I still need to polish up the editing, and get all the accompanying photos, but here is the full article that I will be publishing for the Super Wrangler.
Single action 22 revolvers actually go way back starting with Smith and Wesson getting the patent for bored through revolver cylinders and then designing the 22 short in 1857, which was the first American metallic cartridge. When we think of Smith & Wesson, even the early ones, most of us instantly think double action, but the early ones were all single action and Smith and Wesson did not actually start building double action revolvers until 1880, first in 38 smith and Wesson followed by their large frame 44 Russian double action revolvers in 1881.
The 22 long rifle was not invented until 1887, and just about everyone has chambered revolvers for it in both single and double action. Colt chambered the famous 1873 Single Action Army for it, but there have also been many other single action 22s since the invention of the cartridge, both in good quality firearms, and some of questionable reliability.
Colt dropped the Single Action Army or better known as the Colt Peacemaker after WW2 due to the machinery used to manufacture parts being accidentally scrapped during the war and high demand for the 1911 and double action revolvers, and this left a lack of quality single action six guns. Bill Ruger, who had seen great success with his semi auto 22 pistols introduced in 1949 released his first revolver in 1953, which was the Single Six followed by the larger Blackhawk in 1955. These early Single Sixes had what is know as a flat gate, which refers to the flat loading gate. This flat gate was done away with in 1956, so they are fairly rare. All the single sixes after that had a traditional rounded loading gate which makes them much easier to get open.
These early Single Sixes saw great success. While not fully fixed sight because of the drift adjustable rear, they were not fully adjustable either. Ruger brought out the super single six in 1964 which had the Ruger fully adjustable sight set down into the ears on the top strap.
The 22 magnum was not invented until 1959, and Ruger released their first convertible single sixes in 1960.
Elmer Keith wrote about the Single Sixes in the first chapter of his book Sixguns saying
“After Colt dropped their excellent, time-tried Single action Army, Ruger noted the terrific demand and decided to do something about it. He made a trip west to interview several of us on the old gun. He told me he read all my old articles on the S.A. Colt in back issues of The Rifleman and other magazines, and then set to work to re-design and modernize the old gun. The two piece stock straps he designed to be cast in a single unit from an aluminum alloy of great strength. The flat breakable springs he redesigned and used coiled springs in their stead. He redesigned the bolt and bolt spring and eliminated the old cam on the hammer. He fitted a trigger return spring and plunger directly behind the trigger. He designed the frame to be cast. Thus he greatly improved the action of the old Peacemaker. While he designed the frame with a flat top, he erred sadly here and beveled off the corners and set the movable rear sight much too far forward.
He fitted the new frame with a rebounding firing pin, better suited to the firing of rim fire cartridges. In the loading gate, he again erred by not fitting it with a more adequate flange for the thumbnail. Also, in the rod ejector housing he left a square shoulder at the rear end of its travel into which the ejector rod would lock. And the thumb and finger button at the forward end of the extractor rod was too small to be grasped readily with thumb or forefinger. In all other respects he designed a better gun than the original Colt S.A.
The new Ruger came out as the Single Six and with a much smaller frame, barrel, and cylinder than the original Colt. Essentially a smaller version, it was designed for the .22 L.R. cartridge. Demand for the new Ruger Single Six far exceeded his wildest expectations and he now has over a half-million dollars worth of orders. The new gun, a smaller improved replica of the famous old Peacemaker, is destined to become very popular. Ruger contemplates a target model with adjustable target sights, a true flat-top frame with a rear sight on the extreme rear end of the frame, and many more refinements and improvements as soon as production of the first model will allow him to bring it out. He also expects to turn out a further improved full size model for all the popular big revolver loads. The Single Six has a 5 1/2 inch barrel and a fixed front sight with a movable target-type rear which is adjustable by driving either side for windage.
The cylinder is recessed for the case heads and the arm is big enough to be brought out in .25 Stevens. We have long urged that he do this as it would make a much better small game gun. It could be done quite easily by adding slightly to the length of the cylinders and chambering and boring for that most excellent cartridge with a 60 grain bullet at 1,300 to 1,500 feet velocity and with the bullet completely enclosed in the case except the ogive. This would give the hunter a cartridge he could carry loose in his pocket without having the bullet collect dirt and sand which injures the barrel. Due to the coil main spring, Ruger has achieved one of the easiest and fastest cocking single actions we have seen.
We played with the pilot model for some time and found it very accurate; then Ruger sent us No. 15 of regular production and Judge Don Martin another low serial number. Both proved very accurate little arms. Stocks are furnished either in checkered black plastic or good, well-seasoned elephant ivory at the extra cost of $16.00.
