Got one coming in next week. 6 7/8” SS slab side.
Hope it’s a shooter. Price was right.

I've got one of those, it's a great shooter.

Think he means this one.
First year 4 digit, had a Clark trigger group installed and it is sweet.

^^I think you're right.

Yep, hes right. I have one just like it and yes, its a hell of a shooter.

Yes on the SS Slabside.
It has the factory trigger as far as I know so that will be the first order of business. Second order will be to decide to keep it open sites or scope/red dot.

They are nice pistols. I like the looks of the slab side and they are very accurate, just like any of the mkII rugers. Deciding on whether you are going to run irons, scope or red dot is something I had to decide too. I tried all of those options and then later decided to keep the red dot on my other mkII that is slightly quicker handling for bowling pin shoots. The longer heavier barrel coupled with the scope and mount make it (the slab side) heavier than I liked:


I keep the bushnell TRS25 on my lighter MKII and use it for our rimfire open class as well as bowling pin matches. It works like a champ. The slab side, I shoot irons only now:

I’m sure the new pistols are great. But it will be hard to beat any of the Mark 2’s. You will be happy with your purchase.
Hasbeen

The slab side barrel profile has always looked good to my eye. Never owned one... I need to fix that.

If they have everything that came with it from the factory, optics are not a problem. The SS competition slab side came with a base and mount screws. As far as I know it was the only MKII model drilled and tapped at the factory.

The later Government models were drilled and tapped. Hasbeen

JimHinSTL: I hope you enjoy your new "slab-side" as much as I do mine.
I also prefer the stainless steel models in all my MK series of Ruger pistols.
I do a lot of Ground Squirrel shooting and have red dot sights on the MK pistols I shoot/Hunt with.
I may have measured wrong but my on-line and hard copy inventories show that I listed my MK-II slab side pistol as having a 6 1/2" barrel.
I better double check that.
I bought that one used some time back and again may have miss-measured.
Last summer I did buy a 10" heavy barreled Ruger MK-II but have not fired this blued model to date.
Again enjoy to the max.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Missed that, I did some digging and found that in 2004-2005 all adjustable sight models were in fact drilled and tapped. Starting with #225-00000 and some 20,000 in all models were produced. Still up to that point the competition model was the only one.

Really like those rose wood or whatever grips on that slab side. Mine is coming with a pac-Meyer set.

Yeah, I believe that is the way they came from the factory.. Nice pistols. I've sold all but the 2 shown in the pics above. Had a few beautiful MkII's, but these are my favorites...

Those slabsides look pretty nice. Had a 10" mark ii years ago that shot like a rifle. Got the 678 target tapered now. Plain blued. Has excellent balance.
Shoots good all stock. But I wouldn't mind some fiber optic sights and some rubber grips with the finger grooves. The trigger doesn't bother me.

I've got the blued version, topped with a red-dot sight and LH Eagle grips.. Very, very accurate - in fact, that's what I take for squirrel hunting.. I see a head - and next thing the body's on the ground..

Picked it up today but it just has the scope rail on it and the open sites are still in a bag. No filler screws came with it so I called Ruger just moments ago and the nice lady is mailing me some as I type. I plan on shooting it open sites at first and if I decide to put optics on it I’ll swap it all back out again. What I really want now is a set of the factory grips with thumb rest. I’ll post some want to buy ads in a few places and poke around eBay.

Those grips might still be available from Ruger. As far as the scope base if you check with Ruger the proper one should mount without removing the rear sight.

The other issue I have is the rear site does not want to slide into the dovetail all the way. I would prefer to push it in with a site tool but may have to tap it in place with something.

Well that didn’t take long. Got a guy selling me some take offs that have been sitting around doing nothing so now I have the grip issue resolved. I guess next I should look for the proper scope base. The one on mine is not factory.

Wow seems like there are some very knowledgeable lads on this thread.

Mine is a Blue Mark II Target Competition Target Model slab side 6 7/8 218-xxxxx with the Rosewood thumb rest grips. Very Very accurate and it doesn't get shot enough being back there in the safe.

Most of the ones I've seen are mostly stainless steel and I've often wondered the number of Mark II like mine that were produced and when.

Any one of the lads that know more then me care to advise ???

Redhill I am eager to hear how many were produced. I don’t recall seeing one myself in any shop.

A wee bit of looking at Ruger resources seemed to indicate, from the serial number, that it was produced at/around 1993.

That site had no number of units produced though.

I have a stainless slabside Mark II I bought back in the mid-1990s, I think. I did a trigger job myself, and the little gun is a sweet shooter, just like the Mark I target pistol I had before it. They are fun.

Sarona gun works is my go to for Ruger parts and work. Dennis has worked on my 3 mark 2’s. Excellent gunsmith.
Hasbeen

Some sources say 1000-2000 blued models were made. They are not rare. The rarest are a SS US government stamped bull barrel of which none were sold to the public and a 5.5” blued slab side (500 made) for the government minus the US markings. Ruger has never been very precise on exactly when serial # were shipped, but there were at least 95,000+ made with 218-***** numbers between 92-99.

Jim, with a scope, they have been known to shoot 3/8" at 25 yds, and 10 CCI Mini-Mag HPs in a quarter....at 50 yds . Benched.

Enjoy!

I love MKII slabsides.

Very nice. Hasbeen

Only owned bull barrels, but I really like the slab look.