alank2
03-23-2009, 10:31 AM
Ruger Single Six 22 Long Rifle (LR) / 22 Magnum (WMR) 4 5/8"
This is a revolver I toiled over buying. They had one at my local Bass Pro for $399 plus tax so I got to hold it and it really felt great in my hands. The thing that kept me from buying it was the price. The one Bass Pro had was pretty beat up from being handled so much and including tax it would have been $433 which for a 22 pistol just seems so high to me. Bud's gun shop kept having it go in and out of stock (with the recent gun buying frenzy going on), and honestly their price wasn't much better, $416 out the door including my local FFL fee (luckily only $10). So the first big thing holding me back was the price. At $300 I would have been all over it, but $416 just seems so much higher.
I did a lot of reading about the Single Six as well which was mixed reviews. I would read about people who love them and enjoy shooting them everytime they go to the range and on the other side of the coin I read about so many people buying one and then selling it because they claimed it "patterned" instead of grouped. The reason for all the inaccuracy claims was mostly because the Single Six has a barrel that is optimized for both 22LR and 22WMR making it just a little bit bigger than something like a target 22LR pistol might be bored to. I honestly wondered if this was the case, or if they just weren't used to shooting a single action. Single action's can be challenge to shoot because they have a long lock time. I think lock time is the measurement of time between when the sear is released and the round is ignited. If you happen to be someone who pulls the gun off target when you squeeze the trigger then you would probably not shoot a single action very well. Needless to say striker fired pistols and double action revolvers have a shorter lock time and hence less time for you to have to keep the gun aimed while pulling the trigger. The other concern was loading/unloading speed. I read many a complaint about people saying it took way too long to load and unload little 22LR cartridged via the loading gate. While I think this could be both an advantage and disadvantage, it was a preorder concern.
So, would I love it? Would I hate it? Would it be inaccurate? Would it be workable? These were all the questions rolling around my mind trying to decide whether to commit to ordering one or not. I had a couple concerns, but I also had a nice list of really good things about the revolver. Here is a picture from the Ruger site:
http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/images/Products/456L.jpg
Durability. I will admit I despise low quality goods. Nothing is worse to me than something a company designed to be just good enough to survive a mediocre warranty. I could have a rant about this, it seems like so many goods these days are just throw away items and quite frankly I think man kind should excel at what it creates. It is a sad day when true craftsman die off and the world loses their skill. Anything worth making is worth making to the best of your ability with pride IMHO. With that said, one of the things I really like about the Single Six is that it has a steel cylinder, a steel cylinder frame, and a steel barrel. You see where I am going with this. Steel. It seems you can't pickup a 22 pistol or revolver these days without the entire thing being made of aluminum and plastic and designed for few thousand round life. In my case I chose the "blued" Single Six which actually does contain aluminum parts. You would think this is counterproductive to my feelings, but having an aluminum grip frame and ejector housing make the pistol so much lighter and I greatly preferred the balance of this. Single Sixes are made to last and many people over at the rugerforum have tens of thousands of rounds on theirs and they are just as tight and smooth as the day they were made. The reason they cost more is because they are made the same way Ruger's other centerfire single actions are, machined and put together, not stamped and assembled.
Very safe and reliable mechanism. Besides my own shooting fun, one of the primary reasons I bought the Single Six is because I plan to teach my wife and son (now 5 years old) how to shoot on it. I've covered the 4 safety rules with my son and he is on his way to getting them internalized. A Single Six is completely safe if uncocked. You can easily glance at it to see if it is ready to fire or in a safe condition. This is not true of many other revolvers, pistols, and even bolt action 22's designed for youth training. Other training benefits of this type of gun are: (1) Very little felt recoil (2) Since each shot has to be loaded and unloaded through the loading gate it takes a little time and hopefully they will spend more time aiming rather than just popping off one round after another (3) Cheap to shoot (4) Plain fun to shoot (5) Long lock time encourages holding steady until the bullet is gone if you want it to go where you want it go. One thing I don't care for is the internal lock which my model (NR4L) has. I don't the lock because it is an antigun concept, but to give Ruger some credit at least it is designed well enough to not engage by accident and concealed under a grip. Ruger's NM lockwork is very safe and won't let an inexperienced shooter do something stupid like try to load or unload it with the hammer cocked for example. It also features a transfer bar which is the greatest thing since sliced bread in my opinion because it makes the gun absolutely drop safe - if that trigger isn't being held back, the hammer can't strike the fiing pin. And while we are talking about the firing pin, Single Sixes are SAFE to dry fire and will not peen themselves. I really think it is bad design to have a gun peen its own chamber if ammunition is not present and it is dry fired, and so many 22's fall into this category.