The current price of the Single Six is $63.50. We believe this little arm will become one of the most popular .22 revolvers ever produced in America.”
Man what I wouldn’t give for those kinds of prices again! To be fair though, in 1955 when this was published 64 dollars was the equivalent to 712 dollars in 2023. Current MSRP on the Single Six Convertible is $799.
The Single Six was produced until 1973 when Ruger came out with he New Model Single Sixes with transfer bar safety. I believe all of the new model single sixes come with fully adjustable sights.
I have had a couple single sixes myself, and my dad always had at least one around when I was a kid. He has a very neat early round gate one with factory stag grips that has been converted to centerfire and chambered to shoot the 22 CCM which he is very fond of. He had bought this gun already converted to centerfire, and later on converted a super single six to 32 H&R. This one was actually my first one that I traded him when I got a Ruger Mk2 target model as a teenager. It looked to have sat in a wet gun case on its side with one side of the gun ugly from the rust, but was a accurate and reliable six gun that I think we got for around 150 bucks on
www.gunbroker.com.
I also had a new model single six at one point as a teenager. Both of those guns saw substantial use when I was younger running a trapline and just general wondering in the woods of Alaska shooting small game, and whatever else needed to be shot like buffalo chips and pine cones. It was not uncommon for me to shoot multiple bricks of 22 ammo a week back then when I was working on the farm for $25 a day and 22 ammo was 10 bucks a brick.
My last single six I got when I turned 21 and It was a factory 32 H&R mag with 4 5/8” barrel. This gun was a terrible disappointment to me and was always very inaccurate. No matter what I tried, I never could get accuracy from that gun that I was happy with so I traded it for left handed Ruger M77 Mk2 270.
In 1992 Heritage started making their 22 single action revolvers. Taurus bought them out in 2012, and they still make cheap 22 revolvers today. They can still be had for about $120. I’ve had 2, a early one and a newer taurus made one. The first one was horrible little thing, and while the newer one was better, it left a lot to be desired in ways of a good quality six gun and that stupid safety they put on the side is just plain ugly. While the heritage revolvers are made in here in the good old U S of A, they just don’t cut it as a quality product in my eyes, and they don’t hold up to heavy use from what I have seen.
However, they have dominated the cheap 22 market for 30 years, and have introduced a lot of new shooters to single action revolvers, and a lot of people really like them. With the rising cost of the single six, I think Ruger saw a large slice of the cake they could get on their plate, and in 2019 they released the Wrangler. I’ve never owned one, but I have shot and handled them, and they are quite a bit nicer than the heritage revolvers in my opinion. The wrangler is aluminum framed with steel barrel and cylinder, fixed sight and the first ones were 4 5/8 inch barrels, but they make quite a few models now including a birds head. These aluminum alloy framed Rugers are only available in 22 long rifle.
This is actually not Ruger’s first attempt at an aluminum framed 22 revolver. In 1956 they introduced the light weight single six which not only had an aluminum frame, it also has an aluminum alloy cylinder. These “tri-colored” single sixes as they have been called by collectors were dropped from the ruger line up in 1959 and only about 12,000 of these were built. At the time they were advertised as the same price as the steel frame single six.
I’ve almost picked up one of the wranglers several times, but was always turned off by the lack of adjustable sights. Apparently I wasn’t the only one that wanted to see the wrangler brought out with adjustable sights, because this past year ruger announced the Super wrangler. Not only does the super wrangler come with the standard Ruger adjustable sights, it is also a steel frame and comes with a 22 magnum cylinder. I made a comment when I first heard of it that I would buy the first one I saw, and I did just that. I ended up with the Burn bronze color and paid a whopping $289 bucks out the door here in Alaska. I have heard of them selling as low as $229 down in America.
While very similar to the new model single six, the super wrangler does have some differences so parts are not interchangeable to my knowledge. They are also only offered with Cekacoat finish in 3 colors right now, but I am sure there will be distributor exclusives in the future.
Anyone familiar with the newer Ruger single action revolvers will instantly notice that when you open the loading gate and turn the cylinder it not only doesn’t click, it also spins backwards. While free spinning is a common custom upgrade, I’ve never had one of the new models that did this. Ruger did this on the wrangler because on the single six if you index too far to where it clicks, you can not get a cartridge into the chamber, and you can not turn it back, and have to turn the cylinder all the way around to try agin. While this can be learned, and I’ve never found it to be a annoyance, I could see where it could be to a new shooter. I don’t have any issue with the free pawling, but I did find it annoying that once the cylinder is closed, you can not cock the hammer until the cylinder is turned by hand to lock into a position.
