Opinions of the Ruger SP101 .22?

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Sparks1957

New member
Hi all,

My girlfriend and I were out yesterday and stopped by one of our favorite local gun shops. We were looking at a number of .22 handguns, and the shop had one of the Ruger SP101s in .22 in stock. We both think it would be a fun revolver for plinking and range use. She is quite petite, but it fit her hands quite well and the trigger reach was right for her.

I would be interested in hearing your experience with these revolvers. I may be considering buying this for her as a gift if opinions are favorable. Thanks.
 
I bought one last year and love it. My wife is quite petite with small hands, and she loves shooting it. The sights are nice as well. I think it looks great too.

Now if we could only find ammo :)
 
I like mine alot also. I installed the #8 Wolff trigger RETURN spring, then let my wife shoot it all last summer(4,000 rounds). It now has an exceptional trigger. It stages perfectly, and breaks well in SA. I think you, and she, will love it. Great revolver. It should be. Its an SP101.

PicturedaisySmall_zps422d352c.jpg
 
Now if we could only find ammo
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I know what you mean, none to be found around here either. However, I am really glad that I had bought 5000 rounds of CCI mini-mags a couple months before the drought hit, and I have been using it sparingly since. I still have about 1500-1600 rounds left, along with a couple of bulk packs of Federal.
 
On my wish list !!!

if opinions are favorable. Thanks.
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If I could find one at a reasonable price, I would buy it. Heck, it's been a long time since I've even seen one. .... ;)

weblance
That sure is a pretty picture you posted ... ;)

Be Safe !!!!
 
My brief experience was a "here, try mine" swap on a range years ago. The SP101 I shot was one of the original 6 shot models owned by a family who dedicated it to the kids' use. Full advantage was taken of the center peg grip mount with a custom grip that allowed very small hands to shoot well in double action. I found the tiny length of pull difficult to manage with my large fat hands, but otherwise really liked the gun.

Unable to find an SP101, I bought an early S&W Model 63 which I cannot recommended.
 
I installed the #8 Wolff trigger RETURN spring, then let my wife shoot it all last summer(4,000 rounds). It now has an exceptional trigger.
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Not to argue with the quoted text, as I'm sure that definitely did wonders...

But to the OP: if you aren't capable of doing this also or having someone do it, you should go visit one of these .22cal SP-101 revolvers in a shop and ask if you may have some time to handle it and specifically ask for permission to dry fire multiple times.

It's been my experience that the double-action on the new .22cal SP-101 is, out of the box, awfully heavy and I'm a very well seasoned revolver guy who shoots double action exclusively. I personally found it unacceptable in it's stock form. I had a chance at a barely used one at a discount and I simply couldn't even consider wanting to own it. And I absolutely dig revolvers.

Having nothing to do with the trigger, but still my opinion-- I think the fiber optic sight is just horrendous. I'm sure many others would like it very much, but I did not care for it.

At around $600, this revolver just couldn't grab my interest. And I had multiple range outings with it. For the money it commands, I'd bank every penny and forward toward a lightly used, pre-owned, pre-lock Smith & Wesson Model 17 or Model 18.

I'm no Ruger hater. I've got a half dozen Ruger handguns.
 
I'll probably pick myself up a 22.lr SP102 sometime in the future. I would buy it knowing it will probably never be in the same class trigger wise as my S&W 617. Like anything though, I would shoot several hundred rounds through it before I did any trigger work. The action usually slickens up in any firearm with use.
 
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When they were 1st introduced, I bought one of the 1st Gen .22LR SP-101's, the variation with the half-barrel shroud, as a Trail and/or "coupe' de gras' " gun to carry when deer hunting (with a CF rifle).

While the SP-101 was plenty accurate, I found it to be much too heavy, both for a non-target .22 revolver and for my needs.

YMMV, of course.

IMO, it was heavy because it looked like a .38 SP, bored .22cal - which made for the extra metal/weight.

I preferred a much lighter gun, like a S&W Kit Gun (now spendy) - so I sold it & bought a much smaller/lighter .22 revolver.

Today, years later, I would most like buy a .22 Ruger LCR.

Before I sold the SP-101, however, I got a chance to practice my woodworking skills by making Claro Walnut grip inserts much likw weblance's (not commercially available back then) to replace the issue plastic inserts.

Ruger's new lasered (?) grip inserts look pretty nice, though.


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I have a 1991 , 4" Full lug , 6-shot SP101 .22lr to go with my SP101 .357 mag. Bought it not to long ago. Shoots like a champ for a 23 year old gun and I love it! Very accurate and, yes.. it is pretty beefy for a .22lr, but I don't mind the heft as I like heavier guns to begin with.



 
One and only experience with a .22 SP101 was in the 90s. It would lock up in rapid double action, and, after two (not three as I had originally posted) trips back to Ruger, the problem was NOT fixed, so I dumped the gun and haven't had one since (or any other DA Ruger handgun). YMMV.
 
