I just bought a NIB Ruger Mark III Target with 5 1/2 inch bull barrel. It has, without doubt, the WORST trigger of any target firearm I have ever owned or handled and among the worst trigger of any firearm I have ever pulled the trigger on. It has about 3/32 free travel before trigger engages and at least an 8 pound trigger pull followed by large amount of after travel.

NOW I understand why the Mark IIs were bringing what seemed like such high prices on Gunbroker.

Unfortunately I bought another III (standard, non-target) before I got this one, which I will pick up Tuesday.

I will never buy another III unless it has been pre-modified with a Volquartsen trigger (about $110). I would advise you to do the same.

Is it within specs? Can you send it back to Ruger? May be worth a phone call.
Peter

Thanks for the suggestion.

I dunno what the specs are, but it can't be within specs. But I don't send stuff back. I hate shipping stuff and it wouldn't be worth it to me, not to mention if they "improved" the trigger to "spec", it likely would still be crappy. I understand the magazine disconnect contributes to the crappy trigger. I'll junk it first or sell it to someone who wants to buy a Volquartsen trigger. It is impossible to shoot it accurately as is.

I put a Volquartsen trigger in my Mk III and the improvement was like night and day. I suppose part of it was helped by removal of the magazine disconnect.

It does, however, seem laughable that a pistol marked "competition target model" should have such an embarrassingly bad trigger out of the box.

Change out the trigger/sear to VQ. The trigger has pretravel adjustment and over travel adjustment. Changing the sear will reduce trigger pull by several #.

http://www.rimfiresports.com/m...t_Code=VC2TT/VC3TT-B

http://www.rimfiresports.com/m...C&Product_Code=VC2TS

I went through this a few years ago too. I put in a Volquartzen trigger and while it did significantly improve things it still leaves much to be desired in the MK III.

I bought a Browning Buckmark camper and while there is a tiny bit of takeup, it breaks like a glass rod and is better than the Ruger.

I've owned a Ruger MK I, II and III. The MK II had the best trigger after my local gunsmith worked his magic.

I have since sold the Buckmark Camper and bought a Buckmark Hunter as it is closer to what I wanted in the first place. The trigger on Buckmark #2 is just like the trigger on Buckmark #1. In the end, I prefer the Buckmark to the Rugers.

my experience with Ruger customer service has been quite good. When I first got my 450NE, the very plain grained rear stock cracked a little the first time I shot it. I believe that the poor metal to wood fitting contributed to this. They sent me a pre-packaged case to send the whole gun back to them. I got a much nicer stock with a much improved metal to wood fitting. It only had a 2 week turn around. They have also sent me, free of charge, 10/22 screws and pins when I lost them.

I bought the same pistol a few months ago. Same problem. Terrible trigger, the magazines didn't eject easily and it jammed 1 out of 20 shots. I installed the following 4 parts from Tandemkross.com and it cleared up all the problems. Too bad you have to do this. The MK2 pistols are great as is.

Steel Hammer Bushing for Mark III and 22/45 Pistols
"Eagle's Talon" Extractor for Ruger MKI, MKII, MKIII & 22/45
"Fire Starter" Titanium Firing Pin for Ruger MKI, MKII, MKIII & 22/45
LCI Replacement Insert - Stainless Steel for Mark III and 22/45

Was in the market for a decent target 22 pistol and did lot of checking around, asking current users, etc. as to which pistol they liked or disliked and was surprised that the Ruger users sure did not like the MKIII pistol. Primary reason the trigger, second reason is the complicated take down. Went with the Buck Mark Target/7.5" version with full length rail and somewhat weird shaped barrel. Very fine accuracy and trigger crisp w/ light let off.
There is a trick to even further improve the Buck Mark trigger by simply reversing the hammer spring and will cut the pull approx. in half and yet is reportedly safe and reliable to do. There are numerous videos that show just how easy it is to field strip the Buck Mark and do the "trick" if desired.

+1 on the Tandemkross upgrades as Chris01 said.

Only have one Mark III; a 22/45 Lite. Primarily purchased for running it suppressed.

It worked as is ~okay, but I did the TandemKross upgrade including their trigger upgrade. Now it's a much better handgun.

quote:

I will never buy another III

been there.....done that....except for me the solution is;.....I won't buy any Ruger product ever again.

There's just too many good alternatives.

My experience with my stainless 5.5-inch target Mk. III is the opposite of yours. Having typed that, I must include that I replaced the Mk. III's magazine disconnector with a new one from a Mk. II, plus mine is now perhaps eight years old. I made the replacement to allow me to single load with magazine out that the pistol would fire. I did this to allow me to train someone to shoot.

Hope this helps.