I bought a MK IV 22/45 LITE a few years back. Here is my initial review posted on the Handgun forum. I really enjoy the little heater!
I picked it up Friday, gave it a quick cleaning and some light lubrication. Saturday afternoon I hit the range with a brick of Mini Mag hollow points. Stapled up a five spot target at 25 yards, settled in at the bench and squeezed off five rounds. Squeezed off might not be the right term... the trigger feels as if you were pulling a brick over a gravel road by a string tied to one end. Gritty, creepy and heavy describes the trigger. The group was 4" low and 2" right. Here is where I rediscovered just how dumb a gun designer can be. I glanced at the windage screw, slotted screw. I expected that, normal. The elevation screw is a 1/16" Allen head. I didn't expect that. Of course I didn't have a 1/16" Allen in my range bag or the tool kit in my truck. Packed everything up and drove to the nearest store, a rural feed & hardware store and found a set of Allen wrenches that included the one I needed but didn't have. I never would have guessed Ruger would put two completely different type adjustment screws in the rear sight. What's the sense of that? Making sight adjustments requires two completely different tools... dumb.
Back at the range for a redo. Now I can bear down and get through the trigger for another group and manage a surprising 1.25" group. Four shots within .75" with a flyer slightly out. The LITE will shoot but you really have to focus hard on trigger control to realize its potential. I made adjustments on the sights to center the group, however the group doesn't move. More adjustment but no movement of the groups. The sight isn't responding to the clicks turned. I finger the sight blade pushing it around and mashing the thing up/down and now the sight moves - a lot. Shooting more groups and more adjusting and guiding the blade with finger pressure I finally got dialed dead nuts on at 25 yards. That rear sight doesn't fill me with confidence. Hopefully it will hold its adjustments.
As for accuracy, I shot around fifteen of those five shot groups on paper and can tell you this particular pistol never fired a group over 2". Obviously I don't need to look for a load it likes! Once I settled in with the trigger if I do my part I'll manage four shots around 1" and usually have a called flyer that widens things a bit. That flyer is a direct result of the poor trigger pull. However, the accuracy of the LITE was a very pleasant surprise. It makes you work to get it, but accuracy is in there.
I had one stovepipe malfunction in the first 50 rounds. Other than this one stovepipe early on there were no other malfunctions. After I got sighted in I started running some drills with a shot timer and plinking out to 100 yards on an 8" steel plate. After about 350 rounds I noticed the front sight was loose. That caused me to also look over that balky rear sight and I noticed the little set screw that helps anchor it in the dovetail was backed out. I tightened both ends of the sights up and they shot loose again before I finished my 500 rounds. A minor irritation is the sharp edged slide stop/release that hangs out just a bit too far from the frame. Maybe it's just me, but my left thumb lays over the top of that with my grip style and gets rubbed pretty good by the sharp edge. I also prevent the slide from holding after the last shot fired with my grip. That might not happen if the slide stop didn't protrude so far from the frame.
Sunday I cleaned the gun up and noticed it's quite a bit slicker and smoother. The trigger still has creep and weight but the gritty feel is gone. Lock Tite will fix the screws that want to back out in the sights. The gun feels good, looks sharp with the black frame and Diamond Gray upper (which looks light blue to my eye), it is surprisingly accurate and seems to run the Mini Mags just fine. That rear sight might get swapped out and some trigger work is most likely going to happen. Ruger should have included filler screws in case someone wants to take the rail off. Might get a set of Stoner G10 thin grips with a little blue/black color in them. Need to find a good holster. And stock up on Mini Mag hollow points.
