OK I am probably out of order here' I shoot in a local Postal League and I have a MK II Gov Target model. I have put probably 10K plus down the tube, The gun is stock with the exception of an inexpensive red dot with a wiegand mount and Ruger target grips. It will consistently shoot 95's to 99's and has quite a few 100's as well. Trigger, barrel, bolt, upper, etc is all original to the gun and I am the original owner. Put it in a rest and 4 times put 10 rounds thru a 1/2" holes with 4 different magazines. I will never shoot as well as the gun's capabilities. I have had several people shoot my gun and the results are consistently excellent. So my point is how does your gun shoot before any mods. Try a few hundred rounds then see what you may need to modify or not. Good Luck.

 

Good points there. Yeah I have not shot my Mk II much, and now that I have done a bit of trigger work (2 lb 1 oz), I need to get it to the range.

 

I used to shoot with a guy who shot High Master with a Ruger Mk II. His girlfriend gave him a Pardini which he in turn gave to a friend because it didn't improve his scores.

 

This is heartwarming to hear. I am a new shooter, currently shooting with my club's Pardini, but I'm not interested in buying my own. Too many notes for a gun that doesn't scratch my itch.. the "want" factor is there for a Mark IV, but not for the fancy Italian. I guess it's the rimfire equivalent of wanting the clapped out Chevy Nova over a Ferrari (which would also be me in that case).

From what I am reading here I won't be facing an insurmountable obstacle to keep or regain my scores with the Ruger over the Pardini. I do hope this will be the case..

 

The Mark IV makes and excellent gun for competition depending on what type you want to do. I use my guns for Steel Challenge Matches. Both shoot equally well on paper and steel.

I also use a 5.5 inch target barrel on the 22/45 frame for iron sights. It's a good alternative if you want to shoot that way and if you have the frame Volquartsen puts the 5.5 inch barrels on sale in the Bargain Bin every once in a while.

 

The Mark IV makes and excellent gun for competition depending on what type you want to do. I use my guns for Steel Challenge Matches. Both shoot equally well on paper and steel.

I also use a 5.5 inch target barrel on the 22/45 frame for iron sights. It's a good alternative if you want to shoot that way and if you have the frame Volquartsen puts the 5.5 inch barrels on sale in the Bargain Bin every once in a while.

What I am interested in is 25-yard, 50-yard and beyond bullseye shooting. Not planning to compete, just be the best I can be.

So to cut to the chase: what do the guys who seriously do this kind of competition use? I would like to stay within the Ruger area, but that may just be an expression of my own ignorance of this discipline.

Within Ruger, there seem to be only two choices: a Ruger upper and VQ, is this correct? And from what I am reading on the forums here, VQ isn't necessarily better. I'm not interested in buying multiple Rugers or multiple VQ uppers to find the one I want; i.e. I'll only go so far down the rabbit hole!

 

I see that Pardinis and Hammerlis are well north of $2K.....

.....so Mk II it is! I know what it will do at 25 yards.

Trivette's Gunsmithing apparently will do bolt face truing and proper headspacing to a Ruger Mk bolt, so I might send him my bolt for a little accurizing. Anyone dealt with him, and can recommend or not?

 

I see that Pardinis and Hammerlis are well north of $2K.....

.....so Mk II it is! I know what it will do at 25 yards.

That's why I never bought one.

 

I know this is an oldish thread, but it got bumped already so.....

I'd say any of the above, unless you want to spend money on something else. In my case my first pick would be shoot what you already have. Known to be accurate out of the box, tons of stuff available if you want to make it even better, and already in hand and paid for.

I think the 10" models are a bit too muzzle heavy myself, but that's personal preference. I'd only really consider that or anything other than what you have if you want to do most shooting off a rest.

If you plan on shooting it mostly offhand, just about any functioning Ruger will outshoot the person holding it. Link below from a stock Mark IV test off a Ransom Rest.....

https://www.handloadermagazine.com/product-test-1

With the worst ammo, still within the 10 ring on a 25 yard bullseye target, and with average ammo still in the X ring. I guess if I'm expecting better results than that it's time to upgrade equipment, but until I can shoot the X's consistently I'm not losing out by not upgrading.

And though I agree that in theory sight radius additions should help, with offhand shooting the total balance, stability, and feel would probably make up any slight increases in sight radius. Bloop tubes on pistols have never been a thing that I know of myself, but they would be if that sight radius always helped.

I've come to the realization that for any offhand shooting, even most common upgrades aren't really needed. Some help fine tune personal likes and dislikes. But beyond a certain point the same money spent in ammo and practice would probably pay off just as well if not better.

 

Okay, I'm going to be that guy. When you guys say "offhand shooting", what do you actually mean? To me, offhand shooting sounds like left-handed (or non-dominant-hand) shooting, but somehow from the context it does not seem like that's what's being discussed.

Is it just another term for one-handed shooting?

 

Here are groups from my 22/45 Lite Mark IV at 25 yards from a sandbag rest. Even the light will cut the center out of the target. These are all with 40 grain Blazer ammo. It outshoots a lot of the more expensive ammo and is totally reliable.

I primarily use my Mark IV for Steel Challenge and the Lite has benefits of being faster to transition between targets. I also have a 5.5 inch target barrel and a 10 inch barrel. I see no advantage in the extra weight for my purposes. The 5.5 feels better and is more stable for bullseye type shooting.

My 10 inche is very muzzle heavy and I only shoot it from a rest.

 

I believe in this case "off hand" means not using a rest to shoot.

Shooting off hand versus shooting from a rest.

 

for me

I think I would investigate what the serious bullseye shooters are using in a Ruger. It's possible that upgrading the 5.5" barrel up to 6 7/8", the trigger is obvious, but it might be that the grip and sights are the biggest bang for the buck and for the good shooters they are always swapped out. Next is weight where I think the Lites do not apply. Balance is another important point and when I got into this issue a little deeper, the balance on the nice expensive stuff was usually near the trigger pivot pin or slightly nose heavy.

I bought the Volquartsen rear sight for my Mark II super discounted off eBay from them for under $50 and it is a great upgrade. I am also using their rubber grip for the Mark I & II's that is much smaller than the current Mark III & IV target grips.

Now if you plan to use a dot sight additional questions come up that I have not investigated.

 

A Ruger 22/45 was my first bullseye pistol. It still shoots well.
I changed to a Nelson 22 conversion on a 1911 frame to give me the same setup as my other 1911 pistols I use in matches.

 

I have a Mk II Bull barrel 5 1/2” target and a new mk IV 5 1/2” Bull barrel target, both are excellent shooters , I am 67 years old so the best upgrade I have done was add the Dawson Precision fiber optic front sight which is small, bright and very sharp for bullseye shooting.

 

Old thread but I can confirm that “serious” bullseye competition with a .22 requires a decent trigger. CCI SV through a stock Ruger MKIV upper can double-clean the short line and post High Master Scores. Just needs a trigger upgrade if the factory trigger is bad.