Cheap to shoot. My main use for this gun is what I call my "getting acquainted" at the range use. My first 30 rounds will be 5 cylinders from this gun. It will cost less than $1 for these 30 rounds, but I will get back into the swing of shooting accurately without shooting centerfire. My local Academy sells a brick (500) of Federal 510 22LR ammunition for $13.90 plus tax. You and couple buddies could take a couple hours and shoot on that and probably still have ammunition left over. With today's ammunition prices, this is a big advantage. I handload all my centerfire so in my case there is still quite a significant savings over components costs and my time. No brass cleaning, no work, just load, shoot, eject, done.
Fun to shoot. So far, I've had it out twice and shot paper. It has been completely enjoyable just shooting paper, but my range just created a pit made for reactive targets so I'm going to pickup one of those steel targets that spins when you hit it and have some fun. If you are lucky enough to have a place to shoot where you can put out pop cans then I would think making them dance around would never get old.
Extremely flexible ammunition ability. One thing that did help me justify the extra cost a little bit was that it comes with two cylinders. 22 Long Rifle and 22 Magnum (WMR). These two cylinders allow the Single Six to shoot virtually all 22 rimfire in existance. The LR cylinder can shoot cb's, shorts, longs, and of course long rifles. The Magnum cylinder (unfluted) can shoot WMR and I have also heard WRF. Combine this flexible ammunition type support with the fact that the single action mechanism does not require any specific power level to properly operate and there really isn't any 22 rimfire you can't shoot that I can think of. You can go from a super slow Aguila Colibri at 300 fps up to a CCI 22WMR 30grain travelling over 2000 fps, to shotshells, etc.
http://home.earthlink.net/~alank2/singlesix.jpg
So I placed my order, waited awhile and finally it came in at my FFL. It comes with the XR3-RED grip which is a little bigger than the XR3 grip I have on my 50th anniversary 357 Blackhawk. I actually prefer the XR3, but the XR3-RED fits me well enough. I've got some wood grips on order and am looking forward to them arriving. The plastic checkered grips that came on the gun are fine and certainly don't bite given the low recoil level of 22 ammunition, but I just prefer wood.
I have a Waltz die which can be used to slightly crush or reform a 22 lead bullet to bump its diameter up or turn it into a hollow point (or both). I wondered if bumping some ammunition up to .225 would make it more accurate so I prepared a few rounds for testing. My first trip to the range was all I had hoped in that the Single Six was fun to shoot and I found its accuracy to be perfectly fine with everything I put through it. I did notice that the 5 magnum rounds I shot were more accurate as were the few Waltz crushed rounds I shot. Regular unmodified 22 ammunition shot very well so I have no complaints about it. Here is my target from 10 yards (in heavy wind) with unmodified Remington's 22 Golden Bullets. I do plan on doing a Waltz die review down the road where I compare accuracy on this gun and also a bolt action 22 with a few different types of ammunition.
http://home.earthlink.net/~alank2/sstarget.jpg
I had one flyer that was probably my fault, but other than that I thought this was quite a nice group for open sights at 10 yards in heavy wind. With some Waltz crushed bullets and really taking my time with accuracy, I bet I could get this group quite a bit. So that is my challenge for the next range trip! So much for the accuracy concerns, this is plenty accurate enough for me and it was with cheapo bulk 22LR.
My other big concern was loading and unloading speed. Would it be so slow that it would be annoying? I am happy to report not at all. I can unload 6 spent rounds in a few seconds and stuff 6 new rounds in with no problem. I think the people complaining might have bigger stubbier fingers than me. I didn't have any issue stuffing the little cartridges in. An advantage of having to unload and load each round this way is that you don't just blow through tons of ammunition quickly and with costs being what they are these days, this is certainly a benefit.
In summary, I am thrilled with this gun. I feel it is a fair value for the price. I would have liked to acquird it in the $300-$350 range, but I've got no complaints. They make it with a 4 5/8" barrel, 5 1/2" barrel, and 6 1/2" barrel. It can be had in both blued and stainless versions. The stainless versions sure do look pretty and they are ALL steel including the gripframe and ejector housing. My 4 5/8" blued model is 32 oz. For a comparison the 5 1/2" blued is 33 oz vs the 5 1/2" stainless at 39 oz, so going stainless added 6 oz. The stainless ones do still at this time come with wood grips which is a nice feature. If (like me) you have to have the short barrel 4 5/8" and you decide stainless is for you, it is not a stock item. I think Lipsey's has 4 5/8" stainless ones as a distributor exclusive.
On the topic of single action, I honestly didn't know if I was a single action type of guy or not. I've got one other single action (50th Anniversary 357 Magnum 4 5/8) that I just love the look of, but I haven't spent the time shooting it as I would like (yet). I find that shooting the Single Six is so easy though, my first instinct after pulling the trigger is to cock it for the next shot so I am ready to go.
Overall I have to recommend this gun highly. It shoots well, shoots pretty much any 22 rimfire ammo, has a great balance and looks, and I can't imagine someone not liking to have one in their collection unless they are an uber tactical mall ninja of some type. I will say that if you are willing to wait and look for a deal, you can get some good deals on older ones with patience. They are quite durable so it isn't likely you are going to find a used one that doesn't function perfectly.
Thanks for reading!
Alan
This is a revolver I toiled over buying. They had one at my local Bass Pro for $399 plus tax so I got to hold it and it really felt great in my hands. The thing that kept me from buying it was the price. The one Bass Pro had was pretty beat up from being handled so much and including tax it would have been $433 which for a 22 pistol just seems so high to me. Bud's gun shop kept having it go in and out of stock (with the recent gun buying frenzy going on), and honestly their price wasn't much better, $416 out the door including my local FFL fee (luckily only $10). So the first big thing holding me back was the price. At $300 I would have been all over it, but $416 just seems so much higher.
I did a lot of reading about the Single Six as well which was mixed reviews. I would read about people who love them and enjoy shooting them everytime they go to the range and on the other side of the coin I read about so many people buying one and then selling it because they claimed it "patterned" instead of grouped. The reason for all the inaccuracy claims was mostly because the Single Six has a barrel that is optimized for both 22LR and 22WMR making it just a little bit bigger than something like a target 22LR pistol might be bored to. I honestly wondered if this was the case, or if they just weren't used to shooting a single action. Single action's can be challenge to shoot because they have a long lock time. I think lock time is the measurement of time between when the sear is released and the round is ignited. If you happen to be someone who pulls the gun off target when you squeeze the trigger then you would probably not shoot a single action very well. Needless to say striker fired pistols and double action revolvers have a shorter lock time and hence less time for you to have to keep the gun aimed while pulling the trigger. The other concern was loading/unloading speed. I read many a complaint about people saying it took way too long to load and unload little 22LR cartridged via the loading gate. While I think this could be both an advantage and disadvantage, it was a preorder concern.
