I was browsing around my LGS and saw they had a revolvers that I had never seen before, The Wrangler, from Ruger. These aren't heirloom pieces, but they MSRP for $269 and he's selling them for $199. They are coated in Cerakote, and have a few different color options.

I have 2 boys, age 10 & 11. Last year I picked up a Henry 22 carbine and a CZ bolt in 22. I don't actually own any revolvers, so I was thinking of getting 2 to teach my kids. I think they would enjoy them, and at $199 each it's not a major investment.

Anyone own a Ruger Wrangler?

Ruger Wrangler

I do and me and my boy love it!

They make a smaller birds head grip one now that I wish I had. The only other thing is I wish we could change cylinders to use .22 mag like the Heritage.

But, we have shot it a lot and its just loads of fun! $199 isn't a bad price at all. We have the black one.

They are great little revolvers. $199 is the going pice around here too. I think they are made from a less expensive material/process but mine works great

Excellent inexpensive SA revolvers, the Wranglers. I have the one finished in "Black Bart" (hey it sounds more appealing than 'Black Cerakote').

I've shot all sorts of Shorts, Longs and LR through it. It makes the cheap--in oh so many ways--Heritage Arms single actions nearly redundant.

We bought one for my son. It's ok. Decent trigger, decent action, and pretty darn accurate for a cowboy gun with trench sights. It had some bullet stabilization issues...they were tumbling and keyholing at 7 yards with Remington Golden and Armscor .22LR. It worked ok with 4 or 5 other brands of ammo that I fed it.

I sent it back and Ruger ended up replacing it (took about a month). The new one still tumbles Remington Golden occasionally. I haven't been able to find any more Armscor to try that. It works fine with other ammo, though, so I've decided to just shoot stuff it likes through it. Strange to have a revolver that's ammo sensitive, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

Armscor clearly isn't the best stuff out there, and Remington Golden is pure crap, but my Single-Six and MkII shoot all of them just fine, so I'm not sure why the Wranger doesn't like them. I'll still take the Wrangler over a Heritage, though, simply because it lacks the awful plastic safety...but were I doing it all over again I'd have saved a little longer and looked a little harder for a used Single-Six.

Thanks 92. I actually found your post from July & September 2021 after I posted this topic. Maybe I'll do some more research before committing to a Wrangler for my boys. I was thinking about a Christmas gift, so I have time.

My only issue is I try to get each boy the same, or similar toys, so as to avoid any favoritism issues.

As guns for kids, they're not bad, and if you feed them ammo they like, they should be fine. If you are looking for a pair, it's probably the way to go. Single-sixes are getting very expensive and hard to find these days, but Wranglers are everywhere.

My son and I have had a lot of fun with him shooting his vs me with my single-six on the dueling tree. I shot the rest of that Golden Bullet junk up in other guns, and I've been buying up a bunch of Federal Automatch lately since Walmart has a ton of it in stock, and his gun shoots that stuff just fine.

No, they're not really heirloom quality pieces and they lack that "real gun" heft of the Single-six, but it's a much nicer gun than the Heritage for just a few dollars more.

A couple of things to note:

The Wrangler has a free-spin pawl, so you can rotate the cylinder in either direction. It's less authentic and you lose the "clicks", but it's easier for a kid to load and unload, especially considering the clicks on my single-six don't correspond perfectly to align the chambers with the ejection rod, so you have to twist the cylinder just a bit more after each click to eject your empties, and it's easy to go past and then have to go all the way around. I know my gun so it's not a problem for me, but it gives people who aren't familiar with it a hard time sometimes.

If you're planning on replacing the plastic Wrangler grips with wood ones from a Blackhawk, they don't quite fit. The grip frame is a weird size...just a hair longer than than the Blackhawk or Single-Six, so the but is about 3/16" proud to the grip panels. We decided that the wood is still nicer than the factory plastic, so it stayed on there, but it's something to be aware of.

If you shop around, there are wood grips available and they really spruce up the Wrangler like a proper single action.

For the price, they are one of the best little 22 wheel guns going. I leave mine in a holster (brown finish) in the camper all year through freeze, winter, thaw, summer cycles and it looks like it came from the box. Perfectly accurate for a small pistol and they do the work.

Sort of want to try out the new birds head grip frame model and likely will at some point to compliment the Blackhawk with the same.

I have a Single Six from the mid 90’s and I still prefer shooting my Wrangler more. Quite an accurate little plinker that won’t break the bank!

I bought one a while back. Very surprised on how accurate mine is. I use CCI in mine.

I have the Birdshead model and like it very much. