The Ruger Single Six & the 22 Magnum round.

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Star43

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We all love our Single Six 's. That is for sure. We all love the fact that we can shoot both the LR and the 22 Magnum by just switching cylinders. It seems that most of the time people are just shooting the regular 22's......That is fine but I would like to ask our members of their feelings of the 22 Magnum round. Do a lot of you shoot the 22 Mag ? How would you compare the accuracy in your Single Six between the regular 22 LR as compared to the 22 Mag ?? Do you like to use the 22 Mag for plinking, or target shooting, small game hunting, eliminating varmint's, etc ? Please share your thoughts and experiences with the 22 Magnum round in the Single Six.
 
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The Single-Six with a .22 Mag cylinder in it is a good choice for most anything. Ruger bores it's barrels to accept the .22 mag,, and the .22 LR is a tiny bit smaller and isn't quite as accurate in general.
Due to expense of the ammo,, many prefer to "plink & informal target shoot" with .22 LR. But if you want to seriously hunt, or take out varmints etc,, then I'd give the nod to the .22 mag by far.
 
Would you say that all the factory loads are all pretty similar ? Is there one or two specific type or brand loads that you enjoy shooting more ??
 
Although I have both the .22 LR and .22 WMR cylinders, I have chosen to shoot my Single Six with the .22 WMR exclusively. The reason is that I have so many other firearms chambered for .22 LR.

IMG_2595.jpeg


The .22 magnum is accurate and pleasant to shoot - it lets you know you're shooting something with a bit more power.

I use CCI Maxi-Mags.
 
I learned this from John Dougans Book
The 22 LR bore spec is .216 and the 22 mag is .223
In 1959 when the 22 mag was introduced, Ruger compromised on a barrel bore of .219
for all single-sixes after serial # 150000.
This allowed them to make only one barrel for both guns & of course the convertibles.
Contender is correct, technically the 22LR should not be as accurate, in a barrel made post SN 150000.

JAYDAWG
 
JAYDAWG said:
I learned this from John Dougans Book
The 22 LR bore spec is .216 and the 22 mag is .223
In 1959 when the 22 mag was introduced, Ruger compromised on a barrel bore of .219
for all single-sixes after serial # 150000.
This allowed them to make only one barrel for both guns & of course the convertibles.
Contender is correct, technically the 22LR should not be as accurate, in a barrel made post SN 150000.

JAYDAWG
Click to expand...
I believe the bore diameter was changed to .224. I doubt Ruger would use a smaller bore diameter and squeeze down a 22 magnum. Could we be using 2 different ways to measure the bore diameter? (Edit to add: Groove diameter and lands diameter are the difference with our measurement numbers. Oops!)

When I hunted groundhogs with my '75 Super Single Six in the 70's, the magnums were slightly less accurate than with it's preferred 22LR. In fairness, I only checked the magnums off a bench with CCI's and Winchester's. With the selection of 22 magnums I have on hand now it might tell a different story.

I feel a test coming on :)
 
Every convertible Single-Six that I've tested has been proved more accurate with the Magnum cylinder. A few slightly...Most others, considerably.
This 9.5" version was my go-to squirrel hunting companion for several years, and still goes out occasionally. It has also taken a couple of coyotes caught sneaking around my chicken coup as well. It's by far the most accurate stock Single-Six that I've ever owned...And, will shoot groups like the one shown with the Magnum cylinder until you're completely bored of doing so. 😉
rny5Feq.jpg
 
JAYDAWG said:
I learned this from John Dougans Book
The 22 LR bore spec is .216 and the 22 mag is .223
In 1959 when the 22 mag was introduced, Ruger compromised on a barrel bore of .219
for all single-sixes after serial # 150000.
This allowed them to make only one barrel for both guns & of course the convertibles.
Contender is correct, technically the 22LR should not be as accurate, in a barrel made post SN 150000.

JAYDAWG
Click to expand...

Interesting! I didn't know any of that.

My friend inherited his Single Six from his father, so it's about 40 years old. It is that gun that first got me interested in single-actions and the Single Six in particular. His is .22LR only, fixed sights, many thousands of rounds through it, and smooth as silk.

His shoots very accurately - being from so long ago, I assumed the barrel was designed for just .22 LR.
 
I have a Super Single Six that I inherited from a buddy who passed. I don't think I've ever shot the .22Mag cyl.... maybe once to see if it worked, but that's it. Needless to say, I love that gun.

J.
 
Johnnu2 said:
I have a Super Single Six that I inherited from a buddy who passed. I don't think I've ever shot the .22Mag cyl.... maybe once to see if it worked, but that's it. Needless to say, I love that gun.

J.
Click to expand...
Glad you love it, but I think you need to "test that 22 Mag cylinder" again, just of course, to make sure it still works !! 🙂👍
 
Pal_k, If your gun is close to forty years old, and only came with the 22 LR cylinder, check to look underneath on the frame to see if it is an "Arrow Gun".......They were made in '86 for only 3 mos. and only came with the 1 cylinder. It looks like an arrow or a small house. Take a look......🙂
 
Pal_k, I just noticed you said your friend's gun was a fixed sight model. The Arrows were adjustable sights. So don't bother to look on a fixed sight gun. At least that gun got you interested in single actions, which is good.
 
I have never shot any of the subsonic. Ironically I did buy some Remington Subsonic 22's from a Walmart a few years ago when they were still an ammunition player here in CA. That is definitely over.....Just before the big exodus, I was at a local Walmart and they had the good old green box with the Sub-Sonic name on the box. At the time there was a limit of only 3 Boxes of ammo per sale....I don't know what happened that day but there was a young guy there who eventually showed up at the counter. In the meantime, I was there with another guy waiting and we struck up a friendly conversation about the stupid gun laws in CA. Anyway, the young guy showed up and let us buy what we wanted. The other customer and I just looked at one another and said "heck ya". There wasn't too much of a selection but I bought six boxes of the Subsonic 22 (which I still haven't yet shot) and 10 boxes of some "green tip" 22 Mag ammo. The store had 16 of those boxes. The other customer was happy with 6 and I took the other ten. That was a Bonanza day at Walmart especially for the times. I haven't shot any of the green tip type either. I bought those as they were marked down to half price. I shoot mostly the CCI and the Winchester 22 Mag as I have a lot of those. The 22 Subsonic does sound intriguing though to me. I would bet they would be very accurate. Next time I go shooting, I will try some of those. Heck, I may as well even try some of the green tip 22 Mags !!
 
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You can get a Single Six as an OLD Model.
Some complained about timing or lock up problems with 10 shot cylinder I think.
 
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