Buckmark or Ruger

[Njanear]

I have 2 Beretta NEOS pistols that my son and I toy around with and they do a pretty good job on the plates. I will admit that the gripframes are small for my hands but I can still do OK with it. I also have a Ruger Mk II that I keep saying that I am going to pull out of the safe, but will also admit that the new Buckmarks have caught my eye lately.

[fred5876r]

I started out with a Ruger 22/45 with a slide-ride C-More (Allchin mount) and a Volquartsen comp. The trigger was lousy and every time I took it apart I needed the damn owner's manual in front of me to get it back together. I now have a otherwise stock URX Buckmark with a Tac-Sol rail/sight combo and a Burris Fastfire III, which I like a lot but it is mostly just for fun or a backup. My main steel gun now is a S&W 41 with a Clark Custom STC barrel and a C-More RTS sight. I absolutely love this gun! It is fantastic. Very accurate and reliable (both the 41 and Buckmark have been 100% with CCI Standard Velocity ammo). I realize the 41/Clark combo cost well over twice as much as the Buckmark, but I think it is worth it.

[West Texas Granny]

Sig Hammerli

S&W 17-4

Buckmark

H&R top break 9 shot revolver

[photoracer]

When it comes to speed steel shooting it is the same issues as shooting centerfire, except more so on ammo reliability. My Buckmark open racegun has now gone a total of 47 straight matches without a malfunction (something like 3+ years). That includes club steel matches, Steel Challenge events, Ruger Rimfire regionals and world championships, and even oddball events like rimfire tactical, bowling pin matches, and the first two annual PSA Rimfire Shootout events (name changed to the PSA Rimfire Challenge for this coming year). I shoot nothing but CCI-MM in anything outside my club events although in them I sometimes shoot Fed 550 bulk. Once I got the cleaning routine perfected, and fixed a light strike issue by elongating the firing pin retaining pin slot a few thousandths to increase the forward travel of the FP a tiny bit (but still not enough to peen the breech as many Buckmark owners know). Prior to this run I had liner separation in both my TS alloy barrels at different times that TS fixed for free and has not happened since. I had some feeding issues with hollow point type bullets (Fed 550 and others) that I traced to a slight mismatch between the chamber side of the liner and the feed ramp on the TS barrels. Once I stoned that to a smooth transition and polished the feed ramp it has worked flawlessy. Broke a FP spring in 2009 (my late wife and I owned the gun since new in 1994). Added a Buckmark trigger w/overtravel screw. I did the Heggis flip on the sear spring and got a flawless 1.8# trigger that has caused other shooters to want to be in my will for it because I will not sell it. Made my own 90 degree mount for my C-More, originally because I was getting an open gun built with a Chelly and wanted to try it out. It has been on there ever since. After extensive subjective testing of 5-10 comps I settled on the Allchin finally this spring. Made my own slide racker a couple of years ago by drilling and tapping the slide for a bolt and alloy sleeve. Made my own thumbrest and integrated it into a TS/Hogue alloy left grip panel. Beveled the magwell for faster mag changes in events like the PSA Rimfire ones. Added pads to the bottom of the mags.

The only thing I dread is that if something breaks it won't feel the same again.

So now I just take it out of the bag, put mags in, shoot it, maybe put it in my slightly modified Black Dog HMK01 holster. Then clean it once and awhile and lube it lightly with Eezox.

Also in winter rather than clean my ammo I just keep the ammo warm and it shoots flawlessly despite the weather. As long as the bullet lube is fluid the ammo will cycle with no issues.