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I have an SP101 3+ in 357. I think that gun in .22 would be too much gun and too expensive for a .22. I like my Browning Buckmark and semi-auto much better for that. I wouldn't care to shoot double action anyway. The semi allows me to stay dead on target without moving anything but a trigger squeeze of a couple pounds.

I had an older H&R .22 revolver and think that's about the right money for such a thing.

Remember, these are opinions.
 
I bought a recent production SP101 22lr. I do not find the double action to be heavy at all. Possibly Ruger made improvements to later releases of this model.
 
Sparks1957 (great year BTW) I have an 8 shot SP101 and love it. The size, heft and ruggedness is wonderful. The original grips didn't fit my oversized hands so I replaced them with the Hogue. They're compact but work very well.

While the double action trigger pull is very smooth it is fairly heavy. My big fingers don't have issues with it but women can find it too heavy. Most smaller women who have tried it can't cock the hammer to shoot single action. My daughter can do it but uses both thumbs interlocked.

It's a fabulous and rugged revolver that will outlast your grandkids. It's probably best to have your wife try it first though.

Regards,
Web
 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Chris and I went back to the shop yesterday, and we really took a hard look at the gun, including some dry firing in both DA and SA.

The springs are definitely stiff and the DA trigger is pretty heavy, but quite smooth. Chris had no problem with it at all; she is a strong, physically-fit woman even if she is petite.

Needless to say, it came home with us. I'll let you know more when it gets above zero degrees around here and we take it to the range; been a lousy winter for shooting with all the cold and snow here.
 
Sparks1957, congratulations on your purchase. I feel your pain when it comes to this endless winter as I am a fellow New Englander. I have managed to get to an indoor range a few time this winter but it has been brutally cold to shoot outside.
 
I have a Ruger SP101 .22LR. It is a pretty good gun. The gun screams to be shot double action, and it has helped me improve my double action shooting.

"Smooth but stiff" accurately describes the gun. The smoothness definitely makes the stiff pull more acceptable. I will say that after 200 rounds or so I start to feel fatigue in the trigger finger. But then again, that is a lot of shooting.

The gun is beautifully made and the fit and finish is superb. The FO sight is hardly a "classic" looking sight, but it sure is functional.
 
I just bought one the other day; mine is the new 8-shot .22LR model (like the bottom revolver in weblance's picture), not the older 6 shot version.

The SA trigger is very nice and breaks at about 4lbs after I put a dab of light grease on the sear. The DA trigger is another story. It is up around 16lbs based on my attempts to measure it with a luggage scale. My trigger scale won't go anywhere near that high. It's stiff enough that my wife (who admittedly has some health-related, hand-strength issues) can't pull it all the way through. The hammer is also pretty stiff to cock--she could manage it but the effort was enough that she was not interested in shooting it at all.

That's fine with me because I didn't buy it for her. I really like the little gun and this will make it very unlikely that she'll try to appropriate it. :D

I probably won't mess with the springs for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the SA pull is quite good at 4lbs so I don't see the point of spending money or time in that area.

The DA pull is, as mentioned pretty tough, but the trigger return spring, as nearly as I can measure it, is contributing 4lbs or less to the DA trigger pull. That means that even with no trigger return spring at all, the DA trigger pull would still be around 12lbs. I might consider trying a lighter hammer spring at some point in the future but I kind of like the idea of using this gun as a trigger technique trainer.

So if/until I decide that I can't manage the DA pull adequately, I'm going to leave it stock. I did take the hammer linkage apart and did some judicious smoothing/polishing. It didn't reduce the DA pull weight (as far as I could measure), but it did make it a lot smoother and that definitely helped it feel lighter.

I also replaced the factory grips with a Hogue monogrip. I found the original grips were too small for my hands. I hated to swap them out because I really like how they looked. I wish that Ruger would offer a slightly larger grip for the gun that would keep the factory look and allow the use of the factory wood inserts.

I'm going to have to shoot the gun for awhile before I can make a determination of whether or not I like the fiber-optic front sight. It seems ok so far but I haven't gotten it out in sunlight yet to see how really bright ambient light affects it. I did some experiments with using a flashlight to selectively illuminate the fiber optic to get some idea of how it's going to do in sunlight and the results were not particularly encouraging.

For whatever reason, Ruger decided NOT to use the excellent front sight system employed on the GP100 and the Super Redhawk for the SP101 front sight so none of those front sights will fit this gun. In addition, the older model SP101 sights won't fit either.

At this point I'm not seeing any other front sight options offered for the SP101 on Ruger's website (or anywhere else, for that matter). I guess I can always go low-tech and simply paint the fiber portion of the sight if it becomes an issue.

Overall, it's a nice little package. I'm sure I'll have more to say after I send a significant number of rounds downrange.
 
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