Hunter Mark IV soft hits

Well, I finally got to the range to test the new firing pin. As my shop (gunsmith explained) it, the original Ruger firing pin has a hole in it that helps to lighten the whole gun but as a result, with the Volquartsen trigger parts makes for many light strikes on the rim fire ammo. With the Surefire Firing Pin (without the hole)installed, it appears my troubles are now corrected. Many thanks to Volquartsen for stepping up and also to my dealer FSGuns for following up. Oh, results were at the range that all the light strikes fired without a problem and 150 more rounds were sent down range without any problems. All is finally good.

What VQ charges for their accurizing MKIV kit they should include the firing pin.

You can also use MKII or MKIII firing pin they work judt fine in the MKIV. The MKIV FP is the only one with the extra hole to make it lighter.

While that may be true, if you remove the firing pin from a mark III or II, you render the gun inoperable. That is it becomes a paper weight. I would rather have two operateing pistols. JMHT

That's why you just buy a mkIi or III firing pin only. Lots of places sell them.

After putting many 100s of rounds down range, I can now say that my Mark IV works as intended, and very well. If I could shoot as well as the gun, I would be very happy. This is an excellent target/vermin gun and the breakdown for cleaning is super easy. The Volquartsen trigger and firing pin only add to the pleasure of shooting the Mark IV.

teuthis said:

No offense intended but I am always wondering why people insist upon making aftermarket changes to firearms before they shoot them enough to know them.

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Hi,

I don't suppose the discussion of "leave it factory" vs "put other people's parts in" will ever end, whatever the subject item is: cars, motorcycles, guns, and on and on. I do know, however, what my old gunsmith boss' position on such things was, and we got a lot of Rugers into our shop. Standing joke was "Rugers are kit guns, so buy one, bring it to us, and we'll finish it for you." Anyway, his idea about trigger jobs was "Take that thing out, put a couple thousand rounds thru it, then decide what it 'needs' or you want to have done." He was a Smith guy, and told new S&W owners the same thing, especially when they had a brand new one that "just wasn't as smooth as that pre-war gun I inherited from my Dad." "Go put that 25,000 rounds thru your new gun that Dad's had thru several years of bullseye competition (or whatever) and get back to me on that comment!"

Somehow, I think the engineers at Ruger have generally done their jobs. They spec certain spring rates, and do other things along the way, knowing how things will settle in and wear much better than any of us do, as well as provide certain leeway for production tolerances, wear and user safety. The problem's not so much at their end, but in the production area. I find it hard to believe any engineer worth his salt would ever turn out a blueprint anywhere near as sloppy as the parts a stressed out production mgr might overlook while trying to make his deadline even though one of the machines needed repair/adjustment and won't turn out good parts until it gets some massaging. Another favorite saying around our shop was "Ruger's designed a lot of good guns. They just haven't made one of them yet." Those two sayings were at the "Grandma's in the room, watch your language" end of the many they had involving Ruger's QC.

Now, to give equal time to the "I'm gonna change this..." mentality: that can be a situation where the engineer had to come up with something "in the middle" which works for pretty much all the market, whereas the particular owner wants it to work best at one particular edge of the envelope and won't be subjecting the item (gun in this case) to some of the other tests the "commercial" version needs to be able to pass. That's legit, but, as we see so often, needs some shaking out to get to what works best.

So whichever path one chooses, carry on!

Rick C