What's the advantage of Ruger Mark III's fluted barrel?
 

Saw two models of Ruger Mark III, one with smooth barrel, another one with slightly longer fluted barrel. The price of latter one is higher.

Putting appearance difference aside, any functional advantage of the fluted barrel over smooth barrel on this gun?

lighter weight, dissipates heat (somewhat) quicker
mostly looks

Thanks. That makes some sense. The barrel is longer, the slots can reduce weight.

I thought this over. Will go basic model with blue steel and smooth barrel.

If you want a long barrel, you might be better off with a fluted or slab sided barrel. A long bull barrel can get pretty nose heavy, and the steel they mill off does make a difference IMO.

There are some very "spiffy" looking Tactical Solutions aftermarket barrels made for that gun with different colors, lightweight, and with flutes. They are a bit pricey, but very popular among shooters of these handguns.

One word: Tapered.

Looks far better to my eye.

Yeah... the fluted barrel looks cool.

This is not C&R, I need to find my pin number of permit to buy one. Trying to find that number... this is the new way the state makes buying guns harder. God knows that number needs to be kept... only kept the plastic card.

barrel length...
 

My dad owned a sporting goods shop in the 50's and 60's, and it was my childhood stomping grounds... :) (fond memories)
I once asked him what was the main difference between a 28" and a 30" shotgun barrel? He smiled slightly and said, "It puts you two inches closer to the goose!"... :) ... Those were simpler times! I miss them! Best to all, til...lat'r...GT....:cheers:

Got one. Its shape looks like an Interarms Parabellum Sports Model. No kidding. It's a beautifully built pistol. Steel frame. Heavy.

I just bought one too. If you research the blogs, the auto was modeled on the Luger for grip angle and shape and the Nambu for bolt function. The red seal on the handle is also a rarer item and more desireable. Yours looks like the MK IIs used in the move Assassins with Stalone & Bandarass - but theirs had silencer barrels. For me it is the stainless steel with the long tapered barrel. The Crimson Trace grips were a nice addition.

Integrally suppressed. Quieter than an air gun with the right ammo. And it has flutes for those that like them!

4" tapered barrel, stainless, MK II. Interesting that Ruger serializes the barreled receiver rather than the grip frame. I have not seen any aftermarket 'barrels' for them, but I'd be interested to see if they are serialized... :)

Edit: Bought new, in gray plastic case, w/two magazines and a tiny lock with 4 keys. There is no indication what the lock is intended for (it's not a trigger lock) and it won't lock the plastic case. Nothing else included; no cleaning rod, no bore brush, no 'takedown tool' (it's pretty impossible to pry down the lever in the back of the grip with your fingernail). :rolleyes:

I haven't found any way to release the c0cked firing pin. Leaving a fired cartridge in the chamber works but gets you some annoyed looks at the range... :grr:

Here's mine:

Plus one.

"Integrally suppressed. Quieter than an air gun with the right ammo. And it has flutes for those that like them!"

Alan: I have one of Ceiner's which is not particularly quiet, not user serviceable, and he's no longer servicing his stuff. Any ideas on how, or who, will work on them?
dju

Looks like Ruger Mark III has three major variations -- Standard (with Luger like barrel), Target (with bull barrel), and Hunting (with fluted bull barrel).

LGS salesman showed me another variation. It's grip is more like 1911, and the model name is indeed 22/45 :) I prefer Luger's grip angle, so I bought this one.

To me yours is the perfect Ruger. Except maybe for the finish. I prefer them blued.

Ruger Mk. II
 

Ruger MK.II with Tactical Solutions 4'' Pac-Lite Barrel and Mask HD Silencer

I tried one not long ago at the range, the fluted barrel should in theory dissipate heat.
Smart gun pretty accurate, anaemic caliber.
IMHO

It's intended for the target shooter who shoots both centerfire and rimfire; using a Colt-style centerfire pistol. Supposedly the same grip angle promotes consistency when moving from the one caliber to the other. :rolleyes:

True. But I think High Standard did a better job with the military supermatics.

Mark Serbu built my Siris. It is serial number 11 and is also not serviceable via dismantling. It still remains very quiet after all these years, but requires an annoying cleaning ritual. Mark will not service them, but you might try Doug Melton at SRT Firearms.

http://www.srtarms.com/

Or John Tibbets at John's Guns.

http://www.fullysuppressed.com/aboutus.html

They are both skilled machinists and might get a laugh out of redoing one of Jonathan Arthur's old designs.

