Ruger Mark II

This is a pistol I don't shoot nearly enough.  It's fun to shoot, cheap to feed, and requires all the skills necessary to fire any pistol.  Yet, it often languishes in its case, primarily because it does its job so well.

Ruger started his firearms empire with something we call the Standard Pistol in 1949.  It looked a lot like my Mark II, with a few changes inside.  My Mark II was made sometimes after 1982.  I bought this example in a pawn shop in 2005, the last year that Ruger made this model.  In 2006 he introduced the Mark III, which looks about the same, but again, there are internal changes.

It's a great pistol for teaching kids to shoot, simply because they don't have to worry about recoil and can focus on things like sight alignment and trigger squeeze.    Below, Grandson Ethan is trying his hand at the little pistol. 

I really need to take this little pistol out to the range more often.  One bit of trivia.  I had this pistol at the range one day and noticed that it shot a little bit low.  I was talking with a guy who I know to be an old-time gunsmith.  He told me that Ruger designed the front sight to be just a little bit high, so that once you settle on your preferred ammo for the little pistol, you can file the front sight to suit your particular ammo.  A touch of cold blue on the top of the sight blade and the pistol will be sighted for that ammo forever.