So, would I love it? Would I hate it? Would it be inaccurate? Would it be workable? These were all the questions rolling around my mind trying to decide whether to commit to ordering one or not. I had a couple concerns, but I also had a nice list of really good things about the revolver. Here is a picture from the Ruger site:
http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/images/Products/456L.jpg
Durability. I will admit I despise low quality goods. Nothing is worse to me than something a company designed to be just good enough to survive a mediocre warranty. I could have a rant about this, it seems like so many goods these days are just throw away items and quite frankly I think man kind should excel at what it creates. It is a sad day when true craftsman die off and the world loses their skill. Anything worth making is worth making to the best of your ability with pride IMHO. With that said, one of the things I really like about the Single Six is that it has a steel cylinder, a steel cylinder frame, and a steel barrel. You see where I am going with this. Steel. It seems you can't pickup a 22 pistol or revolver these days without the entire thing being made of aluminum and plastic and designed for few thousand round life. In my case I chose the "blued" Single Six which actually does contain aluminum parts. You would think this is counterproductive to my feelings, but having an aluminum grip frame and ejector housing make the pistol so much lighter and I greatly preferred the balance of this. Single Sixes are made to last and many people over at the rugerforum have tens of thousands of rounds on theirs and they are just as tight and smooth as the day they were made. The reason they cost more is because they are made the same way Ruger's other centerfire single actions are, machined and put together, not stamped and assembled.
Very safe and reliable mechanism. Besides my own shooting fun, one of the primary reasons I bought the Single Six is because I plan to teach my wife and son (now 5 years old) how to shoot on it. I've covered the 4 safety rules with my son and he is on his way to getting them internalized. A Single Six is completely safe if uncocked. You can easily glance at it to see if it is ready to fire or in a safe condition. This is not true of many other revolvers, pistols, and even bolt action 22's designed for youth training. Other training benefits of this type of gun are: (1) Very little felt recoil (2) Since each shot has to be loaded and unloaded through the loading gate it takes a little time and hopefully they will spend more time aiming rather than just popping off one round after another (3) Cheap to shoot (4) Plain fun to shoot (5) Long lock time encourages holding steady until the bullet is gone if you want it to go where you want it go. One thing I don't care for is the internal lock which my model (NR4L) has. I don't the lock because it is an antigun concept, but to give Ruger some credit at least it is designed well enough to not engage by accident and concealed under a grip. Ruger's NM lockwork is very safe and won't let an inexperienced shooter do something stupid like try to load or unload it with the hammer cocked for example. It also features a transfer bar which is the greatest thing since sliced bread in my opinion because it makes the gun absolutely drop safe - if that trigger isn't being held back, the hammer can't strike the fiing pin. And while we are talking about the firing pin, Single Sixes are SAFE to dry fire and will not peen themselves. I really think it is bad design to have a gun peen its own chamber if ammunition is not present and it is dry fired, and so many 22's fall into this category.
Cheap to shoot. My main use for this gun is what I call my "getting acquainted" at the range use. My first 30 rounds will be 5 cylinders from this gun. It will cost less than $1 for these 30 rounds, but I will get back into the swing of shooting accurately without shooting centerfire. My local Academy sells a brick (500) of Federal 510 22LR ammunition for $13.90 plus tax. You and couple buddies could take a couple hours and shoot on that and probably still have ammunition left over. With today's ammunition prices, this is a big advantage. I handload all my centerfire so in my case there is still quite a significant savings over components costs and my time. No brass cleaning, no work, just load, shoot, eject, done.
Fun to shoot. So far, I've had it out twice and shot paper. It has been completely enjoyable just shooting paper, but my range just created a pit made for reactive targets so I'm going to pickup one of those steel targets that spins when you hit it and have some fun. If you are lucky enough to have a place to shoot where you can put out pop cans then I would think making them dance around would never get old.
Extremely flexible ammunition ability. One thing that did help me justify the extra cost a little bit was that it comes with two cylinders. 22 Long Rifle and 22 Magnum (WMR). These two cylinders allow the Single Six to shoot virtually all 22 rimfire in existance. The LR cylinder can shoot cb's, shorts, longs, and of course long rifles. The Magnum cylinder (unfluted) can shoot WMR and I have also heard WRF. Combine this flexible ammunition type support with the fact that the single action mechanism does not require any specific power level to properly operate and there really isn't any 22 rimfire you can't shoot that I can think of. You can go from a super slow Aguila Colibri at 300 fps up to a CCI 22WMR 30grain travelling over 2000 fps, to shotshells, etc.
http://home.earthlink.net/~alank2/singlesix.jpg
So I placed my order, waited awhile and finally it came in at my FFL. It comes with the XR3-RED grip which is a little bigger than the XR3 grip I have on my 50th anniversary 357 Blackhawk. I actually prefer the XR3, but the XR3-RED fits me well enough. I've got some wood grips on order and am looking forward to them arriving. The plastic checkered grips that came on the gun are fine and certainly don't bite given the low recoil level of 22 ammunition, but I just prefer wood.
I have a Waltz die which can be used to slightly crush or reform a 22 lead bullet to bump its diameter up or turn it into a hollow point (or both). I wondered if bumping some ammunition up to .225 would make it more accurate so I prepared a few rounds for testing. My first trip to the range was all I had hoped in that the Single Six was fun to shoot and I found its accuracy to be perfectly fine with everything I put through it. I did notice that the 5 magnum rounds I shot were more accurate as were the few Waltz crushed rounds I shot. Regular unmodified 22 ammunition shot very well so I have no complaints about it. Here is my target from 10 yards (in heavy wind) with unmodified Remington's 22 Golden Bullets. I do plan on doing a Waltz die review down the road where I compare accuracy on this gun and also a bolt action 22 with a few different types of ammunition.
http://home.earthlink.net/~alank2/sstarget.jpg
I had one flyer that was probably my fault, but other than that I thought this was quite a nice group for open sights at 10 yards in heavy wind. With some Waltz crushed bullets and really taking my time with accuracy, I bet I could get this group quite a bit. So that is my challenge for the next range trip! So much for the accuracy concerns, this is plenty accurate enough for me and it was with cheapo bulk 22LR.
My other big concern was loading and unloading speed. Would it be so slow that it would be annoying? I am happy to report not at all. I can unload 6 spent rounds in a few seconds and stuff 6 new rounds in with no problem. I think the people complaining might have bigger stubbier fingers than me. I didn't have any issue stuffing the little cartridges in. An advantage of having to unload and load each round this way is that you don't just blow through tons of ammunition quickly and with costs being what they are these days, this is certainly a benefit.
In summary, I am thrilled with this gun. I feel it is a fair value for the price. I would have liked to acquird it in the $300-$350 range, but I've got no complaints. They make it with a 4 5/8" barrel, 5 1/2" barrel, and 6 1/2" barrel. It can be had in both blued and stainless versions. The stainless versions sure do look pretty and they are ALL steel including the gripframe and ejector housing. My 4 5/8" blued model is 32 oz. For a comparison the 5 1/2" blued is 33 oz vs the 5 1/2" stainless at 39 oz, so going stainless added 6 oz. The stainless ones do still at this time come with wood grips which is a nice feature. If (like me) you have to have the short barrel 4 5/8" and you decide stainless is for you, it is not a stock item. I think Lipsey's has 4 5/8" stainless ones as a distributor exclusive.
On the topic of single action, I honestly didn't know if I was a single action type of guy or not. I've got one other single action (50th Anniversary 357 Magnum 4 5/8) that I just love the look of, but I haven't spent the time shooting it as I would like (yet). I find that shooting the Single Six is so easy though, my first instinct after pulling the trigger is to cock it for the next shot so I am ready to go.
Overall I have to recommend this gun highly. It shoots well, shoots pretty much any 22 rimfire ammo, has a great balance and looks, and I can't imagine someone not liking to have one in their collection unless they are an uber tactical mall ninja of some type. I will say that if you are willing to wait and look for a deal, you can get some good deals on older ones with patience. They are quite durable so it isn't likely you are going to find a used one that doesn't function perfectly.
Thanks for reading!
Alan