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  • John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,731
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I managed to be at Tyler's a couple of weeks ago when he received a few Ruger Wrangler revolvers. They were $239 and I decided to get one 'cause I had some money in my pocket. :D

    First thing I did was took it apart and started to tune it. Overall, it is not bad but it is a cheap gun. The grip frame casting has little salt and pepper imperfections and a cast seam line. The barrel looked good and the cylinder was nicely done. The insides are the same as a single six but they added a sliver of spring metal in front of the hand so the hand didn't chew up the aluminum frame. It also has the spanner screw for the firing pin that makes it easy to replace.

    Out of the box the trigger pull was five pounds with about an 1/8 inch of creep and some over travel. I made it into a 4 pound trigger with just a hair of creep. I may be able to put a over travel stop screw in it but I'll save that for later.

    The cylinder was bored too tight. I had to force .22 rounds into the chambers. I fixed this with a .22 dent iron used to iron out chamber dents from dry firing. That fixed that problem.
    The next issue is with the barrel which really surprised me. The rifling at the breech end is about a 1/4 inch away from the end of the barrel. If you consider how much of a free bore jump it has from the cylinder, it shouldn't shoot well.

    That perplexes me a bit as I was able to shoot 2 inch groups from the bench at 20 yards. They were also pretty close to POA but I had to do some filing to bring them up. I'm amazed considering the all the free bore. I have attached to two best pics I could take. It's just too small a place to shoot pictures. When I cleaned it, I found lead in the forcing cone and quite a bit on the top strap. I will see if this is a problem I can live with as I don't want to go shipping back to Ruger and then it getting lost in the mails.

    Over all, I would recommend it as an inexpensive .22 revolver. I like it better than the Heritage as I can't stand that stupid safety on those. For those who want wood grips, the standard Ruger grips for XR3RED frames work just fine. If it doesn't snow tomorrow, I plan to shoot it some more. ;)
     

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    DutchV

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 8, 2012
    4,703
    The Wrangler is not as nice as a Single Six, but it's tons nicer than a Heritage for about the same price.
     

    joppaj

    Sheepdog
    Staff member
    Moderator
    Apr 11, 2008
    46,451
    MD
    Very cool write up. I'll be interested to its reliability long term.
     

    ToBeFree

    Ultimate Member
    Oct 5, 2011
    2,614
    Highland Cnty-Va
    I wonder about the rifling, Is it a design or imperfection?
    Anybody else have one or looked at one noticed that?

    As far as a two inch group - couldn't ask for much better - at least in my age group!
    And hey - it's a cheap/inexpensive gun made to have fun with. If you can afford ammo nowadays.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,731
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I wonder about the rifling, Is it a design or imperfection?
    Anybody else have one or looked at one noticed that?

    As far as a two inch group - couldn't ask for much better - at least in my age group!
    And hey - it's a cheap/inexpensive gun made to have fun with. If you can afford ammo nowadays.

    Considering I have cataracts, am old and the gun has a 4 inch barrel with primitive sights, I think it is pretty good too. The ammo too surprised me as it was Remington Thunderbolt that I got from Medusa Munitions a couple of weeks ago. My experience with Thunderbolt is that it is pretty inconsistent stuff. However, this batch did pretty good.

    As for the lack of rifling in the barrel, I have never seen a .22 forcing cone like that before. I would be interested in knowing if others are made the same way.
     

    Magnumite

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 17, 2007
    6,561
    Harford County, Maryland
    Considering I have cataracts, am old and the gun has a 4 inch barrel with primitive sights, I think it is pretty good too. The ammo too surprised me as it was Remington Thunderbolt that I got from Medusa Munitions a couple of weeks ago. My experience with Thunderbolt is that it is pretty inconsistent stuff. However, this batch did pretty good.

    As for the lack of rifling in the barrel, I have never seen a .22 forcing cone like that before. I would be interested in knowing if others are made the same way.

    I used to despise Thunderbolt ammo when it was 'improved' way back in the 80's or 90's...somewhere in that era. During the Obama/O'Malley nonsense of 2012-14 I just needed something for close in practice with my 22 conversion. I had an opportunity to by a couple boxes of that at regular retail prices. It shot like a house afire! Accurate, consistent, good recoil impulse for semiauto operation.

    The boxes I bought subsequent to that were great, too, for a few years. Then I bought a box that exhibited old habits. Tried it again and it ran well, too. My experience with it is far better than the Win M-22 in the black box and the Super-X. Misfire and short cycle city with that Win stuff. Bummer because I liked the SuperX before that great ammo drought of those years. Its been substandard ever since.

    Even in bolt action rifles the Win M-22 had the greatest incidence of malfunction.
     

    mlj427

    Active Member
    Sep 28, 2020
    148
    I used to despise Thunderbolt ammo when it was 'improved' way back in the 80's or 90's...somewhere in that era. During the Obama/O'Malley nonsense of 2012-14 I just needed something for close in practice with my 22 conversion. I had an opportunity to by a couple boxes of that at regular retail prices. It shot like a house afire! Accurate, consistent, good recoil impulse for semiauto operation.

    The boxes I bought subsequent to that were great, too, for a few years. Then I bought a box that exhibited old habits. Tried it again and it ran well, too. My experience with it is far better than the Win M-22 in the black box and the Super-X. Misfire and short cycle city with that Win stuff. Bummer because I liked the SuperX before that great ammo drought of those years. Its been substandard ever

    Even in bolt action rifles the Win M-22 had the greatest incidence of malfunction.

    On a Facebook group today they were talking about Super-X blowing the rim off. Here is one picture but 2 people said it happened to them. Don’t know what would cause that. Part of the case is still in there.
     

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    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,731
    Socialist State of Maryland
    Well, just for kicks, I decided since the forcing cone is what it is, I decided to do some fire lapping since it looked a little rough. I used the Thunderbolts again ( and I'm surprised by no duds, no short strokes and pretty decent accuracy) and put about 25 rounds of 280 grit through it. I don't know if I drank something other than coffee this morning but the groups started to tighten up. Whodathunk? :crazy:
     

    Magnumite

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 17, 2007
    6,561
    Harford County, Maryland
    Well, just for kicks, I decided since the forcing cone is what it is, I decided to do some fire lapping since it looked a little rough. I used the Thunderbolts again ( and I'm surprised by no duds, no short strokes and pretty decent accuracy) and put about 25 rounds of 280 grit through it. I don't know if I drank something other than coffee this morning but the groups started to tighten up. Whodathunk? :crazy:

    More coffee!!!!
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,731
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I did some final work on the forcing cone with 600 grit and a lap made with Cerrosafe. I went out in the rain and shot 6 cylinders and found much less lead buildup on the top strap and the group was down to about an inch and a quarter. All in all, it is worth the money and, even without tuning it, it still gave two inch groups out of the box.

    Now if .22 ammunition would become available again, I will be much happier. :D
     

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