Buckmark vs. 22/45

[Exiledviking]

The timing on this thread is pretty funny. I am currently fighting my wife's Buckmark due to failure to fire. Long story, short; do not ever dry fire a Buckmark. I am hopefully just looking at a new firing pin, at worst a new barrel due to the small dimple in the breech face. DOH!!!

I've got thousands of rounds thru my 22/45 and I cannot recall having a malfunction. I've used several different brands of ammo in it. As noted, the trigger needs help right out of the box. You're supposed to clean the 22/45....?!?!? lol. It's been several years...

[Coal Dragger]

I shot competitive bullseye in college my senior year (should have started as a freshman....) and the school had a bunch of old Ruger MKII's that were used for basic handgun marksmanship classes. They all literally had close to 100K on all of them, and they all worked. Rarely cleaned, just lubricated.

If only the team's Hammerli's were as forgiving of ammo choice and maintenance. Of course the Hammerli's were so much more accurate than the Ruger's that comparison in that department is silly.

[austinN4]

Long story, short; do not ever dry fire a Buckmark.

Or any rimfire, not just BuckMark.

When I dry fire my BuckMark, I put an empty 22 case in the chamber. Of course, there are always these:
http://www.gandermountain.com/modper...FQOMaQodkAkHdg

[austinN4]

I'm thinking about buying a semi 22 and I was all set on a 22/45 but a couple of comments from friends have me questioning this. They said the buckmark was a superior gun and the 22/45 was far less reliable. Is there any truth to this? I only have experience with the 22/45 which has always been positive.

Lots of good info here, of course, but consider spending some time on Rimfire Central in the BuckMark and 22/45 forums.

[pinzgauer]

One clarification: the rugers are not hard to clean, they are just very specific in the takedown/reassembly procedure. Ie: there is a trick to it. Use the trick and it's no big deal. Don't know it, and it is very difficult to reassemble.

And yes , the Buckmark and Hammerlis have better triggers and easier takedown.

But I've found the Hammerlis to be more ammo sensitive. While the Ruger eats anything and will function till it has so much residue built up that the bolt won't drop. Even then, a squirt of lubricant will get it going again.

If you get anything but the Ruger get plenty of mags, as they can get hard to find later

All my experience has been with the mk II and mk I bull barrel versions, not the 22/45. But the mech is the same as I understand it.

I view the Ruger 22 pistol family as the glock of the 22 world. Not perfect, has "stuff" to deal with. But overall reliability and ubiquity makes it the default choice unless you really want something different and are willing to sort issues and reduced aftermarket support.

But even without that aftermarket, I'd still probably take the Ruger. As I did in the early 80s when the aftermarket did not exist

[Evel Baldgui]

The only .22 pistols I've owned have been rugers, never had an issue with them. Sold all my .22 stuff a few months ago, but for the 5-6 years I had them, never had a problem with the 22/45 or mkiii. I did shoot a friend's buck mark a few weeks back and thought it was 'smoother' than my old rugers, other than that no experience w buckmarks.

[tb-av]

If you are planning on spending a lot of after market then volquartsen has the Scorpion already tricked out on the 22/45 Frame... but.. it's $1K

There are after market parts that are pretty easy to install. and you could probably do similar for $600 total. Even the takedown. Someone makes a retro fit so you don't have to do that crazy ass take down. You just draw teh bolt out and then can clean the whole deal.

I've never had a Buckmark but so far my 22/45 works fine. I put, I think about $100 of after market parts and it feels like a different gun. Volq. and Tandemkross. I enjoy shooting it more than my HiStandard, but I bought the LITE for that specific reason.

The tandemkross guy has some really good vids and one is simply devoted to polishing up the magazines.

Aren't the buckmarks about 2X the price of 22/45.. I think you kinda get what you pay for in fine detail polish. 22/45 is $350. For another $100 you can transform it.

[Lefty223]

Edge as far as trigger goes to Mark II versions of the 22/45. Those can be taken to 2-pounds +ounces safely and they'll last forever! Many years ago I built target pistols off them when I had my gunsmithing FFL and one shooter was #2 in his State for years, shooting the lowly Ruger against Pardinis and the like. I even made custom compensators and lo and behold when Volquartson came out with their units ... they looked like my design, albeit reverse engineered, lol.

To me, Ruger RUINED that pistol line w/ the mag disconnect ... and other 'alleged safety' improvements.

I'd never EVER buy any Mark III version ...

There was a time when it seemed like I couldn't go to the range or my local bullseye gunshop without putting someone's Ruger back together ...

[austinN4]

Aren't the buckmarks about 2X the price of 22/45..

$329.99 http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/brow...l-200023439--1

[ST911]

I bought a 5-1/2" Buckmark in ~1995. I've used it for rimfire matches, rec shooting, and a bunch of folks learned to shoot on it including my kids. 1000 rounds a year of shooting would be a very conservative estimate. I have done nothing for PM but brush it out 2-3x a year and relube it as needed. It eats everything I feed it from the original batch of magazines bought at the same time as the gun. I don't remember what it cost ($200?) but it's been a stellar value.