#Mk.I

For this edition of TFB’s Field Strip series, we’re going with the famous Ruger Standard, or Ruger Mk III pistol. This pistol, and all it’s derivatives are lauded as a great shooting pistol, but maligned as a terrible pistol when it comes to field stripping. Owners of the Ruger Standard pistol have dreaded and cursed the takedown process since 1949. However, the fact that it remained in continuous production for 67 years suggests that people were willing to overlook the field strip process, or simply ignore it for as long as absolutely possible.

Many of us were truly elated to see that Ruger had come out with their MK IV pistol that disassembles at the mere push of a button. Sadly, this answer to all of our problems… had a problem. It was recently recalled and has many consumers scratching their head again looking at competitor’s pistols like the Smith & Wesson Victory. Fairly easy disassembly, but it does require a tool.

Today, the lightweight pocket 9mm handgun market is flooded with options, with that configuration being one of the major “weapons of choice” for the contemporary concealed handgun carrier. However, in the 1980s, it was a different world. Those few who carried firearms on a daily basis generally preferred to carry revolvers, either larger service-sized firearms, or smaller snubnosed .38 cal “detective” models. Detonics, a company whose name elicits excitement from handgun geeks all over due to their at one time unique catalog, developed a pocket 9mm handgun in 1985, ten years ahead of the Kel-Tec P11 that jumpstarted that market in the mid-1990s. Detonics’ gun – appropriately called the “Pocket 9” – was a commercial flop (being cancelled in 1986), but its innovative design makes it today a special rarity sought after by handgun collectors. Ryan Michad, host of the Firearm Radio Network’s Gun Guy Radio and Handgun Radio shows, takes a look at the Pocket 9 in a video embedded below: