The Ruger 'Standard' .22 Pistol: A Reunion

Sarge

New member
My ex-brother in law passed away last year. He was a good guy and we stayed on speaking terms after the split. A lifelong bachelor, Larry always had a few extra bucks and he accumulated a number of decent guns over the years. Back in the early 70's I was consumed with the gun-trading addiction and I sold him a few when I needed 'fix money' for whatever caught my eye.

This guy was a hunting & fishing fool and a favorite uncle of my two sons. When he passed, he left them each several guns and among them was this early 70's Ruger 'Standard' .22 Pistol with a 6" barrel-

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My younger son received this pistol and like a lot of folks (me included) he detests the rakish grip angle. Of course Ruger eventually corrected this with the 22/45 Series and there are aftermarket grips available for older guns like this one. Anyhow he was looking to move it so I gave the old pistol a home... funny thing is that I sold my BIL a 6" Ruger 'Standard' .22 about 1975, and he hardly ever sold a good .22 pistol once he'd acquired it. I'm 99% certain this is that very gun.

I took it out this morning and ran about 75 rounds of Federal, 38 grain bulk HP's through it. It fed flawlessly and shooting from the hood of my pickup at 55 yards, the gun proved capable of keeping its shots in 1 1/2 inches at that distance- when I could hold up my end. It did group abut 2" left, but this is easily corrected. Elevation zero, with the Federal load, was perfect.

The Ruger Standard .22 Pistol was the first manifestation of the design genius of William Ruger. It is cheap & easy to produce, reliable and capable of ridiculous accuracy. This particular Ruger will get some conservative trigger tuning & new grips, to straighten the grip angle. Our .22 rifles generally gather dust when there's a good Ruger .22 pistol around the place.
 
My younger son received this pistol and like a lot of folks (me included) he detests the rakish grip angle. Of course Ruger eventually corrected this with the 22/45 Series

Hmm...not a "correction" in my estimation but a step backwards with Ruger's attempt to mollify the lament 1911 users had when they sought to replicate the grip angle of ole slabsides. Grip angles, like so many other considerations regarding the handling qualities of firearms, are a subjective in the extreme part of the equation. A lot of folks (me included), much prefer the "rakish" grip angle of the original article. Like so many other things in life, there's just no accounting for taste. :cool:

Sounds like you had a fine (if ex) brother-in-law and I'm sorry for your loss.
 
Different strokes, Dgludwig. I've got a friend who swapped a real accurate 22/25 for a MKII Target, simply because he hated the former's grip. wish I had known... I'd have swapped lowers with him ;)

...and thank you, Sir, for the condolences.
 
Opportunities to shoot are rare during the firearms deer season, but today held one so I used it to mount/zero an old 4X Bushnell on the Ranch Rifle. That chore was accomplished easily so I also did a little shooting with the old Ruger Standard Automatic. Over the past couple of weeks I scrubbed & oiled the internal mechanism and filed & drifted the fixed sights for a 50 yard zero with Federal bulk-pack HP’s.

The Standard’s slick grip straps, and its Luger-esque grip angle, have long conspired to require extra effort in order for me to shoot it well. I raided Ebay for an old set of Pachmayr Signatures, made specifically for the A100 frame.

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I only had a couple of magazines along, but getting some traction on the naked areas of the grip definitely helped. I fired the last five rounds at a 2” target dot at 25 yards, one-hand unsupported. It turned out to be the best group of the day. Now if I could just do this all the time…

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But of course I cannot.

Still, the Standard is proving accurate enough to be interesting. I’m convinced that it’s worthy of a Clark trigger and Volquartsen hammer and/or sear. I’ve always had an affinity for informal bullseye shooting and this pistol is only feeding that fire.
 
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