Building the Perfect Day/Night Critter Getter


My first trip to the range with the gun confirmed why it was thrown to the wolves, it jammed like it was designed to be a single shot. I pulled the chamber indicator actuator at the range and it became a different gun altogether with very good reliability and above average accuracy.
Additions were my old trusted Tasco Red Dot sight with A-Square rings, UTG Tri-Rail Shotgun Mount and a high power Green laser powered by a single CR123A battery. It was a pain to find a rail mount for the Mark III. Am I the only one who wanted to mount a 1" laser or tac light to a Ruger Mark III? Volquartsen has a rail mount but $250 was seemed steep for what I needed so I was lucky the $20 UTG shotgun mount worked.
The Tasco was tried and true on my old Colt Cadet 22 and still has a few years of service left and provides 9 levels of dot intensity. The UTG mount is perfect for providing a permanent mount for the green laser and attachment points for a tactical lights for night hunting. You would think this class of laser is overkill, however I would disagree. Less powerful lasers you simply cannot see in daylight and even in dusk conditions dots can be tough to pick up visually on moving

After polishing the throat and ramp, sharpening the extractor and tweaking the trigger, the results were this 30 round 1" group with CCI Mini-Mag HP. Sub-.5" groups are now common with match ammo.
For night hunting or just taking the dog out after hours a spare 1" tactical light provides plenty of light out to 40 yards. The light mounts and dismounts quickly via a standard thumb screw Weaver scope mount on the bottom rail. Yeah the gun starts to look like something from Bladerunner, but on the other hand it's a very handy pest elimination & hunting tool when it's dark out.

Next steps are install a full Volquartsen Performance Kit, Extractor and possible some new grips, perhaps a 2-6 Simmons scope, but for now I will have to manage with a sub-1" gun... uh I mean two.
More great groups.
FURTHER UPDATES
The laser and red-dot sight setup worked great until I reclaimed the laser for my Kel-Tec Sub 2000 build and burning need on the Mark III slab side for a smaller lighter red-dot that did not require me to hunt for the dot. I did use the laser quite a bit however as not of my use was at night a much smaller laser would do. For now I am very happy with just a Bushnell TRS-25 mounted on the pistol which provides for a very fast shooting gun and instant sight picture.
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