The Ruger Single-Six. My range report and a request for help.

M

MarineHunter

Inactive
The first pistol I ever shot was a Ruger single action .22 (a Bearcat). I was 10 years old and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen up to that point. That was 24 years ago and soon I will be teaching my own kids to shoot.

In addition to needing something for training purposes, I have taken an interest in varmint hunting and need something that will do a less pelt damage than my current artillery. I decided to try the .22 WMR. Imagine my delight when I found the Ruger Single-Six! I could shoot the hot little .22 WMR at the fur-bearing critters - then switch the cylinders and shoot .22 LR for practice and training. Woo Hoo…!

So I ordered a Single-Six from my freindly local dealer and took it home 24 hours later, giggling excitedly the whole way.

After arriving home, I gave the little beauty a good cleaning and was impressed by the (overall) fit and finish of it. But I did notice the following:

1. The trigger is too heavy. (Expected)
2. The cylinders wiggle a bit within the frame. (Normal?)
3. Cartridges do not load into all chambers smoothly. (Some are rougher than others.)

After weaseling a little shooting time into my schedule I took off for the desert and some quality trigger-time. Upon setting up a shooting bench and sandbags I began shooting away. I tried seven different loads from CCI, Federal, and Winchester (in both .22 LR and WMR). Nothing would group! Needless to say, I’m not impressed with accuracy after my first outing. Now I try to be humble and blame myself before I blame a firearm. But I was shooting from a sandbag and I can’t get much steadier than that. And yes, I know how to shoot. I’m not a beginner.

So here is my quandary; put some more money into this thing, or get rid of it. While I loath to part with any firearm ( I always end up regretting it) I really want a tack driving .22 pistol and any money I could get for the Single-Six would go along way to the purchase of a Mark II, Buck Mark, or Trailside. Yes I know I wouldn’t have a magnum, but it’s more important to hit what you are aiming at!

Should I choose to keep this pistol, I will probably need a little work done. This brings me to some questions I have for this forum.

1. How much money should I spend for a trigger job, chamber polishing, forcing cone work and barrel lapping?
2. Am I on the right track with the above mentioned modifications?
3. What gunsmith in Arizona is best qualified to do this work?
4. Can I do some of it myself? (Excluding the forcing cone work)

Please - wizened shooters lurking on this forum - advise me…

John Carver
 
Since the gun is new, I would return it to Ruger (probably would go to Prescott) and ask them to check it out and make corrections as necessary. If, and only if, they didn't do anything would I send it off to someone else because that would void the warranty. Besides you deserve to have things fixed for free.

Guns don't have the kind of trigger pulls they used too because everyone is afraid of of being sued, but that doesn't mean they can't be improved. Some of the cylinder wobble can be fixed with a fitted aftermarket basepin. Any number of pistolsmiths can do these things. I recommend you look at:

Cylinder & Slide, Inc.
245 4th. Street
Fremont, NE. 68025
http://www.cylinder-slide.com

But there are a lot of others and I sure you'll get more posts with more recomendations.

Convertable .22 revolvers come with barrels bored and rifled for the magnum cartridge, and that may effect accuracy with regular rimfire rounds. But sometimes not. You'll have too see.
 
Forgot to say, if you are going to train kids you would probably be better off with a revolver rather then an autoloader. Kids can ge excited and forget that all it takes to shoot again is another pull on the trigger. They can also forget about putting on the manual safety, and they can't tell if the pistol is cocked or not because the hammer is enclosed.
 
My single-six has never approached the accuracy of my 22/45. Out of the box the 22/45 was amazingly accurate. I had to replace the base pin in the singel-six and that helped with spitting lead and improved accuracy but it still has a heavy trigger. I seem to recall that the bore is slightly larger on a single-six so that the 22 WMR can also be used. That might affect accuracy but not to the extent you are seeing.

IMO save the money you would spend on a gunsmith and buy a 'tack' driver.
 
My single six was innaccurate on its first range visit, too. I kept shooting it with a thorough cleaning after each range session, including JB bore cleaner in the barrel.

After a few hundred rounds it had improved using the same types of ammo. I wouldn't worry about it until I had a few hundred rounds through it with frequent cleanings.

Your problem with the chambers sounds like dirt to me. Take a brass brush to them. Tight chambers are actually better than loose from an accuracy potential standpoint. If you must polish the chambers put some of that JB cleaner on a bore brush and put the brush in an electric drill.

The only work I would do is a trigger job. You can pop one leg off the stud under one of the grip panels. That will lighten pull weight (you can also bend those legs). Creep is taken out by reducing the notch on the hammer. It is simple but if you feel you may not be up to it a gunsmith can do it for you.

The lapping and forcing cone cutting I wouldn't do now or probably ever. If you clean for a while with JB bore cleaner on a patch that will have a lapping effect.
 
I'm surpised by that. My dad's 20 year old single six is VERY accurate and it has the 5" or 5.5" barrel. Of course it shoots the magnums a little bit more accurately than the .lr's which is to be expected, but it shoots them both very well.
 
I latched onto an old 3-screw and it outshoots all of my other pistols and the trigger is crisp as can be

gues I am just gloating though :p
 
I own a 5.5" Super Single-Six and it is pretty accurate with the 22lr cylinder. I have not had any luck at all using the 22 Mag cylinder which is not a bad thing since it was my intention to shoot 22lr most of the time anyway. There is slight looseness or play in the cylinder which seems to normal.

The trigger on mine was not too heavy but extremely creepy. I finally reduced the creep and lighten the trigger spring tension. The revolver is a real pleasure to shoot now! Mine was a new gun in 1999.

I hope you can get the problems resolved with your Single Six.
 
I have an old 3 screw (w/o the mod!) that shoots both LR & WMR just fine. It shoots mostly cartons full of bulk LR, and compared to my 22/45 I can't complain about the accuracy. My daughers learned on, and still shoot this gun. Single Action makes for a fine and safe platform for training kids to shoot handgun.

Mine's seen a lot of use. The blue is worn in some places, there's no finish left on the grip panels, but the gun is still a shooter. I often look at the new models with envy. I remember seeing one in a SS finish, and unfluted cyliner that I'd like to buy some day. So please let us know if Ruger made yours right!
 
I love my single-Six! I wouldn't part with it for the world. It is very accurate! When I take it to the range some people think I'm missing the center group, it takes a while for them to see I'm shooting perfectly at the outer lines (saves on targets).

I bought it 3 years ago or so at a gun show. It is an old gun and Ruger installed the safety features on this gun for free.

The only problem I have had is that when I use the 22 Magnum cylinder about 1/4 of the bullets don't fire. I think this cylinder came from another Single-Six and isn't properly aligned. Ruger has mine right now for this problem.

My trigger isn't that heavy at all. In fact it's kinda light. The cylinders are only very slightly loose. If they wobbled there might be something wrong with yours.

I have nothing but good things to say about Ruger wheel guns! I also own a Security-Six .357 Magnum. It is also very accurate.

I see you sent yours to Ruger. I'm sure they will fix you up. They have the best customer service of any gun house I know. Good luck!
 
I recently ran into a great deal with an individual on a New model single six stainless with 6.5 inch barrel. I bought the revolver primarily to hunt small game such as rabbits and squirrels. I also use it for 22lr cheap range time.

I have shot several types of ammo and have found the CCI maximag 22mag solids and the Winchester 40gr JHP to be the most accurate. I was shooting from a sandbag rest at 25yds with iron sights. My best grouping was a six shot group of 7/8 inch with the cci maximag. The best grouping from Winchester 40gr was 1 1/8 inch with six shots. The average of five(six shot groups) was 1 3/16 inch for cci and 1 1/2 inch for the Winchesters. I feel that the gun is probably more accurate than I am with the magnum loads, as groups will probably get a little better with practice. I didn't record data for the 22lr loads, but the Winchester solid points appeared to do the best for me in the 22lr loadings. I would really like to put my Leupold 2x on this revolver for checking it's true accuracy and not mine. So, have any of you got scoped 22 single six's, and if so, what type of mount are you using? I'm currently looking at the scope mount offered by Weigand.

This revolver is accurate enough with iron sights that it is definitely a keeper for me. Did I mention that I bought it for $100 cheaper than any dealers best price for me? The owner also threw in a leather cowboy single drop cartridge belt and holster, along with black pearlite grips for the package. I was very pleased with my find and also the fact that I have a pretty looking and accurate gun. :)
 
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