TLDR; this is still my favorite gun,  and I'm working on wearing out my second one. The first one broke after 50-70k rounds and Ruger sent me a replacement.

I'm laying here with my back thrown out, so I figured I'd type this up.

First of all, the mkiv is a big improvement on the mkiii. Not only for the takedown, but they're are a lot of small improvements that mKe it more reliable. With good ammo, I've gone 2k+ rounds without a malfunction.

After 50-70k rounds of mostly rapid fire, the upper cracked on the bottom from the takedown pin to the rear. This did not cause a malfunction, and was discovered during cleaning.  Ruger had me send it in for repair, and then sent me a new gun.

I've been using 5 magazines, and they are still going strong. They should each have about 10-14k rounds on them or 1-1.4k load and unload cycles. I changed the loading button on them because it was causing galling in its track, making 2 of the magazines difficult to load. I used tandemkross magazine buttons that have a slick coating and that resolved the issues. I also installed new springs in a couple.  I was cleaning magazines every 500 rounds, but I've increased that to 1000, and may try 2000. I may install extra power springs in all of them to see if they can run for longer without cleaning.

I've been using a 407co sight,  and it's doing great. I've had to replace the battery a couple of times. When the battery is low the dot blinks, which makes it more difficult to shoot at speed. I'm using the farrowtech dovetail mount, which I prefer over the lobos industries mount on the lite version of this gun, because I don't like using the screw holes in the aluminum receiver, which I did strip on my first gun. The logos mount is great for the steel mkivs, but any time you tighten screws in aluminum,  you're wearing out the threads, even when torquing correctly. Also, the threads go down into the inside of the receiver, which exposes your located screws to oils, solvents, and everything else that happens inside the action.

Loading mags gave me a big callus on my thumb. I started using the ultimate clip loader, and saved my thumb and increased my rate of fire. Some ammo flows through it easily, and some doesn't. You can spray rem oil on ammo to get it to flow through, but I question the wisdom of breathing that stuff in as the ammo burns.

The best ammo I used was cci minimags, velocitors, and standard velocity. I also had great success with magtech, although it's very waxy, and sometimes you have to watch out for a bit of lead on the case, which you can flick off.

The worst was probably winchester bulk. I had a lot of duds, and even backward loaded bullets. The second worst was Aguila. I even had a thread where a told Guillermo to call me because the rounds were often missing powder. Well someone suggested I pull bullets and check it out.  I did,  and found good priming, good powder, and had to apologize to Guillermo. After spraying the ammo with remoil so it would go through my speed loader, the problems went away.  This makes me think the ammo is gritty on the outside, so much so that it's causing cycling issues. Spraying it with oil fixed the issue :-0.

I put in the volquartsen accurizing kit. It really improves the mkiv lite. The gun is so light that the stock trigger can really apply a lot of input to it (heavy trigger, light gun). Volquartsen fixes this and makes it easy to hit head size targets at 35 yards. I've transferred the kit to the second gun and I saw no appreciable wear on the parts.

Shooting suppressed is works great, but I don't like the cleanup, and have generally stopped doing it.

When oiling the gun, I use a drop of oil then rub it all over the bolt with a patch, then I do the same with the inside of the receiver. I put a small drop on the recoil spring assembly, then lock the bolt back and dab most of it up with a q tip. A very light coat of oil allows me to go about 1k rounds between cleanings. Oiling heavier gets me about 500 rounds due to increased carbon build up. Shooting suppressed just sort of makes the gun extremely dirty fast, and I have to drop oil on the bolt after a couple hundred rounds to restore function.

The only part that broke, aside from the upper receiver, was the firing pin rebound spring. I broke like 3 of those.  Tandemkross stocks a five pack, which I highly recommend.

I also tried TK's +1 mag follower. It was unreliable.

My suggestions to improve the gun are:
-integrate a magwell for fast reloads
-give it a lighter trigger, the gun has a thumb safety after all
-fix magazine buttons galling track, maybe use polymer instead? Also it might be easier on our thumbs.
- higher capacity magazines. At least stagger stacked.

Great review, hope you heal up fast.

That is the Ruger I’m going to need.  I have two now but no threaded muzzle which I’ll need for my .22 can when it gets approved.

Thank you, I'm doing a bit better today - my wife is taking good care of me. :-)

I think you'll love it as a suppressor host.

Im looking into an mkiv but want the bull barrel version of my mkiii hunter.When the hunter was brand new and actually now to this day its finicky with mini mags.Guessing i need to dump some parts in it i have laying around but ive been lazy.The take down on this is pathetic which i hope the iv greatly improves on.Do you have pics of issues that happened?id love tonsee those

I polished the oem mag buttons, no galling.  Part of the "mag tune up" on YouTube.

Thanks for the writeup op.
MKIV is my favorite. 22lr pistol.

What magwell do you use?

Hope you feel better

I would love it, but I don’t see a double stack mag in this platform.

Now that I have mastered the reassembly of the older guns, they have finally fixed that.  I’ll probably forget the way and come back in 5 years lol.

The MKIV Lite is on my short list. Thanks for the read!

