Based on yesterday's comment that a new Wrangler was easy to open, I pulled my most recent Wrangler off the shelf ("newest" of "Several" Wranglers) and found it to be the toughest to open of any of them. It is a beautiful chocolate brown color and otherwise very nice.
I decided to take some action on it after finding the bind point where the protruding mold vent marks were bearing on the frame as was shown in a photo early in this thread.
Using the Ruger video to refresh my memory of disassembly of the Ruger single action excluding the Bearcat, it came apart fairly easily and I discovered a new part that exists in the Wrangler that was not mentioned on the Ruger video. The breakdown that is in the owners manual identifies this little steel piece of sheet metal as a "pawl guide".
Anyway, I smoothed the rough parts fairly easily with the gun disassembled and reduced the pressure of the spring that powers the loading gate.
After getting it all back together it is improved as far as how difficult opening the gate is, but still nowhere near my single sixes that are so smooth and easy to open that there is no comparison. I am guessing that steel parts vs zinc alloy parts contributes to Single Six superior function over the Wrangler.
Bottom line is that you don't get a 500 dollar gun for 200 dollars and I don't expect to. I really like the Wranglers and while I don't have ALL colors and variations at this time, that IS the goal. I love to shoot them and I love the fact that this little gun functions just like my first Ruger (new model single six) and yet is inexpensive enough to have several kept in various locations around my little homestead should a possum attack come unexpectedly day or night.
I discovered the largest and nastiest possum I have ever seen about 10 feet from my front door at 3:00 AM potty call for my two little dogs awhile back and was glad to have put a Wrangler in reach of the front door. The possum showed teeth and hissed at me and was the size of a medium dog. (About 30-35 pounds - very big for a possum in Florida and twice the size of my 15 pound dogs)
I am happy with the Wranglers and discovered a new color of the 3" round butt model on the Ruger site last evening so I need to find one of those.