They have been out for a while now so there has been time to put them through their paces. What's the verdict? Good, Bad, somewhere in between?

The little birdshead version has kind of caught my eye. The price is right, it looks like a lot of fun..........but if it's a pos, well...

Mine was/is a steaming heap. It didn't shoot anything close to the sights, and now something internally has broken loose and it's nonfunctional.

I'm going to keep it as-is, because I want to remind myself not to jump into things and let them settle down before buying anything. As it is, I just try to forget I bought the cursed thing. Fixed sights and I have never gotten along very well, this is a stark reminder to spend the bucks and get adjustable sight models.

I could send it back to Ruger, but why bother, it serves it's purpose better now.

My Dad has one, and its..... not great. His eyes aren't good, so I did most of the shooting with it.

It works fairly smoothly and the trigger is decent, but the accuracy with a gaggle of different ammo was middling to terrible at 25yds off a bench, and the POI was beyond useless. It hits about a mile high and left... I had to aim at the bottom right corner of 12" square targets to keep it on paper.

A Single Six, it is not...

I have the Heritage 22/22mag 4.75 with the ugliest dye stained grips in existence...which outshoots my buddy's Wrangler and was $37.00 cheaper. Ymmv.

Not heard good things on either Ruger or Heritage, but for the money I didn't have great expectations.

The Heritage I got had a barrel-cylinder gap you could read a newspaper through, and accuracy... well, you were lucky to get a dinner plate size group at ten yards.

The Ruger Wrangler I have shoots much better, but I haven't shot it much. The mainspring is incredibly heavy. I need to do something about that.

When I got it, the thing would lock up. I discovered that there's a steel bearing surface for the hand to ride on, since it would quickly eat up the lightweight frame. It's a little bit of sheet metal formed into a loop that hooks around one of the pins. It was not assembled right, and the little thingy wasn't in it's proper place and it was jamming up the works. I finally got it in there right, and it works fine now (I'm pretty good with the gunsmithery thing, but I have to say, assembling Ruger single actions is a far bigger pain in the ass than it should be.... they can't even do it right at the factory! ).

Hmm. I guess I am just lucky. I bought two a few years ago. My son and I have ended our range sessions shooting a couple hundred rounds of 22 through the Wranglers. Both are spot on with the sights. We only shot out to 20 yards. I love them.

I just got a great deal on a NIB recent production so my daughter can have one, too. It does not seem to be as good quality as the first two. Bigger barrel to cylinder gap. Fit and finish not as good. But we’ll try it out. It will probably end up being ole Dad’s. Lol.

Have the Wrangler, previously had the Heritage. Not really impressed with the accuracy of either. But to be fair I need to shoot the Wrangler more.

I bought a silver Wrangler a couple of years ago. The action was quite stiff, and the loading gate was hard to open. It was accurate and shot right on for windage, but hit about 4 inches low at 25 yards. I put a Wolf spring kit in it, which made a very impressive difference in both the ease of cocking and trigger pull. It's as nice as any Single Six now. I then filed the front sight down carefully and brought it to exact zero at 25 yards. I leave the loading gate open while it is stored, and that has seemed to tire the gate spring out enough to noticeably ease the effort needed to open it. YMMV, but I really like the little revolver, and the price was sure right.

I bought one that Ruger ultimately had to replace. The replacement they send was ultimately replaced again by Ruger. I guess the third time is the charm, but it doesn’t inspire much confidence. Then again, I tend to have rotten luck with new guns.

Consider Rugers known issues with Blackhawks over the decades.
Little things that h ave spawned a cottage industry to fix.

Chamber throats, choked barrels...

And yet, even with the whole industry aware of it, Ruger is content to
continue to sell customers guns with these easily avoided defects.

You really wanna bet on their cheap "value" revolver?




But, the American rifle series is supposedly good.

I have never had any issues with my 22 RF Single Six's though all are Old Models. All of my 32's have needed to have their throats opened.

If you think you have trouble seeing your new Old Model Blackhawk sights, the Wrangler is a whole different level of hard to see. Stick with a single six.

I've had good luck with the Birds head Wrangler I bought.

It shoots to point of impact. Got a 1-3/4" group at 10 yards with it for the first 6 shot out of it.

For my old eyes, the front sight shows up better with the shorter barrel.

I used a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the legs on the trigger spring, lowering the pull weight to about half.

Virgil B.

No more new Ruger revolvers for me, I think I had 3 or 4 in a row that had to go back......The last one was a Redhawk right when the pandemic started, and I think they took 10 month to send it back....

Must be hit or miss.

My Wrangler shoots about as good as my vintage flat gate Single Six.

Lot of gun for the cost.

DF

I finally saw one of the short barreled versions with the Birdshead Grip at my LGS the other day.
Pointed pretty well and fit my hand much better than my Bearcat Shopkeeper with the Birdshead Grip.

The Birdshead is sure tempting for $220. Don't really expect target pistol accuracy from a 3 3/4" barrel with fixed sights, but it would be nice to have it go bang when you pull the trigger and be beer can accurate out to 20 yards.

These Wranglers are almost like putting your money on red or black and spinning the wheel. 50/50 chance you'll get a decent one.

