Tom Volquartsen began working as a gunsmith out of his home in 1974, and quickly established a reputation as one of the finest gunsmiths of his generation. By the mid-1980s, Volquartsen was able to expand his business into a full-time endeavor, operating out of a dedicated shop. By the early 1990s, Volquartsen’s interests settled into rimfire as a specialty, and he established his company as the industry leader in production of match-accurate proprietary parts; in particular, Volquartsen’s enhancements to the Ruger 10/22 rifle and MK series pistols have earned the utmost respect of serious shooters worldwide. In 2005, Scott and Nic Volquartsen assumed leadership of the company, further modernizing production techniques with the latest CNC technology to increase production while improving quality, and their efforts have borne great fruit. Today, Volquartsen Firearms produces many useful proprietary enhancements to the Ruger rimfires, as well as Remington rifles and shotguns and AR-style rifles, but they also offer their own semi-automatic rifles, straight-pull bolt-action rifles, and competition pistols. Volquartsen occupies the summit of their market, and few would dispute their primacy or their reputation for accuracy and reliability.
Following the success of their excellent Scorpion pistol, Volquartsen introduced their popular Black Mamba pistol in 2019, which incorporated their enhancements to the Ruger Mark III™ design into the Ruger Mark IV™ platform with its excellent push-button takedown system. Now Volquartsen has ridden the wave of their Black Mamba pistol by introducing what is, to me, the best and most versatile Volquartsen pistol yet, the perfect target 22 pistol: the Mini Mamba.
Volquartsen’s Mini Mamba is essentially a shorter version of the Black Mamba, resulting in the lightest (just over one pound), handiest, and most compact Mamba yet. The Mini Mamba has all the features that made the Black Mamba great, in a handier package that allows for adding a suppressor without creating an unwieldy pistol. Like the Black Mamba, the Mini Mamba is built on Ruger’s very ergonomic Mark IV 22/45 lightweight polymer frame, which features a manual slide release lever, as well as an ambidextrous thumb safety. The frame has been retrofitted with Volquartsen’s Accurizing Kit, yielding a crisp 2.25-pound specified trigger pull (more on that later). The frame has further been modified with Volquartsen’s magazine release that, when coupled with Volquartsen’s enhanced magazine base pads, allows the magazine to sit a bit higher in the frame; this causes the bolt to more positively engage each round as it feeds, resulting in more reliable feeding. It is worth noting that unmodified Ruger Mark IV magazines will not function in the Mamba pistols, but the Mini Mamba includes two magazines with the enhanced base pads, and extra magazines are available from Volquartsen for $50.00 each.
The heart of the Mini Mamba is Volquartsen’s new three-inch LLV Competition Upper. The LLV upper features a stainless steel barrel with laser-hardened breech, housed in an aluminum shroud; this provides match-grade accuracy in a lightweight package.
The three-inch barrel is threaded 1/2×28 to accommodate a variety of suppressors or muzzle brakes, and includes a substantial knurled steel thread protector, which is the same diameter as the upper’s body. The upper features an integrated Picatinny rail for mounting an optical sight, although an excellent set of open sights is included, consisting of a green fiber-optic front sight coupled with a Volquartsen fully-adjustable target rear sight. Unlike the Black Mamba, the Mini Mamba does not include a section of rail underneath the barrel forward of the trigger guard, because the shorter barrel does not leave enough room; this is inconsequential to me, and well worth trading for the Mini Mamba’s shorter overall length.
The bolt is Volquartsen’s superb Competition Bolt, which is engineered for maximum reliability while maintaining minimum tolerances for accuracy. The Competition Bolt features a very generous cocking handle, allowing it to be effortlessly operated by anyone; if you have trouble racking the bolt on a Ruger Mark Series pistol, the Volquartsen Competition Bolt renders that difficulty a thing of the past. The bolt spring can easily be swapped out for a higher-power or lower-power spring, and the Mini Mamba includes both a reduced power (Dark) spring and an extra power (Gold) spring to allow the bolt to be tailored to the shooter’s choice of ammunition, if need be; with the installed standard-power spring, my Mini Mamba ran with 100% reliability using a variety of ammunition types. Finally, the Competition Bolt is finished in Black DLC (Diamond Like Carbon); the DLC finish increases hardness and toughness due to its diamond crystal structure, while increasing lubricity due to its graphite crystal structure, which increases the coefficient of friction from 200% to 500% compared to traditional PVD coatings.
The Mini Mamba’s grip is a wraparound black rubber Hogue® unit, featuring Hogue’s familiar pebble finish and generous finger grooves. The grip is excellent, providing a firm and repeatable hold, especially when coupled with the backstrap’s molded-in checkering. If desired, standard ambi-cut grip panels made to fit a 1911 will fit the Mini Mamba, but the Hogue unit feels perfect in my hand.
