Capacity: 10 round detachable magazine
Action: Semiautomatic SAO
Front Sight: Serrated ramp
Rear Sight: Square notch
Price:
Pistol MSRP $380 but one can be purchased for about $320
Tactical Solutions Trail-Lite barrel $200
Tactical Solutions Compensator $40
Tactical Solutions Buckmark Integrated Rail $65
Total pistol cost as shown $625
If you own a Ruger or Browning .22LR pistol it is not complete without a
Pac-Lite or Trail-Lite barrel (Pac for Ruger, Trail for Browning). These replace your factory steel paperweight with a superbly engineered aluminum barrel. There is a thin steel tube within the aluminum outer barrel for rifling but the bulk of the barrel is aluminum. The picture below shows my Buckmark with the Trail-Lite barrel installed. Above it is the original barrel. The gun came with a solid steel 5.5" bull-style barrel. I replaced it with a 4.5" OD Green threaded model from Tactical Solutions. To hold just the original barrel then the complete new gun the old barrel seems to weigh as much as the complete new firearm.
I really can't praise this barrel enough. I bought this gun brand new and did not fire a round as configured from the factory. Having previously owned a Buckmark with the 5.5" bull barrel I was fully aware of it's supreme accuracy and reliability. I immediately installed the Trail-Lite on this one and was not disappointed. While this shorter, lighter barrel does not quite match the accuracy of the orginal the trade off in weight reduction and size is worth it. And I think the gun just looks infinitely cooler with this barrel. Form and function; what's not to like! Of course
Tactical Solutions offers the barrel in different configurations to suite varied needs. You can get a barrel up to 10" long with or without flutes and threads. They can also be anodized in many colors.
As for the Buckmark itself I highly recommend it for your .22LR handgun needs. I have owned Buckmarks and a Ruger MKll but my vote goes to the Buckmark. I found it to be more accurate and better able to digest the cheap bulk ammo. I still get lots of malfunctions with the Buckmark and cheap bulk ammo but not as much as the Ruger did. I have found that CCI Mini-Mags and Federal Match Grade work best in my Buckmark.
In a Bang-for-the-Buck category the Browning is hands-down champ for my gun collection. Now I have a
Ruger Mark III with a Pac-Lite. The Ruger and Browning are tied.
My Buckmark with the new 4 inch barrel installed. The original 5.5 inch barrel is shown for reference.
With the tread protector removed
My Buckmark with all the accessories installed
Browning Buckmark vs Ruger Mark II/III
In the past, I've owned Buckmarks and a Ruger. This the first time I have owned them together and had an oppurtunity to compare them side-by-side. Many sources are available online debating which pistol is better; I'll share my thoughts here. In the area of accuracy, with all things being fairly equal, I think either pistol will do very well if the shooter does his/her part. Neither pistol stands out as being significantly better, as far as I can tell. That is assuming both pistols have adjustable sights and a bull barrel. Both pistols have excellent ergonomics. They feel equally terrific in my hands and I could not say one is better, if the Buckmark is a URX model (as pictured) with the rubber, finger-grooved grips and the Ruger sports the same type of Hogue grips.
None of that information is going to help anyone decide between them. Do I have a preference between the two pistols? Yes I do. However, it will depend somewhat on the intended use of the pistol. Overall I prefer the Ruger for the following reasons:
There are many more aftermarket parts avaiable. If you want a project gun definitely chose the Ruger.
While the URX grip of the Buckmark is nice, I still prefer the Hogue grip. Hogues are not available for the Buckmark.
The Ruger is not held together with screws. This is the big one for me. The assembly of the Buckmark relies on two screws that hold the rear sight base on the frame and barrel. As the pistol is fired the front screw works loose, even if Loctite is used. It's not a big deal if the gun is used primarily at the range. But if it's used as a gun for hunting, who wants to carry a tiny wrench in case the a screw needs tightening? Even at the range it gets annoying. I use Loctite every time I reassemble the gun. After a few magazines the front screw still breaks free and needs to be tighened after every magazine or two. Anyone who has disassembled a Ruger knows there is no chance it's coming apart during shooting. Also, if you have a scope mounted on the Buckmark it must be removed to disassemble the pistol, assuming it is long enough to cover the screws. The Ruger does not have that issue.
