More Single Six Comments/Questions/Accuracy

[BearStopper]

Just posted recently about a SS that I just picked up the other day. Wanted to shoot it a little today to determine if I would be interested in keeping it as opposed to passing it along to someone in need of a nice inexpensive revolver. Bottom line is it shoots as good as my OM SS which surprised me since that one will do an 1"ish at 25 yards rested when I am really able to see my sights well against the target. I have read all the stuff about these being bored 1-2 thousandths over normal 22 LR specs to accommodate 22 Magnum and I figured my OM was just an exception. I have heard comments many times that a 22 LR will rattle down the tube of the oversize barrel on these. So a question for the experts. If the barrel is so far oversized then how come if you take a loaded 22 LR cartridge and try to push the bullet into the barrel, it would require considerable force to do so? The bullets seem pretty well sized to bore to me. What am I missing? The triggers on the NM Rugers are no match for the OM and that is why I usually prefer the OM of course. So who does a good NM trigger job and how will it compare to a good OM trigger? A couple more observations. There is much online banter and debate on handgun accuracy so, after lots of lead downrange with many handguns it has occurred to me that the biggest variable by far in accuracy is how well you can line up and clearly see your sights. This is affected by how good the sights are designed as well as lighting conditions and target color. I know this is old news to a lot of you. I get virtually the same accuracy out of pretty much all my handguns on any given day with only 1 exception so my thoughts are that most handguns will shoot pretty darn well with any ammo with open sights if you do your job. The differences in accuracy from one load to another pale in comparison to how well I am able to see and focus on a given day.

 

[Hondo44]

So a question for the experts. If the barrel is so far oversized then how come if you take a loaded 22 LR cartridge and try to push the bullet into the barrel, it would require considerable force to do so? The bullets seem pretty well sized to bore to me. What am I missing?

The triggers on the NM Rugers are no match for the OM and that is why I usually prefer the OM of course. So who does a good NM trigger job and how will it compare to a good OM trigger?

A couple more observations. There is much online banter and debate on handgun accuracy so, after lots of lead downrange with many handguns it has occurred to me that the biggest variable by far in accuracy is how well you can line up and clearly see your sights. This is affected by how good the sights are designed as well as lighting conditions and target color. I know this is old news to a lot of you. I get virtually the same accuracy out of pretty much all my handguns on any given day with only 1 exception so my thoughts are that most handguns will shoot pretty darn well with any ammo with open sights if you do your job. The differences in accuracy from one load to another pale in comparison to how well I am able to see and focus on a given day.

You're not missing a thing. The .001" oversize bore has never been proven to affect the 22 LR accuracy; it's a theoretical "old wives' tale"! Forget you ever heard it.

The NMs are a little over heavily sprung. 1st thing I do is remove the grips and unhook one leg of the trigger return spring, sometimes both. If the gun hasn't been shot much, put a couple of hundred rounds thru it to break it in. See how you like the action then. I also cut 3 or 4 coils off the mainspring.
You've just done a shade tree action job and saved a bunch of money and time. And improved 'your' accuracy with the gun.

All modern premium brand handguns like RUGER's, will shoot far superior than 95% of the shooters out there. So you are exactly right, the shooter makes far more difference than anything about the gun.

 

[Cholo]

I've also not had accuracy problems out of my OM and NM .22 Single Six's shooting .22 LR's. I get about the same with the .22 mag. cylinders in place. I can do about 1.6" @ 25 yds., others could surely do better than I can with the same guns. On my NM's that I've changed the trigger and mainspring with the old Bullseye spring kits, my triggers match my OM's. I guess I'm just lucky

 

[WAYNO]

Ya know, I've had some pretty serious accuracy issues with my KNR4, shooting LR. Using the Paco Accuriz'r tool, I noticed a big improvement.

But, using this tool takes time, and more and more, I'm shooting the ammo as it comes out of the box. And ya know what? All by itself the accuracy has improved drastically. Don't know if with enough thousands of rounds down the tube, and a good share of cleanings, if the bore maybe has smoothed up some.

No matter what caused this accuracy improvement, I am very pleased. :mrgreen:

WAYNO.

 

[BearStopper]

Yep, my Dad is now a happy camper as he came over and I offered it to him. He doesn't have but a couple of pretty well used 22 revolvers one an H&R and the other an Iver Johnson both break action guns. The H&R Sportsman has some major mechanical issues and the Iver Johnson Supershot needs bionic eyes to see the sights. When I told him that Ruger Single Sixes are by far the strongest guns you can get at good prices he had to have it. This one looks new although it was dated to 1985 and I stole it at $225. I told him same price if he wanted it but he would'nt take change for the $250 he gave me. He's got money so no biggie but realistically I would have given it to him free. So I was ready to keep it but am happier to see him enjoy it since I am heavy laden in Rugerville already.

 

[Hondo44]

That's a great ending to this story! Now you have $250 to buy him a Father's Day present of ammo, or whatever.

But do advise him on how to make it much more user friendly w/o spending any money.

 

[BearStopper]

That's a great ending to this story! Now you have $250 to buy him a Father's Day present of ammo, or whatever.

But do advise him on how to make it much more user friendly w/o spending any money.

