Anyone buy a new Ruger MK IV Lite?

If so, how are you liking it?

Anyone put a suppressor on one?

Waiting on my federal stamp, and am thinking of my options, while it's "in the works"

Thanks!

Virgil B.

I handled one recently and only improvement over the MK III is the take down for disassembly which is pretty cool.

I was looking at making the purchase but saw no reason to replace my MK III lite that has several after market parts. Almost always shoot the MK III suppressed.

If I didn't own a MK III I would easily purchase a MK IV and mod it out.

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.

My experience pretty much matches MOGC. I mounted a Burris FF II on mine and it is very accurate. A good cleaning and break-in period was critical and the more it settles in, the more accurate it gets. I have fires CCI MiniMags and Blazer out of mine with a few hiccups early but none in the last couple hundred rounds. I have about 1800 rounds through mine. I do shoot mine suppressed and the POI shift is consistent and only about 1.5 - 2 inches at 50 yards between suppressed and naked.

Thanks for the replies!

Looks like first addition would be a Volquartson trigger job.

I've read where this kit deletes the mag. disconnect.

Sounds like a good thing.

Keep the replies coming !

Virgil B.

I have 2. One a Lite, the other a target version. Triggers were aweful on both until I put a VQ trigger kits in them. Now they are pretty darn nice little pistols.

Two more cents thrown in for the Volquartsen trigger kit. I'm not sure how "epidemic" the problem is but my research on the Mk IV turned up a lot of comments about how bad the triggers are. This was after I bought a Mk IV 6" Standard, which definitely had a horrible trigger - l-o-n-g, heavy with lots of creep.

But a Volquartsen kit turned it into a beautifully light trigger with minimal take up and overtravel and a consistent 2 1/4 lb pull; and it does eliminate the magazine disconnect. They're kind of spendy as a percentage of the purchase price of the gun and the idea of installing one yourself can be daunting but there are at least two excellent youtube videos that explain it step by step including gotchas to watch out for. Took me about 25 minutes to install, going slowly and referring back to the videos for each step.

Rugers are accurate and generally very reliable to begin with, and while there are a boatload of after market gimmicks and googaws, some worthy and some just useless window dressing, IMO that Volquartsen kit is the single best thing you can do to really upgrade a MK IV.

I bought one shortly after they came out and have had a lot of fun with it as far as critters go. Yes put the vq trigger in it, much improvement over the factory POS. Mine has only been shot suppressed and have had very few hiccups. I very seldom leave home without it when I go shooting.

I have a MK IV 22/45 lite and after putting a TandemKross brake, trigger and blast shield in it along with their base pads for the magazines, it runs great with everything but CCI SV. I put a JPoint on it with an 8 MOA dot so I don't know how accurate it really is but it's great for steel challenge and such. I traded my old Buckmark for it right after I shot one, I just knew I had to have one. Great pistol.

Got one for my boy. We have only shot it a handful of times, but enough to figure out a few things. First, the action/slide needs to be kept clean, but the new breakdown design makes this very easy. Second, there is a breaking in period. The more we shoot it, the better it gets. Third, we had to shoot several loads. The gun should jam with Remington Golden Bullets, though not as much now that it's getting broken-in. Most everything else we have seems to shoot fine. Now that I'm in the habit of cleaning the action/receiver after every range session, now is the time to stop cleaning he bore and see if groups will start to shrink with a more seasoned barrel.

I have 2 Mark IV Lites and a Mark III lite. All have been excellent accuracy wise, but the Mark IVs are getting the VQ accurizing kits. With a red dot, these are just way more fun to shoot. All 3 shoot smaller groups than my Browning Buckmark Hunter and Camper. None come close to my High Standard Citation.

Just my opinion, but get the red dot mounted as low as possible. That means getting rid of the Ruger rail. It makes a difference in finding the red dot quickly and it makes a big difference in flattening the trajectory curve due to being closer to the bore axis. (it also gets rid of that big ole screw sticking out the side if you use the Fastfire base.

I used Madd Macs base because it is the thinnest base out there, high quality, and it fits both the Fastfire and the Venom.

I can show you pics, but the file is too big to post here and I don't know how to make it smaller.

Lots of GREAT posts!

Thanks guys!

Virgil B.