Mine was a POS. Accuracy was nonexistent

I have or have had a total of 19 Rugers I can think of, from my first (original .44 carbine) to my latest, SR-22 pistol. It includes center fire and rimfire rifles, revolvers, pistols and one shotgun. They have always served me well and I have not had a single problem with any of them (other than a bit of simple work to get a 1B to shoot the way I thought it should.) You might think I'm a Ruger fanboy. A couple of times I looked at the Wranglers in the gun stores, just looked at them in the glass case. It always seemed like the kind of thing I'd buy just because it didn't cost much and couldn't be too bad..... but looking at them alone was enough to dissuade me from buying one. To me, they just have the appearance of junk. I've never handled one, but something about my entire adult lifetime being very involved with guns and with manufacturing, just looking at them set off the alarm bells.

The Ruger Wrangler felt very much like junk to me. And the freewheeling cylinder was a touch too much as well

I have a couple of Wranglers and really enjoy them.

I bought them with the expectation of what they were and not what they were not. I had given my Single Six to a son who would enjoy it more often than me, so I knew what a Single Six was and how it felt. For $189 it doesn't compare to a $600 Single Six, nor should it, do the math.

I drop a leg off the trigger springs in both of them and now the triggers are just fine for the work intended. Mine will shoot to point of aim at about 20 yards and the grouping is acceptable. It does shoot minute of pop can at 15-20 yards which is what my expectations were when I bought them. I would take it hunting with me if small game was a possibility while hunting other critters. But if I'm hunting small game as a purpose I would choose some other target shooters that are more accurate.

I am well pleased with my plinkers and that is how I use them.

It's literally a 180$ revolver. Lol. Y'all sure do whine.....

Ky221

Nice group size there

Whine, Whats the big deal.


Some, have no interest in what a cheap gun offers.
That's ok.

Some, have no idea what a high quality gun is, and are tickled to death
with anything they can make go bang.
That's ok.

Some, will never shoot it.
That's ok.

You appear to have gotten what you expect, and are happy.
That's great.


The OP ask opinions,
That's exactly what he got.

I have a few revolvers that I consider to be a good bit nicer than a wrangler........guess what? For a gun that lives on the glove box of my SXS.......I like the wrangler and probably shoot it the most. The whining I see is from people whose wrangler didn't measure up to some of the other popular 22LR revolvers.

For 180$ with cerekote how can it? How can you possibly expect it not to feel "cheap"? The cylinder free spins....BFD. Etc etc. It shoots decent and goes bang. Good enough.

You are the type that thinks only opinions that agree with you count.

No I'm the type that doesn't expect a 180$ revolver to have all the bells and whistles of a 600$ revolver. Some people call that "being realistic".

See

You seem
Like the type that expects something for nothing, and is probably never satisfied and gets triggered pretty easily😂

You'll fit in great around here.

I wasn't expecting a target pistol for the price, but I was expecting to be able to roughly hit what I was aiming at.

Having to hold a foot off target is unacceptable when you're dealing with fixed sights, regardless of price point.

Glad I read this thread. Some of you stopped me from wasting a couple of hundred dollars.

I wish all Ruger single actions came with a freewheel pawl. The Power Custom pawl is easy to fit and install...but maybe Ruger could do it better??

Call Ruger and see if they will fix it.

Not my gun, it's my old man's. I'm not sure if he hung onto it after that, or got rid of it after seeing how piss poor it shot.

TBH, I dunno why he still buys handguns, he can't see the sights anymore 🙄. He has me shoot them to see how they do.

I told him a while back he needs to just buy himself a 410 revolver since he can't see [bleep].

Agreed, but it sure is tempting to buy a revolver for the same amount as my monthly phone bill.........

I agree with you about the advantages of a freewheel pawl, especially when loading. Loading a single action is a pain anyway and having the ability to rotate the cylinder both ways makes it a wee bit faster and more convenient.

It would be great if all single action shooters had this feature.

I have two, put the oversized hogue grips on one, we shoot it the most. Picked up a used one for 125 at a lgs, stays in the truck. Hard to beat a new one for 200 bucks, if you dont like it send it on down the road for a small loss if that.

I want a birdshead now.

especially a ruger revolver.

dont shoot a bearcat then, ours is terrible, and twice the price, if not more now, if you can find one.

I've owned quite a few Ruger revolvers, but never one of the Bearcats. I don't think I've ever shot one of them, that I can remember.

Every one I have picked up, I quickly put down and wondered why Ruger was willing to put their name on it. Clearly they're selling the hell out of them, and I guess they must be working otherwise we'd see "wrangler's are crap" threads 3 times a week. But they are butt ugly. If it shoots to point of aim, and a guy needed a cheap kit gun, I guess...but.

I really like mine. It is butt ugly but shoots well and the price was perfect-free. I had a bunch of Cabelas points built up so I ordered it in to my local store.

It's the right length for a Simply Rugged holster that was made for my Single Seven that no longer fits do to a taller front sight. So a win win. Free revolver and can keep using a nice holster.

Mine is now my fave farm gun.
It has a few critters under it's belt and is fun to sit on the deck with and plink a soup can on the 50 yard dirt pile.

i have a ruger single six, bearcat and wrangler (both plowhandle and birdshead versions, and a heritage roughrider. if you are frugal and cannot find a used single six for $300 then a new wrangler for $200 is the way to go. the bearcat is a small, expensive, niche piece and the roughrider feels too much cheap.

Exactly

Well I ended up with the Wrangler Deluxe Model. Thanks to a fellow Campfire member. Could have bought a couple new Wranglers for what I paid, but would not trade it for a couple Wranglers......No regrets with this one.

Good call centershot. Those are great lightweight 22 revolvers.