Will definitely pass it along. By the way he mentioned wanting a magnum cylinder so I referred him to the Borchardt website where he is gonna purchase one of the eight shot mag cylinders. He may commit a little sacriledge in my book with a set of Williams Firesights too but I am a little old school for a young boy of 42. I am gonna have my mag cylinder properly fit to my OM even though it fits his gun pretty well.

 

[Walter Rego]

Some Ruger Single Six convertibles shoot better than others. I believe the problems related to accuracy are because Ruger was/is too cheap to properly chamber the cylinders with throats at the business end. The chambers are bored straight through. You can take a loaded round and insert it fully into the front end of the cylinder ! Ruger must have just used the proper size drills to make the chambers and didn't stop until the bit came out the other end. For comparison, the .22 LR cylinders in my Colt New Frontier .22 and Peacemaker .22 convertibles have properly reamed chambers with throats that measure from .223"-225", but my Rugers run .226"-.227". The Colts are more accurate.
However, as another has mentioned, the use of the somewhat labor intensive Acc-r-izer tool does help as it swages the bullet up in size to better fit the Ruger chambers. You just have to keep the ammo segregated, none of the modified rounds will chamber in my Colts or Smith & Wesson K-22's.

 

[Rclark]

I had Munden Enterprises work on my 6 1/2" SS Single-Six and the trigger is like a dream now.... The revolver shoots way better than I can.

 

[CraigC]

I don't believe the old wives tale and have a few observations/theories.

Most shooters will never bench test a single handgun in all of their life. So we're probably hearing a lot of anecdotal reports from folks who have never really tested it but just go by their hind legs impression and maybe they just can't shoot worth a toot? Or maybe this is their first single action and they never take the time to get accustomed to them. The "compromise bore" becomes the scapegoat. Dunno.

Many invariably compare them to their fixed barrel autos like the MK-series or Buckmark, instead of other revolvers. Well, dummies, no $300-$400 revolver is going to compare to that. It takes a $2000 Freedom Arms to compete with a $300 auto. I have a Buckmark that has fired some quarter inch groups at 25yds and a half inch is the norm. It's just the way it is.

Ruger never intended for these to be match pistols. They have never been assembled with the same care as the K-22 or Colt Officer's model. They're affordable plinkers. Ruger gang-reams (sounds nasty) their chambers all at once and produces their cylinders in batches. An assembler (not a turn of the 19th century master craftsman) grabs a cylinder out of the bin and if it fits and functions, it has its new home. Which is fine because they cost a lot less than Colt's and S&W's. To me, this factor has far more bearing on their raw accuracy potential than the bore size.

 

[Hammerdown77]

Very good points, Craig.

When I think "Single Six" I think back to days of my childhood learning to shoot at soda cans and overconfident squirrels. Not a single thought of how tight the groups were

 

[Hondo44]

Some Ruger Single Six convertibles shoot better than others. I believe the problems related to accuracy are because Ruger was/is too cheap to properly chamber the cylinders with throats at the business end. The chambers are bored straight through. You can take a loaded round and insert it fully into the front end of the cylinder!

Walter,
I don't disagree that some Colts have tighter chambers. But recognize that 22s have "heeled" bullets, same diameter bullet as the case. The only modern cartridge still made like the original blackpowder cartridges and require a "charge hole", a chamber bored straight thru w/o a shoulder. So in affect, the entire charge hole is the chamber throat.

 

[Rclark]

Most shooters will never bench test a single handgun in all of their life.

That seems strange to me ... as it is almost normally the first thing I do with mine.... Before I really put some 'work' into it, I like to know what I 'got'. Well, makes since to me anyway....

 

[joelo]

It all goes again to "find the ammo it likes".

My single six grouped 3-4" inches at 25 yards using Federal bulk ammo. I measured it with calipers and it is 0.222" diameter.

I then bought some Winchester 333 36gr bulk and my single six put them just under an inch at 25 yards. When I measured them they were 0.224" diameter.

 

[CraigC]

Most shooters will never bench test a single handgun in all of their life.

That seems strange to me ... as it is almost normally the first thing I do with mine.... Before I really put some 'work' into it, I like to know what I 'got'. Well, makes since to me anyway....

Makes no sense to me either but that's the impression I get from 99% of those who post online. None that I know do and I only remember a couple range trips where I wasn't the only one bench testing a handgun.

 

[txpitdog]

I have a scoped Singe Six Hunter. Scope is a 2-6x Bushnell Elite 3200. This makes the gun completely barrel heavy, and very unlikely that I would ever use it for hunting. However, with a rest, I'm confident attempting head shots on squirrels to a known 50yds. My best group, which happened to be with the 22LR cylinder, was 0.75X" at 50yds.

I tried all kinds of different ammo, from cheapo stuff to high dollar Eley rounds. I haven't shot it in a while, so I can't remember what brand ammo worked best, but the gun definitely has a preference for some ammo. I tried firing 5 shot groups from each chamber to see if one in particular was more consistent than the others. I also tried firing 6-shot groups starting from a new chamber each time to see if I could pinpoint a "flyer chamber". I suppose I shoulda hunted down my notes, because now that I'm typing all this, the only thing I can remember really is that the 3/4" group did come from firing a full 6-round cylinder, not just one chamber specifically.

I replaced the trigger spring with reduced weight Wolff spring, think it was the 30oz. After having perfected the art of cursing while changing the hammer spring on a few other Ruger SA revolvers, I figured the stock hammer spring on the SSH was good enough and left it alone.

Here's a pic of the brick!