KMK678G Mark II

Gather App
Guns.com Vault
B

B_hankster28

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 7, 2024
Messages
6
City & State/Province
Pittsburgh
Was fortunate enough to luck into this today. I’ve always liked the look of the Mark II’s but never seriously considered one being more a revolver enthusiast. (GP 100 so I am a Ruger man) This Mark II caught my eye in both its look and price at $350.

I think I did well which is ultimately all that matters. The only good deal is one you’re happy with afterall.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4110.jpeg
    IMG_4110.jpeg
    287 KB
I always believed if you were happy with a purchase you made you did well. Everyone has an opinion but they didn’t have to buy or sell anything. So their opinion doesn’t matter!!!
 
Ya done good! If you take it apart one of the tricks for reassembly is to hold the grip about straight up and down. That allows the hammer strut to swing into place in the mainspring housing. When the mainspring latch pin is fully seated in the receiver swing the housing shut and snap the latch lever into place. It should cycle perfectly.

A friend of mine picked up a Ruger Standard that someone improperly reassembled for $25 almost 50 years ago. It took just a couple of minutes to make it work like new. When he showed the original owner the guy was unhappy. But he made the decision to sell it so the deal was done.
 
I bought one for 150$ a couple years back that had hammer nicks in the back strap where someone got crazy during reassembly. I had to file out the nicks and touch up with cold blue. If you do it a few times in a row you'll never forget. Nice price for a gun that will last for generations!
 
Good point but “MAG loader” would have worked. For that matter why label it at all?

Point being they make life easier at the range. I must have 6 of them spread around.
 
eveled said:
Good point but "MAG loader" would have worked. For that matter why label it at all?

Point being they make life easier at the range. I must have 6 of them spread around.
Click to expand...
Agreed and agreed.

Probably had to be labeled due to some weird goofy legality. :rolleyes:

Yep those magazines can be a thumb buster for sure. When I was big into bass tournament fishing your thumb would be scraped and sore at the end from the ridges of their mouths....same for a range session loading those mags over and over if you didn't have a loading tool.
 
Watertender said:
Ya done good! If you take it apart one of the tricks for reassembly is to hold the grip about straight up and down. That allows the hammer strut to swing into place in the mainspring housing. When the mainspring latch pin is fully seated in the receiver swing the housing shut and snap the latch lever into place. It should cycle perfectly.

A friend of mine picked up a Ruger Standard that someone improperly reassembled for $25 almost 50 years ago. It took just a couple of minutes to make it work like new. When he showed the original owner the guy was unhappy. But he made the decision to sell it so the deal was done.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Definitely a helpful tip and trick. Watching multiple youtube videos and just taking my time didn’t make it much of a chore.
 
B_hankster28 said:
This Mark II caught my eye in both its look and price at $350.
Click to expand...
That is stunning! I did not think MkIIs could be had for anything like that low a price these days. i paid around $500 for one just like it a half dozen years ago and a little more for the one in the middle in my photo a couple of years later. But I live in Seattle, and everything is expensive here due to all the over-paid tech-bros.

The stainless one actually ended up costing us MUCH more, however, in the long run. It was an effective gateway drug! Until I got it, my spousal critter refused to go shooting with me. She decided the SS MkII was pretty enough to be worth shooting, and within two months of her first time firing it, she had bought herself two guns (one Ruger, one CZ), her own range bag, fancy electronic muffs, shooting gloves, prescription shooting glasses, etc, etc. And she insists that the .22/45 she picked out only likes Eley Target, so she's using up all my boutique ammo.

The other risk of a MkII is that it may make you angry at how badly you shoot with other guns. YMMV, but my groups look far more respectable with these than with any other handguns I own. That's why I own so many of them: if I go shooting with friends, I never want to be the guy without a MkII in his hands!
 

