Single-Six Hunter Accuracy problems (long)

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wisecane

Bearcat
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
14
Location
Florida
Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and SA revolvers in general. I did my research and wanted a dependable revolver in 22 Mag to carry when I'm just out messing around in the woods. I decided a Single-Six Hunter was for me and found a good deal on one "new to me" that came with both cylinders, two sets of Ruger rings and a 2x8 Konus pistol scope and a Millet red-dot sight. During my research, everyone commented on the outstanding accuracy of the Hunter line.

I received the Hunter and love the feel and finish of it. I cleaned it thoroughly and set out to my range to do some shooting. I had two different mag loads and box of bulk 22 lr ammo. I also had a boresnake with me to pass through the cylinders and bore if it fouled up too quickly (I have had experience with a S&W Model 48 that gets "sticky" after the 4th or 5th cylinder worth of shooting). Anyway I set up a target at 25 yards and started shooting.

What I got was more of a pattern than a group. Didn't matter what ammo or cylinder, the best I could do was 6" to 8" "groups". Granted I was shooting out of my truck window with the sill as a brace, so I thought well maybe I'm just not that good with this pistol. I am a good shot with a rifle and with my Glock 17 but I don't claim to be a world champion or anything.

I decided to try and remove myself as a variable as much as possible so I shot approximately 20 to 30 groups over the next 3-4 days to familiarize myself with the feel of the pistol. I boresnaked it after every 3-4 groups or between ammo brand/cylinder changes. Things didn't get any better accuracy wise.

I then set up a shooting bench with sandbag rests at 25 yards and took three different brands of 22 mag ammo and two more brands of 22lr with me. I spent 3 hours or so carefully shooting multiple groups with each. I had mounted the red dot to the gun so that I could be sure that it wasn't my eyes betraying me. All shooting was done from sitting at the bench off of sandbags. This is what I found:

For every six shots with the mag ammo regardless of brand I would have a group approximately 4-6" with shots low and left, high and right, and some in the inner ring. There would be 2 low and left, 2 high and right, and a couple in the "middle".

One of the 22lr brands produced a group that was about 3" outside to outside but strung along horizontally. The other was 4-6" patterns like the mag ammo.

From reading the Hunter threads on this forum it seems to me that I have a lemon. I don't know what recourse I have with Ruger since I didn't buy the gun new. What suggestions would you guys give me? I love the pistol, but if it doesn't get any better than this, I may have to look at something else.

Thanks for reading my long-winded post, all advice criticisms are welcome.



Sincerely,

wisecane
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
9,675
Location
Dallas, TX
I thought I responded to this. Perhaps the new website format did something ... Anyhow I was curious if the front sight was canted. Although with a red dot this might not be an issue.

Also, did you perhaps mark the chambers in each cylinder to see if maybe certain chambers are causing problems. Perhaps by being too big in diameter?

I also agree with some of the other answers from before that thought the forcing cone was causing problems.
 

Fishman777

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
23
wisecane said:
Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and SA revolvers in general. I did my research and wanted a dependable revolver in 22 Mag to carry when I'm just out messing around in the woods. I decided a Single-Six Hunter was for me and found a good deal on one "new to me" that came with both cylinders, two sets of Ruger rings and a 2x8 Konus pistol scope and a Millet red-dot sight. During my research, everyone commented on the outstanding accuracy of the Hunter line.

I received the Hunter and love the feel and finish of it. I cleaned it thoroughly and set out to my range to do some shooting. I had two different mag loads and box of bulk 22 lr ammo. I also had a boresnake with me to pass through the cylinders and bore if it fouled up too quickly (I have had experience with a S&W Model 48 that gets "sticky" after the 4th or 5th cylinder worth of shooting). Anyway I set up a target at 25 yards and started shooting.

What I got was more of a pattern than a group. Didn't matter what ammo or cylinder, the best I could do was 6" to 8" "groups". Granted I was shooting out of my truck window with the sill as a brace, so I thought well maybe I'm just not that good with this pistol. I am a good shot with a rifle and with my Glock 17 but I don't claim to be a world champion or anything.

I decided to try and remove myself as a variable as much as possible so I shot approximately 20 to 30 groups over the next 3-4 days to familiarize myself with the feel of the pistol. I boresnaked it after every 3-4 groups or between ammo brand/cylinder changes. Things didn't get any better accuracy wise.

I then set up a shooting bench with sandbag rests at 25 yards and took three different brands of 22 mag ammo and two more brands of 22lr with me. I spent 3 hours or so carefully shooting multiple groups with each. I had mounted the red dot to the gun so that I could be sure that it wasn't my eyes betraying me. All shooting was done from sitting at the bench off of sandbags. This is what I found:

For every six shots with the mag ammo regardless of brand I would have a group approximately 4-6" with shots low and left, high and right, and some in the inner ring. There would be 2 low and left, 2 high and right, and a couple in the "middle".

One of the 22lr brands produced a group that was about 3" outside to outside but strung along horizontally. The other was 4-6" patterns like the mag ammo.

From reading the Hunter threads on this forum it seems to me that I have a lemon. I don't know what recourse I have with Ruger since I didn't buy the gun new. What suggestions would you guys give me? I love the pistol, but if it doesn't get any better than this, I may have to look at something else.

Thanks for reading my long-winded post, all advice criticisms are welcome.



Sincerely,

wisecane

This sounds familiar. I can shoot lights out with my other guns, but could not shoot my old Single Six Hunter. The gun was cosmetically perfect, but I sold it because the accuracy was unacceptable.

These guns are convertibles. The barrel diameter is made for .22 mag, not .22 lr. .22 lr bullets have a smaller diameter than .22 mag. When the bullet is shot through the barrel, the bullet will deform to fit the wider diameter. This will cause the bullet to be less stable in flight. A barrel made for .22 lr will always shoot .22 lr rounds more accurate than one that is made for .22 mag. My gun shot .22 mag okay, but I didn't buy it to shoot mostly .22 mag.

Some folks have reported good accuracy with these guns using .22 lr. I bought the gun after reading several stellar reviews. I later read an article in Guns and Ammo a few years ago that explains why convertible revolvers generally lack accuracy.

I sold my SSH and don't regret that decision. I could have sent it back to Ruger, but I decided not to do this after Ruger customer service told me that I'd have to pay the shipping. You can also buy accurizers, Paco Kelly makes some. These tools resize .22 lr to fit .22 mag dimensions. This might solve your problems, but they cost about $100. Again, I decided to sell my gun even though I knew about these tools. The gun was a little too big and I didn't like the idea of having to resize ammo and spending another $100 or so to get the gun to shoot well. I decided to cut my losses.

I still haven't replaced my rimfire. With all of the backorders and quality complaints that I've recently heard from Ruger customers, I've decided to wait on replacing my rimfire. I'm hoping some other company comes out with something interesting. Rugers are too hard to find and when you do find them, they are generally in bad shape cosmetically. In many cases, it sounds like the QC issues go beyond cosmetic.

I think that Ruger's designs are among the best out there, but their execution is piss poor. Their QC is horrible and I've lost a lot of faith in the quality of these guns. When you find a good Ruger, you've got a gem. In my opinion, those Ruger gems are getting harder and harder to find.
 

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