As mentioned, the Ruger 22/45 frame has been fitted with Volquartsen’s Accurizing Kit, which includes their CNC Machined Disconnector, Target Hammer, Hammer Bushing, Target Sear, and Target Trigger with plunger and spring, which is adjustable for both pretravel and overtravel. Volquartsen specifies pull weight at 2.25 pounds, but my example’s trigger consistently broke at a very crisp, clean, and safe pull weight of under one pound (0 pounds, 14.9 ounces, to be exact), and this pull weight was consistent to well within one ounce using two different digital trigger pull gauges. This amazing trigger, when paired with Volquartsen’s barrel system, made it very easy to achieve extreme and satisfying accuracy results; when fired from a good rest, such as the Multi Cal. Steady Rest from Ransom International, 25-yard groups of one ragged hole were not uncommon. The Accurizing Kit also thankfully eliminates the Magazine Disconnect, so the Mini Mamba will fire with the magazine removed, which is exactly as I want it.
Even though the Mini Mamba’s open sights are excellent, an optical sight is in order for a pistol as accurate as the Mini Mamba. Thanks to the LLV upper’s integrated Picatinny rail, mounting an optical sight is a snap; it is only a matter of choosing which Picatinny-compatible optic is suited to your intended purpose. I chose a great little red dot optic from Skinner Sights: the Skinner Optics Red Dot SKO-121-RDO. Andy Larsson of Skinner Sights is an expert regarding sighting systems, whether they be standard open sights, Skinner’s excellent peep sights, or optical sights. When Andy decided to import his own line of optics he really went all-out, sourcing the best manufacturers and assuring that the optics bearing his company’s name would be built to his design specifications, of the highest quality, and available at an affordable price. The Skinner Optics SKO-121-RDO does not disappoint. The optic is an enclosed emitter design, meaning that moisture and debris will not interfere with operation. The lenses are fully coated and the tube is nitrogen filled for a crisp, clean field of view. The red dot is only 2 MOA in diameter; this is large enough to easily acquire, yet doesn’t cover too much of your target. The dot’s brightness is adjustable to eight different levels, and the unit is powered by a common and inexpensive CR2032 battery. Windage and elevation adjustments are positive and repeatable using mini-turrets, and the sight weighs only 3.8 ounces. An Acro® style base is integrated, but a Picatinny riser is included; this riser is high enough so that the Mini Mamba’s open sights can be used without removing the optic, which is a very handy feature. For those wanting a lower-mount option, a low mount is available from Skinner Sights for only 20 bucks; both the included riser and the optional low mount are superbly CNC machined from aluminum bar stock by Skinner Sights in their Montana shop. The Skinner Optics SKO-121-RDO sells for only $189.00, making it one of the best values on today’s market.
What sets Volquartsen’s Mamba line of pistols apart from the rest is simply this: accuracy and reliability. What sets the Mini Mamba apart from the other Mamba models is its handy size and light weight: with a weight of only 1 pound, 9 ounces and an overall length of 8.375 inches, the Mini Mamba is the perfect 22 suppressor host. Threading on a suppressor, such as the excellent Cascade unit from Tactical Solutions, yields a pistol with an overall length that is still within the range of what we expect a target 22 pistol to be. At a current MSRP of $1,554.00, the Volquartsen Mini Mamba is not inexpensive, but a shooter can easily spend much more of his hard-earned money on a custom pistol that is not nearly as good.
SPECS: Volquartsen Mini Mamba 22 LR Semi-Auto Pistol
Product Number: VF4M-0098
Caliber: 22 Long Rifle (22 LR)
Weight: 1Pound, 9 Ounces
Overall Length: 8.375 Inches
Frame: Ruger® Mark IV™ 22/45, Black
Upper Finish: Black Anodized Aluminum
Competition Bolt Finish: Black (DLC)
Barrel: Stainless Steel, Hardened Chamber, 3 Inches, 1:16 Twist, Muzzle Threaded 1/2×28 TPI w/ Thread Protector
Trigger: Black Target Trigger
Trigger Pull: 2 Pounds, 4 Ounces (Specified), 0 Pounds, 14.9 Ounces (Actual)
Sights: Green Fiber Optic Front / Target Rear
Optic Rail: Picatinny Spec, Integral
Grips: Hogue® Black Rubber, Wrap-Around Finger-Groove
Magazine Capacity: 10
Magazines Supplied: 2
Accessories Included: Lockable Hard Plastic Case, Reduced Power Spring, Extra Power Spring, Manual, Sticker
MSRP as of March 2026: $1,554.00 US
Available EXCLUSIVELY through Davidson’s Affiliated Dealers
For dealer purchases visit www.davidsonsinc.com
For consumer purchases visit www.galleryofguns.com
About the Author:
Boge Quinn is a life-long shooter, born and raised in the Great State of Tennessee. A co-founder of Gunblast.com (https://gunblast.com/)in the year 2000, along with his brother Jeff Quinn, Boge has continued on with Gunblast after Jeff’s passing in 2020. A Lifetime Endowment member of the NRA, Boge serves on the Board of Directors of The Shootists (https://shootists.org/), an organization started by John Taffin in 1985, as did his brother Jeff. Boge appreciates firearms of all types, but his soul is particularly stirred by the “older style” guns: lever-action and single-shot rifles, along with Single-Action and Double-Action revolvers and 1911-style pistols. As a former professional artist, Boge appreciates the aesthetics of a fine gun, as well as its mechanical precision and practical application. His particular affinity lies in the world of handguns, and he has hunted mostly with handguns of all types since the mid-1970s. A regionally well-known musician, Boge is also a Deacon in the same Baptist Church where his brother Jeff formerly served as Deacon, and where their Dad finished his 50-year career as Pastor.