Fired 200 rounds CCI .22lr from it in range. It worked very well, no issues met, and it's very accurate... Shooting a little bit to the right, but that's my habit related. I did not carry tool with me today, will adjust the rear sight a little bit next time.

Field stripping for cleaning is not easy on this gun. Putting back took even more effort. Try and fail a few times, that's still manageable. So far so good.

I love Rugers...but I would rather eat a handful of live bees than field strip one.
Ron

Once you learn the trick it's easy.
Before that.....:crying:

Yep! The trouble is, the "trick" is different for different people!

trick my ass...a bigger hammer helps a lot......i have 4 of them and they are all a bitch.....

Which one??? That looks like the bull barrel... :confused:

You decided against the flutes? I was curious as to how they looked...A member here once asked if a target barrel could be fluted...But it seems as if slabbed barrel is more popular...

Once you figure out that popping the round bar of the takedown assembly into the upper's opening first and making sure that it "clicks' into place, in as far as it will go, facilitates the rest of the process. Popping the bar clear through the upper allows the locking lever to freely swing right down and snap into place.

Maybe my rememberer isn't working well, but, I seem to remember reading somewhere in the last 40 years that the fluting stiffens the barrel and improves accuracy.

I have one of these, with the tapered barrel. Due to resemblance to the Parabellum I refer to it as "the poor man's Luger". It is a real joy to shoot.

If you install the Tandemkross bushing ($10) to eliminate the magazine safety they are much easier to reassemble after takedown. I also performed an amateur "trigger job" by polishing the trigger linkage and it made the pull lighter. Both bushing install and trigger linkage polish are well described in YouTube videos.

Ron Let me say that I'd never heard that expression before quite amusing! :roflmao:

Kind regards.

Ron's hilarious response reminded me that as a young computer technician in my spare time, I used to do occasional jobs for a rural computer store.

One day they called me and asked me to go to a surgeon's house and upgrade the memory in a PC that he had purchased from them. It turned out that doctor was my neighbor a couple of houses down from mine and we knew each other.

Rather than charge my neighbor friend for the simple task of inserting some new memory chips, I called him and told him all he had to do was power the system off, open the case and insert the two new chips in the sockets provided for them since they couldn't be inserted incorrectly, and then close the case.

His response to me made me fall off my chair in laughter. He was deathly afraid of electricity...and strangely, not very mechanically inclined. He said, " I will gladly pay you because I would rather cut open somebody's abdomen and do a bowel resection than stick my hand into a computer!"

=======================

Regarding the fluted barrel on the target version of the Ruger .22 auto. I would have to submit that they are purely decorative in this instance, since rigidity could hardly be an issue in a barrel only 6 inches long... flutes may play a roll in a bench rest type target barrel... but not on a pistol...IMHO.

I have a 6 inch tapered barrel on mine and it is a great fun and accurate gun to shoot, even with standard non-adjustable sights.

You do not need to strip the pistol to clean it.
A good wipe will do.

After 2 or 5 thousand rounds, you may want to take it apart as you have in the picture. Depends on which brand of cartridges you use, some are much "dirtier" than others.

More .22s are ruined by excessive cleaning than they ever are by firing. JMHO.

Here we go again...

A post I wrote on RFC several years ago:

I clean the bbl on my Mk III after every range trip, and a field strip and thorough clean every 600 rds - and by that time the gun is in desperate need of a cleaning!

That's a mighty fine lookin' Nambu - er Ruger - you have there! :evilgrin:

zormpas,
your instructions for cleaning are right on the money.:cheers:

The only thing you left out is that you will wear out the pistol taking it apart and putting it together;
oops! No I think you did cover that in section 3 words 18 through 43.:evilgrin:

Yea, and I forgot to mention the grips - you need to remove your grips before cleaning because the cleaning solution will dissolve them, but it really doesn't matter because all the gunk will add to their patina...

:roflmao:

I've never seen or heard of a modern quality firearm, firing modern noncorrosive ammo, that:
1. Was worn out from too much cleaning
2. Suffered damage because it was rarely cleaned.

Therefore firearms should be cleaned every time they are used, or not. Both Don and Zormpas have nailed it.

After firing rounds from it, I think "heat dissipation" could be eliminated from fluted barrel of Ruger .22 -- the barrel can at most be described as warm after firing 200 rounds, not hot at all, there was simply no heat to dissipate. But deep cut on barrel could still reduce bull barrel's weight.