Ruger Single Six Hunter .22/.22 Mag Accuracy

I was looking at buying one of these as a small game rig.

Anyone have any real world experience with them in terms of scoped accuracy with both cylinders? Pictures of what your gun does would be great. Any other pros or cons would be appreciated as well.

I already have a 617 that does pretty well accuracy wise but would like the .22 mag option as well. Keeping it in one gun makes sense if it works.

Thanks.

John

I have one, and it is one of the most accurate firearms I've ever owned. All I shoot is open sights with it, and can easily cover a cylinder's worth of shots with a quarter at 25 yards. It's my dad's revolver he bought back in the 80's, and he never even put the first box of 50 through it. I didn't even know he had it, and I THOUGHT I knew every gun we had in the house when I was growing up. He gave it to me last year, or maybe two years ago now, and I carry it on the trap line. It is more than capable of small game hunting on a walkabout in the woods.

I say this to everyone that mentions the Single Six -- If you're even slightly interested in getting one, do it.

Thank you for the reply. Wonder if the newer versions share that same level of accuracy...

Rugers have always been a crap shoot. Some shoot and some don't the ones that don't much of the time you can make them better but they may never be really good. Others that are pretty good you can make very good with a few mods.

After about 40 tries I have a few that are really good. If you want for sure awesome out of the box. Skip the headache and buy a Freedom Arms.

To try: Leupold base and rings $45 drill and tap Smith $40 cheap scope $60

If it shoots good. Add Belt Mtn pin and Wolf springs. If not sell it and buy another one.

Like H2OBUG said, skip the Ruger and save your money and buy a Freedom Arms. It will SURPASS your expectations! Ruger quality varies too much from gun to gun. In my 69 years I most likely bought new at least 50 Rugers of all kinds and I bet only 20-25 were decent. Just my two cents worth.

well from the above posts i must have gotten a good one. mine will shoot lights out with both cylinders. used it as a my main coon hunting gun for at least ten years. killed upwards of 1000 coon with it. with the mag cylinder and a scope i was shooting prairie dogs to 150 yards. I have only had one and a couple other guys that had them that i shot with had similar results. mine liked heavy bullets, 40 gr in lr and 50 gr in 22mag

Thanks to all of you for responding.

I looked at the Freedom Arms as I have one in .454 that shoots lights out. They're tough to find used and I have trouble wrapping my head around the price of a new one.

That said, my limited experience with the Rugers has been the same as stated here. Some good, some not so good. I learned about the belt mountain pin with my first SBH in .44 and later sent it to the cornfield as it wouldn't shoot as well as my S&W PC.

I have grown kind of fond of the single actions and Dave's coon hunting is exactly the type of use I'd like from this gun. I don't hunt coon but I do hunt squirrels over dogs and their heads are kind of small. Really need it to shoot tight. I'll open up the groups enough by myself when I shoot it.

I got a Single Six in 1978, played with it for years trying to get it to group. Finally sold it and bought a Smith 617, best move I ever made. The 617 will shoot under an inch at 50 yards with a red dot.

Ever thought about the ruger mk or bowning buckmark autos?

I'd suggest the buckmark. Hands down the most accurate 22 I have ever shot. Some of these semi auto 22's will flat out shoot rings around a 22 revolver.

I've had a hunter single six since they came out. No complaints at all shoots more accurately than I can hold in the field. The ruger scope setup is pretty repeatable
so you can switch to irons and back without much change, but there is a change from the lr cylinder to the magnum so you have to sight in with the one your planning on using and not swap cylinders and expect the same zero. I've always been if it interests you and you've got the $$$ go for it don't let others tell you otherwise,life's short and who knows what the washington nuts are going to do to us in 2021. Hope this helps.

I?ve got a stainless bicentennial and it?s not very accurate, at least to my standards. I?d say it?s over an inch at 25yds.

I have a Ruger GP100 10-shot 22 LR. I have not shot it yet but picked it over the S&W 617. I like a semi-lug barrel and the 5.5 inch barrel is more to my liking than either a 4 inch or 6 inch full lug barrel. And three points of cylinder and cycling support versus only two points for the 617.
Will report if it shoots well later. The late Jeff Quinn of Gun Tests reviewed this Ruger and his assessment sold me on it.

AMEN

I have a Ruger Mark II as well as a Mark III and I owned a Buckmark Contour for a while. All are fairly accurate but none of them offers the .22 mag capability I'm looking for in this situation. While I'm not 100% certain, I don't think I can hunt with any semi auto pistol in PA.

To be fair, my Hammerli bullseye pistol outshoots any other .22 I own or have owned. As long as your willing to accept using CCI SV for hunting, it's not a bad choice either. I've thought about it for sure.

Thank you for the replies. Anyone have any target pics to show?

This accurate.



I ended up selling my single actions. I never really worked with the 22 mag cylinder, but in 22 it was very accurate.

Good shooting.

Why did you sell off your single actions? I just started shooting them after 41 years of nothing but double action revolvers. Usually shoot the DA revolvers single action anyway for hunting.

My thought on the .22 mag cylinder is I could use it for turkey and squirrel in fall. As pointed out earlier I know I'd have to switch scopes or settings. I am curious about the accuracy with the mag cylinder.

I did find a video on YouTube where they tested about 10 different types of .22 mag ammunition through one of these guns at 25 yards. I wasn't overly impressed by what I was seeing.

The mag cylinders are usually known to be much more accurate than the LR cylinders due to barrel bore dimensions.

Interesting.

I was aware of the different bore dimensions but had read that the accuracy with each was dependent on the individual gun.

Thank you for the info.

I guess I was just to lazy for loading and unloading single actions. Really though, DA guns just fit my hands better. I shoot some of them DA only, and others both SA and DA. I also shoot a lot of single shots.

May have shot myself in the foot, figuratively, not literally, but I decided to locate, buy and try a FA 83 in .22 LR.

I've owned cars that cost less but figured I could always sell it down the road. If I lost anything on it, I'd consider it rent.

Accuracy was impressive with CCI SV. I'll post pictures if I can ever figure out how to do it. And yes, they are well made and very accurate.

Will still need to get a .22 mag cylinder down the road if I decide to keep it. $$$$

John

Mine shoots great!

Thank you. I'm in the middle of a FA experiment with their Model 83 with both cylinders.

Not a fan of the grip. If anyone has some pachmayr grips that would fit it that they'd like to sell I'm interested.

John