Ruger MkII as a training pistol

[RobertSubnet]

Greetings all.

I amlooking for a training pistol and was thinking of the Ruger MkII.

By "training" I mean initial work on stance and trigger control. For more advanced work, I would use my SA 1911.

Would appreciate some thoughts from those who have experience with this pistol. The pistol would be for adults (myself and wife) versus a child.

Thanks,
~Robert

[Briman]

You could get a ciener .22 conversion for your 1911. They cost less than a MKII.

Upsides:
Same trigger
Sights will be similar to a 1911
Similar weight and balance
no goofy MKII grip angle (the only thing wrong with a MKII other than it being a Ruger is the grip angle doesn't fit my hand- it would be a really good target pistol if tis were corrected, and a better trigger were installed).

downsides:
A MKII would be a decent 2nd pistol
MKII magazines are a bit cheaper
MKII will be a more accurate

[JeffS]

I have several of the Ruger Mark pistols and I love them. I have ran several thousand rounds through my Mark II and finally had to take it apart for the first time to clean it. It started to not fully eject the spent shells but after the cleaning it starting working great again. The grips take a little getting used to though it works great to get you pratice with a pistol. We will get the bigger ones out and after a couple clips put them back up and grab one of the .22's. We shoot at a variety of ranges and we can hit asgood with the pistols as we can with scoped .22's.