If I was to build another mag-fed revolver, this would be my starting point...

Jim March

New member
http://www.ruger.com/products/newModelSingleSixSingleNine/models.html

...in the stock caliber, 22Magnum. This is the 9-round-capacity single-caliber variant Single Six.

The .22Mag out of a 6.5" barrel is absolutely a reasonable personal defense round, esp. with the new Speer Gold Dot ammo or the CCI TNT +V. They're going to be a match in effectiveness for the 38Spl out of a snub-nose and those have given plenty of people a very bad day. Accurate little booger, too.

First interesting bit: the cylinder is already "rim recessed" - machined just like Maurice is, with the rear of the rims flat with the rear face of the cylinder metal. When you're pushing the mag fed rounds into the rear face of the cylinder prior to "injection" this matters - a lot. The cocking stroke feel will still be "a bit crunchy and weird" but workable. (Do this stunt with a DA revolver and the DA trigger stroke will feel ghastly!)

Second: because the shells are quite narrow and the number of injection positions available are quite high, I think you could do a double-tube magazine, inject shells into the rear from TWO tubes instead of four! Each mag could be two tubes grafted together (string covered by epoxy would be fine) sharing a single lock-latch. They would plug into a hole in the frame and then a supporting mag well that had holes shaped like an "8", basically. It would feed from the bottom tube first and when that emptied, feed from the top tube.

So the short "carry mag" would hold four rounds on top of eight in the cylinder, 12 rounds out of the holster. Shells are a bit longer than 9mm so in foot-long reload mags you'd have 7-round length (14 total) or maybe 8 (16) per reload.

That's the gun I want to build next, if I had the money.
 
Back
Top