Attachments

  • MkIIs IMG_4339 blurred.jpg
    MkIIs IMG_4339 blurred.jpg
    160.2 KB
Last edited:
B_hankster28 said:
Thank you. Definitely a helpful tip and trick. Watching multiple youtube videos and just taking my time didn’t make it much of a chore.
Click to expand...
The strut dangle angle is definitely the critical trick, right after remembering to pull the trigger and push the hammer forward immediately before that.

The other tip I'd offer: If your mainspring assembly latch lever is stiff and you don't want to either rip a fingernail off or scratch it using a paper clip, a loop of heavy (like 40 pound test) monofilament fishing line can catch the tip of it and pull it out. I made myself a MkII-specific cleaning tool by drilling a hole in a toothbrush handle and poking the loop of line through it. I cleaned the 5-1/2" last night and the 6-7/8" first thing this morning, so I had all my tools out and ready for their closeup. (The foot-long chunk of 2x4 is for whacking the receiver off the frame. I own a rubber mallet, but cheap softwood lumber can't cause any harm either, and I enjoy being a Bubba once in a while. Note also the patch puller made from a heavy piece of Weed Eater nylon line using a hammer and a very sharp wood chisel.)

Before YouTube, my solution was just to never take down the MkII. I bought the 10" in my photo above in Boulder in the late 80s, right after I graduated, and I don't thinik I ever disassembled it in the next 20 years. Admittedly, most of that time I rarely went shooting, but still it racked up a few rounds. MkIIs seem to run well when as dirty as a sewer, so I was able to get away with just cleaning what you can get at through the ejector port with a toothbrush and mopping up after with a patch, and pulling a few patches through the bore.

The thing that finally brought me down was that the extractor kinda froze up. When I took it apart, it was thick with a paste of what I suppose was mostly powder soot. Had I realized that was a possibility, I suspect if I'd been more consistent over the years in putting some solvent or CLP on the extractor spring and wiggling it around, I'd have gotten away with not cleaning it for another decade!
 

Attachments

  • RugerToolsIMG_0955.jpg
    RugerToolsIMG_0955.jpg
    263.7 KB
Glad to learn from all of you I did well. After shooting it myself I wasn’t surprised to find that the MK II’s are pieces that people don’t often willingly let go. I have a Beretta Neos I picked up for plinking years ago and it’s not even close to the MK II.

Great to know it’s a desirable gun that doesn’t need to be a safe queen. I’ll most definitely enjoy it!
 
B_hankster28 said:
doesn’t need to be a safe queen.
Click to expand...
Has anyone ever worn out a MkII???

Actually, to answer my own question: when I bought my first one in I think 1988, the shop had four MkIIs, all blued, two with fixed sights and two Target models, a 5-1/2" and a 10". I wanted the better sights, so I was about to buy the 5-1/2" but as I was handling it, I noticed that the receiver seemed to be very slightly loose on the frame, so it could rock side-to-side just perceptibly. This was my first gun purchase (had always used my dad's revolvers before) and I didn't know anything about Rugers, but that didn't seem ideal so I bought the 10". Thinking back, I'll bet the 5-1/2" was owned by someone who was obsessive-compulsive about taking it down for a full cleaning every time he shot it, and actually caused so much wear that the frame-receiver fit loosened up. My take-home message was that you SHOULDN'T clean a MkII too much. If anyone has an alternate explanation, I'd be interested, of course.

Another nice thing is that I've never heard anyone say they can't stand a steady diet of MiniMags, unlike, say, a Hi-Standard which will supposedly break if you shoot anything other than SV ammo (I have a Field King that came to me with a poorly-repaired ejector, so I believe it). I don't know if Rugers can stand thousands of hyper-velocity rounds, but I have a few bricks of Aguila Interceptors and have not been shy about shooting them for variety now and then. From the longer barrels, you can definitely hear them going supersonic.

It's a gun you can ride hard and put away wet. The gun-slob's friend, but decent folks like them, too.
 
I got mine well before YouTube too. I just read the manual (RTFM LOL 😉), but DID ask a gunsmith and he recommended the paper clip…. Like you, I don't strip my weapons down for a thorough cleaning every time I fire them, just hit them with Birchwood Casey Powder Blast, clean everything I can reach with a bore swab and Qtips, then apply CLP to lube the necessary parts.
 