Here's what happened:



I speculate that shooting mostly rapid fire as well as occasionally suppressed stressed the upper receiver more than usual.  

I don't have one. The only magwell I have seen is this:

https://www.tandemkross.com/tempest_magwell-ruger-mark_iv_2245

I would like Ruger to integrate it into the lower on their next revision - sort of like what glock did with the gen5.

That price is lol no

I agree.

Any tips on getting mine to cycle cci standard velocity while suppressed?    Doesn’t seem to move the bolt much at all when I pull the trigger.  Have to manually cycle them.   High velocity works fine.   Maybe I got a bad batch of ammo.    Maybe I’m not using the right lube?

Thanks for help

I've had similar issues with mine (as well as a VQ rifle) using CCI Standard although sometimes it will cycle. Even happens with a VQ upper used in place of the Ruger upper.
Fiocchi sub-sonic 40gr 100% fixed the VQ rifle. Wil try the VQ upper tomorrow.

https://volquartsen.com/inventory_configurations/1086
I also polished the inside of my upper and made it baby butt smooth. Something I highly recommend everyone does to their Ruger MK upper. Really helps with feeding and cycling different ammo types.

I went with a pair of mark IV's, one standard grip the second a 22/45 but neither is the lite version. I tried the lites but I prefer a bit more heft. I find the added weight a bit more stabilizing for me else I may have gone the other direction.

The extra weight absolutely makes a positive difference in shooting accurately - especially at 25 yards+. I found that the volquartsen accurizing kit makes the lite better than the mk IV tactical (which has a lot of weight with all those pic rails) at range. Also, these grips make the lite more stable in recoil than the tactical. Of course, if you made the same changes to the tactical, it would probably be even better, but I'm not sure how much. The tactical is going to be slower swinging on targets, and more tiring for long range sessions.

Does it shoot cci sv fine unsuppressed? I have a hard time thinking cci sv put out a bad batch of ammo. You could pull some bullets with a needle nose pilers and check if the powder charges are consistent - if you have a digital powder scale, that would be helpful.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Spray the a couple mags worth of the ammo with some remoil or one shot - if it starts working, that indicates some friction in the chamber. Clean the chamber with a bronze brush. You can even chock it up in a drill and give it some spins. Shine some light into the barrel and look at the chamber before and after to check your progress. I had this issue with some Augila SV that just had really garbage wax bullet coating which was on the bullets and casings. That seemed to slow down the bolt speed. After spraying it with Remoil, it did decently.  

2. Suppressed shooting fouls up the action WAY faster than unsuppressed. If things are running fine, and then having trouble after 100-200 rounds, I get things running again by adding oil, but the gun probably needs to be cleaned every 300-1000 rounds, depending on ammo, shooting suppressed, etc - every gun is different.

3. When I clean and oil the 22/45 I use just a small drop of oil on the bolt, and rub it all over with a patch. I do the same on the inside of the receiver. A very light coat seems to keep things running longer. I use a nice oil like this: https://geissele.com/gjtm-4-oz-bottle.html as I found that it tends to run a little longer without cleaning. When shooting suppressed, this strategy doesn't work that great, as the gun gets dirty so fast, you have to add oil before long to keep it running.

4. As mentioned by others, you could try a lighter recoil spring. Since you're running HV fine, it would stand to reason that SV may just not have enough power to cycle your action. As for polishing stuff, I'm not sure if that recommendation is for the steel upper receivers or the aluminum.

interesting post.
I love the mk4 and have 2 uppers,a moded 3inch threaded and a 5.5inch bull for accurate and noisy lol.
agree with the farrow tech dot plates and have both on my uppers.

me and ruger marks go back 40 years to my first quality pistol a mk1 standard 4.75 inch taper with fixed sights. took a while to learn takedown.

mk4 is wonderful. and I prefer suppressed shooting.
but on the range I think I'll like the 5.5 since cans are pointless when everyone around you is noisy.

I did but went with mostly Tandemkross for the Halo, triggers, sight, recommended tuning to the mags and internals. As for the grips, I'm fine with the way they are. I also removed the top rail (there's better options) but kept the lower for an Olight mini valkyrie. Same modifications done to the 22/45. I did add a volquartsen extended bolt release to them but that's their only part. I would like to add a gas pedal but I'm left handed, can't find a lefty.

Attached File

OP did you ever replace the recoil springs ?

Love my MKIV 22/45 Lite. So does my wife as she sold her TX22 and has a 22/45 Lite on the way

OP, the VQ recoil assembly comes with 3 springs to tune your gun.  Sounds like you need their light spring.

VQ assembly

Ordered  the springs.  Thanks for that info.   We shall see

Good deal, let us know how it works.  I've been happy with mine.

Love my 22/45 Lite. Loved it even more after I did the VQ accurizing kit, TK grip, TK charging handle, TK thumb ledge & extended safety.

My wife also loved it so much she sold her TX22 and bought one & I now have to install most of the stuff I did to mine

I’m in the minority of really not liking my MKIV lite. I’ve done all the stuff as above and it’s still just not that accurate for me probably due to the trigger still being relatively heavy. Couple that with the ten round mags and I just don’t put any time in with it to get better because my tuned TX comp is so good.