The Ruger Mark IV is an American target pistol. It is the fourth generation of Sturm, Ruger & Co.'s line of pistols that built the Ruger name.
History[]
The Mark IV was designed in 2016 to replace the Ruger Mark III, which was going out of production around that time.
Design Details[]
The Mark IV closely resembles the Mark III it replaces, with evident design elements from the original Ruger Standard present on the Mark IV. However, improvements to the Mark III design can also be seen on the Mark IV, such as a redesigned trigger group and bolt stop, a new ambidextrous thumb safety and a new magazine release latch.
The most evident change from previous designs is that the Mark IV utilizes a hinged connection between the upper receiver and grip frame. This allows for disassembly of the pistol to be made much easier and more simplified than previous iterations of the pistol; just a push of a button located below the charging handle allows the upper receiver and grip frame to be separated.
Recall[]
On June 7, 2017, Ruger issued a recall of all Mark IV pistols manufactured prior to June 1, 2017, due to the possibility of the pistol unintentionally discharging if the safety is not utilized correctly.
What could potentially happen was if the safety was placed in between the "fire" and "safe" settings and if the trigger was pulled, the pistol would not fire; however, if the safety was moved to the "fire" setting and the trigger was released, the pistol may fire at that time.
As of July 5, 2017, replacement parts for retrofitting the pistol to fix the issues stated in the recall have been made available. Retrofitted pistols can be identified by a white dot with an "S" inside it made visible when the safety is engaged.
Variants[]
Multiple variants of the Ruger Mark IV have been made, all of which are functionally identical.
- Standard
- Target
- Hunter
- Competition
- Tactical
- 22/45
- 22/45 Lite
- 22/45 Tactical