The old model Rugers, both rimfire and single action, as well as old colts had to brought into half cock in order to turn the cylinder. The new model Rugers do not, however it has always been habit for me to cock the hammer and drop it after closing the loading gate. While the new model Rugers are perfectly safe to load 6 rounds into, I usually load five when just plinking and on the range. Using the load one skip one, load four, this leaves an empty chamber under the hammer after cycling the hammer back and dropping it which was the only safe way to carry the old ones.
So that habit of cycling the hammer back to index to the unloaded chamber caught be a bit off guard at first on the super wrangler because once you close the gate, the hammer will not cock unless the cylinder is indexed to a locking point. Now that I’ve gotten use to just indexing the cylinder by hand it is a non issue, just something I thought was worth mentioning.
The Ceracote finish on the gun seems quite durable and I see no wear on it so far from the last couple weeks riding around in the truck and on the 4 wheeler, and setting it down places when I’m working outside. I actually kind of like the burnt bronze, but I would say I like all three of the color options, but I think the burnt bronze is my favorite. While the barrel, frame and grip frame all all ceracoated, the cylinder on all models is blued. The 22 mag cylinder has a 2 decretive roll marks, while the 22 cylinder has a third at the front of the cylinder to make it easy to identify. The 22 mag cylinder is also marked 22 win mag between the roll marks on the side. Changing the cylinder is super easy, open the loading gate, push in the pin latch in, pull out the cylinder pin, remove the cylinder, drop the new cylinder in and push in the pin until it locks. It is also worth noting that the chambers on the super wrangler are recessed for the rim of the cartridge, which is better design, and makes is safe to dry fire the gun.
While heritage has been building 22 magnums on their aluminum frame guns, in classic Ruger form they didn’t think it aluminum was strong enough for 22 mag, which is why the super wrangler has a steel frame. I think this was a good call, and the gun has a good balance with it’s 5.5” barrel, which is the only length available right now, but again, I am sure there will be distributer exclusives, and probably even production models if the gun sells as well as I think it will.
The grips are just plain black plastic, with no added medallions or anything, just the molded Ruger logo. These guns will take standard single six and Blackhawk grips, with the XR3-Red grip frame so there are all kinds of options out there for upgrades. I actually swapped mine out for a black plastic set off of a Blackhawk just because they had the chrome Ruger medallion on the grips and I thought they looked a little nicer, but I will probably put some wood ones on it at some point.
At this point, I have put 3 full bricks of 22 ammo though this gun, plus whatever other ammo I have shot while testing, and also about 300 rounds of 22 magnum, so it probably has over 2000 rounds through it total. I was impressed with the trigger pull and the slickness of the gun out of the box, but after using the old trick of burying the hammer, and just some good old use, it has slicked up nicely and is much smoother then I had ever thought it would be. The trigger is crisp with a clean break.
The gun is acceptably accurate with 22 long rifle, but it does tend to shoot more accurately with 22 magnums. At 10 yards with magnums it will shoot as good as I can hold it putting rounds touching if I do my part. With 22 long rifle it is decently accurate, however it shows major accuracy improvements with my modified ammo, with both flat nose and hollow point variants shooting almost as well as it shoots 22 mags. I would guess the barrel has a .224” groove diameter for the 22 magnum, and bumping the 22 long rifle bullets up to a consistent .223” helps with the accuracy.
Even so, it is accurate enough with stock 22 long rifle ammo to hit clay birds out to 50 yards, and head shoot squirrels and grouse at small game ranges.
Over all I am super happy with the gun, and it has exceeded the expectations I had for it on every level. I think that everyone should have one of these in their collection, and even though its a more budget friendly firearm, it is still high quality and I see no reason why it wouldn’t last a life time. Both the super and standard model wranglers would be perfect for teaching young people how to shoot, and be a great first handgun for a young shooter. This gun would also be perfectly at home on the trapline or in a tackle box, or the glove box of that old farm truck. The 22 lr cylinder will make for a lot of fun practicing on the cheap, and for shooting small game, and the magnum option gives it that extra kick when needed for a coyote in a trap, or a fox trying to get in the chicken coop.
Shooting and handling this gun has brought back a lot of memories from when I was a teen and trudging around the woods with a Single Six and Marlin 336 in 35 Remington. I killed a lot of small game with those 22 revolvers when I was younger, and I have a feeling that this Super Wrangler will do its fair share of putting small game in the frying pan.
I was a bit worried when they brought the Wrangler and then the Super Wrangler out that it would be the death of the Single Six models, but if anything shooting this a Bunch has just made me want a Single Six even more. I’m actually hoping to see Ruger use the same type of manufacturing to bring out some larger center fired revolvers at, but only time will tell if they decide to do that.
