The Ruger Single Six was introduced in 1953, and is still currently being made. These were originally chambered in 22 Long Rifle, but they also are chambered in 22 Magnum and 17 HMR. There have been a number of differences over the years. In fact, this is the old model. It is the original, and it was produced up until 1973. The new model came out which included a transfer bar that protected the firing pin in case the gun was dropped. Traditionally, these old models should be carried with only five rounds in the cylinder and one empty right there next to the firing pin. Now with the new models, you can carry them fully loaded, because it is a great safety to have. These also come in a convertible model, which has the 22 Long Rifle cylinder and a 22 Magnum cylinder. Those are very popular because you have a lot of choices, even 22 short, or for that matter 22 long if you can find them. But there’s something about single action that just slows things down, it’s a lot of fun at the range, especially for beginning shooters, and it takes you back to the frontier of what America is all about. So, single action revolvers are very popular. But in 22, long rifle, it’s just one of those that a lot of people would love to have around.
There’s something about that satisfying, pulling the hammer back and hearing that click, then pulling that sweet trigger break and then that low report, cheap to shoot, low recoil. I mean 22 is a lot of fun. I was in one of my local gun shops and saw this old model Single Six sitting in the counter. I’ve had a couple of different new model Single Sixes, they’re great guns. But there was just something about the craftsmanship and the bluing and just that really fine three clicks that just was really appealing. I want to thank my patrons over at Patreon for making this purchase possible and bringing you guys a little bit of history.
One thing about these is they’re just slow to load, but they’re just a lot of fun. We’re just using some standard velocity ammo to take out to the range. Taking the Single Six out to the range, it’s just very easy to shoot. It’s very slow, you know, you load it slow, you pull that hammer back and you fire it, you can fire this fairly rapidly. And just by pulling the hairpin and firing it just as fast as you can do it. What I really like to do is to get my other hand over here and go ahead and actuate the hammer, it just makes it faster. Just one of the tricks of Cowboy Action Shooting. It’s just a very pleasurable gun to shoot and you just kind of take it slow because you got six rounds in this old model. And of course Rugers up the number of capacity but even then at 10 rounds you still only have 10 rounds, and then you got to reload the cylinder, and it’s just a process. But there’s something about that process that just brings you closer to the gun in my opinion.
Personally, I just love taking old single actions out because it just kind of speaks of another era and yet, these are still very popular, very portable, the sights are kind of rudimentary at best, and that’s one of the things that Ruger really did with their new models, they’ve changed those sights. Again, it’s just a lot of fun, it’s inexpensive to shoot, low recoil, low muzzle report, and there’s just something satisfying about pulling that hammer back, taking your shot and making it count. Especially for new shooters, it’s one of those things that gets them started on the foundation, and then they can build from there and go straight up to the semi automatics.