That does not mean I don't like the Buckmark. I shot several raccoons, ground hogs and squirrels with Buckmark 5.5" Target I owned previously. My wife prefers the Buckmark, but I do all the cleaning and maintenance. The Buckmark is a little easier to assemble/disassemble but the Ruger is easy enough after two or three times. If you want to buy different barrels for your pistol the Buckmark is much easier to work with. Every barrel for the Ruger is considered a firearm since it bears the serial number.
So if I had to choose one it would be the Ruger, but only by a slight margin. When I put together this Ruger pistol I planned on getting rid of either the Ruger or Buckmark, whichever I liked least. I find it's a decision I cannot make. I have no plans to get rid of either now. All together I have four .22LR pistols and have no plans of letting any go. Try to shoot both if you cannot decide what to buy, but honestly that's only half the story. As I stated before, the shooting characteristics are similar, though you may favor one grip angle more. A big factor in the decision will be the assembly/disassembly process for some people. Try to do this for each pistol, as well as shoot it, to see which you prefer. Whichever one you get, consider sprucing it up with Tactical Solutions gear; it's worth the investment.
Both of my .22 pistols with Tactical Solutions upgrades
New parts added; Tactical Solutions compensator and intergrated rail. Why did I install a compensator on a .22LR? Balance. The short, light-weight aluminum barrel made the pistol feel a little back-heavy. The compensator helped even out both the balance and look of the pistol. And my wife and I think it looks cool. The integrated rail is really nice. However, the gun shoots a little high now. With the Tactical Solutions barrel/front site and original Buckmark rear site I had no problems. I adjusted the new rear site all the way down and it still shoots high so I had to aim a little low to get center-of-target shots. I would like to install a red dot scope of some kind now.
Update: I called Tactical Solutions to ask about the high point-of-impact after installing the integrated rail. They were very helpful and quickly sent me a taller front site free of charge. That fixed the issue. They are a really good outfit with top-notch customer service. I am getting even better accuracy now with the both the front (taller) and rear Tactical Solutions sites installed.
I also did some Dremel polishing work on inner pieces of the pistol. This greatly increased the reliability of the pistol. I experienced only one stoppage (failure to fully eject a spent casing) after doing this while shooting about 250 rounds. Before I would get a malfunction of some sort about every other magazine; failure to eject or the nose of a new bullet being sent into the top of the breech while cycling were common. Using soft felt polishing pads and polishing compound on the Dremel I polished the following:
Feed ramp
All surfaces of the trigger connect bar
The hammer
The underside of the slide where it rubs against the hammer while cycling
The frame/slide where they contact while cycling
Basically anywhere I could get to where one part contacted another when moving
Here are a few examples of the capabilities of this pistol; well at least my capabilities with it. Test parameters:
I usually use CCI Mini-Mag or Federal Match Grade ammo in this pistol. Neither were available so I bought that listed above. I didn't find it to be quite as precise as the others. In the seated postion the hits were coming in a little high at first so I had to compensate, then recompensate when I got them too low. Some of them ended up being a little high when I stood up too but overall this pistol/barrel setup is great. Due to the reduced overall weight of the gun it does drift around a little more than with the heavier barrel. But it will be less of a burden when hiking/hunting and it should be great with a suppressor mounted (though I have not done this...yet).
I shot this target on 14JUN2008.
The two targets above were shot with my new Tactical Solutions accessories installed (compensator and integrated rail). I fired 150 rounds (75 at each target) as fast as I could load 2 magazines and pull the trigger through them. The only rest the gun got was while I was loading the magazines. It got pretty hot by the end. I experienced zero malfunctions while doing this.
This page was last modified on 03 Sep 2010 14:04