Last edited:
Very nice pick up on the Mark II. I would love to have one myself, but unfortunately, haven’t come across that kind of a deal yet. The Ruger standard was my first Ruger and I’ve loved them ever since. Hope you have a great time shooting its and if you have any issues or problems, just come to the form. There’s plenty of guys on here who know the tricks to be able to help you.
FYI a company called HSS Corp. produces a hammer strut support which is used under the hammer strut that’s quite easily installed, and helps with keeping the hammer strut from being lodged under the cross pin on reassembly. I use them on several of mine and they work quite well in easy reassemble of the pistol.
 
MkII’s were climbing in price until the MKIV’s came out. I have 7 of them 6 I bought one was my Dad’s, mostly I did ok. Never paid more than $400 for one. I still look for oddball MKII’s so I see the prices. Several stainless targets have sold locally for under $300. Standards have been $250 or less.

MkIII’s don’t really sell well at all. 😂
 
@$350 I'm not upset with it. For the reviews I've got on the MK II's. I don't think I could find a new gun of any brand better than it given what I paid. We all have our own purposes for a gun. It will be a plinker and conversation piece for our group. I understand the price and quality of some of the guns. I simply just can't justify it for my wants/needs.
 
B_hankster28 said:
@$350 I'm not upset with it. For the reviews I've got on the MK II's. I don't think I could find a new gun of any brand better than it given what I paid. We all have our own purposes for a gun. It will be a plinker and conversation piece for our group. I understand the price and quality of some of the guns. I simply just can't justify it for my wants/needs.
Click to expand...
Nothing to be upset over at all. You didn't steal it, but didn't get ripped off either. It's a desirable MKII variant and a fantastic shooter I'm sure. The ones that sold for less were beat up.

My post was more about how I thought they would skyrocket in value, which is why I was hoarding them. Not as a financial investment, but I wanted my kids to have them. Then they dropped a little with the intro of the MKIV. Dooh!

The MKIV's take down and reassemble super easy, but don't come in as many varieties as the MKII's did. I still consider MKII's to be the pinnacle of the series.

The MKIII's are real bargains right now. As much as I dislike the changes they are still great guns.

Some of mine.

Picture0829151124_1_zpsb90528a9.jpeg
output_zps1yz2umfn.jpeg
 
Last edited:
eveled said:
Nothing to be upset over at all. You didn't steal it, but didn't get ripped off either. It's a desirable MKII variant and a fantastic shooter I'm sure. The ones that sold for less were beat up.

My post was more about how I thought they would skyrocket in value, which is why I was hoarding them. Not as a financial investment, but I wanted my kids to have them. Then they dropped a little with the intro of the MKIV. Dooh!

The MKIV's take down and reassemble super easy, but don't come in as many varieties as the MKII's did. I still consider MKII's to be the pinnacle of the series.

The MKIII's are real bargains right now. As much as I dislike the changes they are still great guns.

Some of mine.

View attachment 60686View attachment 60687
Click to expand...
All good! I wasn’t offended at all. That’s a real nice collection! The MKIV’s are definitely a nice piece I’m just not a serious enough 22 shooter to justify having one. We know this is an addiction though and if come across another MK Ii or III at a good buy/good sell price point. I could see starting my own little collection.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

BULL'S-EYE
What Mark II Model did these come on?
Replies
7
Views
486
chet15
chet15
D
Mark II Target -- Best Improvement of ONE (1) Item Change
Replies
11
Views
502
Fox Mike
Fox Mike
Kevin
FYI Mark II Magazines
Replies
5
Views
445
GasGuzzler
GasGuzzler
D
Couple Questions On My 10" Mark II Target
Replies
9
Views
500
32shooter
32shooter
D
Inherited A Very Nice Mark II Today
Replies
5
Views
422
eveled
eveled

Latest posts

Back
Top