV Target KMK678 stainless heavy taper – right side (serial number obscured)

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Top to bottom: blued Mark I, custom Mark IV, stainless Mark II

They are very close in profile with the biggest differences being the 11 degree target crown at the muzzle that I specified instead of the standard Ruger chamfer, and the front sight groove does not extend all the way through the front sight base into the barrel, again per my specifications.
Mark IV 11 degree crown– excuse the residue-- I just got back test firing it!
Mark II standard crown
Mark IV front sight slot doesn’t run all the way through the rear of the sight base
Right: Mark II front sight slot cuts slightly into the barrel at the 12:00 position after the sight base.

Obviously this pistol deserves a decent trigger, so I installed a Volquartsen trigger kit. I like the practicality of the ambidextrous polymer slab grips, but I am contemplating dressing it up with some custom wood grips. So how does it shoot? Those iron sights are a lot harder to see than they used to be, but I have no complaints.

I have owned a lot of Ruger Mark series pistols over the years and the 6 and 7/8’s inch heavy taper is my favorite configuration. All of the pistols shown have Clark or Volquartsen trigger/hammer/sear upgrades. The blued Mark I weighs 41.25 oz. with the factory walnut target grips and magazine. The stainless Mark II weighs 41.85 oz. with the Altamont oak grips and magazine. The Mark IV weighs the lightest at 40.90 oz with the factory polymer grips and magazine. Removing the grips from all the frames, the Mark IV is in between the Mark I (40.00 oz.) and Mark II (39.00 oz.) at 39.95 oz. They are all extremely well balanced and I much prefer them over any of the other Mark models Ruger makes.

Unfortunately the gunsmith that did this work has stated it was more work than he anticipated and he has no desire to make another one. I would love to have another, but I am afraid it will require a lot of us clamoring to Ruger to ever see another.

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Mark IV barrel profile matches the Mark I profile on bottom

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The target 6-7/8” heavy taper Mark I was introduced in 1950. They just announced the 75th anniversary 6-7/8 light taper blued model, but I am still hoping they will come out with the heavy taper in stainless!
 
#3 ·
It is amazing how ethics and ideals have eroded over time. This phenomenon has affected just about every aspect of the service industry.
Where have all of the craftsman gone?
Most servicers today don't want to work, or challenge themselves anymore. The work is there, don't they have bills to pay as well?
I rant as a service provider myself.

I'm glad you finally found someone that was willing to gunsmith over just fill the role as an armorer.

Looks sweet!
 
#9 ·
Lv2fish said:
It is amazing how ethics and ideals have eroded over time. This phenomenon has affected just about every aspect of the service industry.
Where have all of the craftsman gone?
Most servicers today don't want to work, or challenge themselves anymore. The work is there, don't they have bills to pay as well?
I rant as a service provider myself.

I'm glad you finally found someone that was willing to gunsmith over just fill the role as an armorer.

Looks sweet!
Click to expand...
It’s easier and more profitable to just be in the parts swapping business.
 
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#6 ·
Thank you for the plaudits... unfortunately, as far as I know, Ruger only made a blued 6-7/8" heavy taper Mark III. You can't see it in the pictures, but my old Mark I has lost a good bit of bluing on the frame due to how much I shot it. I love how blued guns look as safe queens, but my guns tend to get shot a good bit and stainless doesn't show the wear nearly as much. And then there is also the magazine safety, chamber indicator and safety lock features that would have to replaced with after market parts... I have never owned a Mark III for all those reasons. Luckily my OCD to have a complete collection does not overwhelm my reasons not to own a Mark III. At least, not so far. <wry grin> I would really like another one of these Mark IV's-- I would like to have one with iron sights and one with a red dot. Gotta keep pestering Ruger to make 'em!
 
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#11 ·
@HIghstandardguy, you might want to take a look at post #8 written by edlmann in my previous thread I linked to in the body of this original post. He did a great job showing the difference in the Mark I-III barrels and the Mark IV barrels and once you look at them side-by-side, you can see that they really don't play well together. I also researched removing the barrel from the receiver to ship just the barrel to a machinist (and avoiding the FFL/gunsmith requirements) but many people have had issues doing that-- it risks twisting the receiver. Cutting down the 10" Mark IV ended up being the "easiest" option.

What Mark series pistol do you have?
 
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#13 ·
Ooooh.... tough call on what to do with that barrel. On the one hand, I think the Mark II is a better pistol than the Mark III (I absolutely hate the chamber indicator. It reduces receiver stiffness and causes reliability issues.) But, as far as I know, Ruger never made a stainless Mark III, so you would have a unique pistol. Or you could do a hybrid top half Mark II, lower half Mark III, but anybody can do that. Of course, you could also find a stainless RST-4 standard (1 of 5000), take the barrel off of it and put your Mark II tapered barrel on it to make a stainless Mark I T678. ;) Hrm... now that is kind of tempting... I will have to think about that, but the stainless RST-4 is a collectable in itself.
 
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