Ruger Mark III vs Browning Buckmark
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:43 pm
After 20 years away from shooting, I've been shooting with my son for the last year. So far, out shooting has been limited to a lot of .22 rifle shooting and a little plinking with my great-grandfather's old 38 S&W revolver. The revolver is fun, especially for its family heritage, but not very accurate and sort of expensive to feed. All of which is a long intro to saying: I think its about time to try a .22 pistol.
I've had an opportunity to shoot both a Browning Buckmark and Ruger Mark III recently (upper end versions of both). Both seemed very nice. They are my top 2 contenders.
Our uses will be mainly target shooting. Maybe some speed shooting (Steel Challenge), so fast target acquisition and reliability are important. I teach a 4-H rifle group and maybe will expand that to pistol next (school) year.
From what I've read, the Mark III seems a lot more upgradable, should I want to go that way someday. Also, it comes with a weaver mount, so if we want to play with a scope, it'd be easy. From their webpage, it looks like some Buckmarks come with a scope rail built-in. For the others, can you easily add a scope?
One other thought: I am FAR from the most mechanical guy around. Simple and foolproof are good words for things I use.
So, reading the two manuals on-line, the Buckmark seems much easier to field strip. I'd like to be able to clean it with only the most basic mechanical knowledge and without hurting it or myself. Life (both mine and the gun's) will probably be better if cleaning doesn't involve a mallet and a punch. Am I overreacting here or is that a valid concern for those of us low on the mechanical ability scale?
The flipside, perhaps, is that I see you have to remove the rear sight to clean the Buckmark. Not so with the Mark III? Does the sight seat exactly the same way every time or does a cleaning mean having to resight the gun pretty much from scratch?
Other than my obsession with simple, are there other considerations? Do both guns shoot about as well as each other (accuracy, reliability)? Anything else?
Thanks!
I've had an opportunity to shoot both a Browning Buckmark and Ruger Mark III recently (upper end versions of both). Both seemed very nice. They are my top 2 contenders.
Our uses will be mainly target shooting. Maybe some speed shooting (Steel Challenge), so fast target acquisition and reliability are important. I teach a 4-H rifle group and maybe will expand that to pistol next (school) year.
From what I've read, the Mark III seems a lot more upgradable, should I want to go that way someday. Also, it comes with a weaver mount, so if we want to play with a scope, it'd be easy. From their webpage, it looks like some Buckmarks come with a scope rail built-in. For the others, can you easily add a scope?
One other thought: I am FAR from the most mechanical guy around. Simple and foolproof are good words for things I use.

The flipside, perhaps, is that I see you have to remove the rear sight to clean the Buckmark. Not so with the Mark III? Does the sight seat exactly the same way every time or does a cleaning mean having to resight the gun pretty much from scratch?
Other than my obsession with simple, are there other considerations? Do both guns shoot about as well as each other (accuracy, reliability)? Anything else?
Thanks!