Ruger Mark III 22/45..... 4" or 5.5"???

[BMKindoll]

Hello everybody.  Looking at buying a 22/45.  Will be a general plinking gun but could possibly turn into a Steel Plate gun.  Will more than likely have a Halo sight put on it in the near future.

Which would be better?

I know the 5.5 incher will inherently have more accuracy, but was wondering if the 4" gun would be a little "handier" as a Steel Plate gun.

Thanks

Brandon 

[mjh]

At the time I bought my 5.5inch SS target model Ruger was not offering a 4 inch with adjustable sights.  I would have bought the 4 inch with adjustable sights and SS  if available.  I wanted SS and adjustable sights, barral length was a variable factor.  Don't know which would be a better steel plate gun.

[Bearcat 74]

My 22/45 MKIII Hunter has the 4" barrel.  Once I got the bugs worked out I really like the pistol.  www.rimfirecentral.com has lots of info about the models. 

[Graybeard]

For me unless it's for concealed carry if there is a question of which barrel length to go with I ALWAYS opt for the longer choice. Sure shorter is easier to pack but if it's to be shot that longer sight radius is a real plus for me and for most folks tho admittedly not everyone. One thing a longer sight radius always does is reduce the amount of effect of a given misalignment of sights.

If you misalign the front and rear by say 1/32 of an inch (a really easy thing to do) the point of impact of the bullet will be further from what you hoped to hit the shorter the barrel and less the longer the barrel. That is a constant. If you have trouble seeing up close most always a longer barrel will be easier to hit with as well as it gets the front sight out closer to where vision begins to clear. That's very important to me as I can't focus on anything clearly at much under 30" but the further out from my eyes the better the focus.

At about 7.5" to 8-3/8" the improvement over anything shorter is significant but make that barrel 10"+ and another significant improvement results.

[skarke]

I put a Red Dot sight on a 5.5 inch Mark III (not the 22/45 version).  It added enough weight to make it point like a longer barrel, and the Red Dot reduced the mis-alignment issues for me with iron sights like GB speaks of.

If I were using only iron sights, I'd get the longest barrel available, both for sight alignment AND for stability (the longer barrel is easier to hold steady).

[smong2000]

I got the rimfire bug this year so I'm new (and unjaded), my 1st Ruger MK II was a 10" and my 2cd is a 6 7/8" Comp Target.  They both are scoped and shoot unbelievably well.  I definitely shoot better with the 10" than the 'short' barrel.  Love them both and am looking for a 5" to complete the set but that's as short as I will go.  I know that I'll shoot that even worst than the 6 7/8" but it will be a fun gun.  It all depends how well you need to shoot to be happy, I think about them like this; 10" is a clay buster at 100 yds, 6 7/8" is good at 50 yds and the 5" will be a 25 yd gun.
You won't stop at one so don't sweat it...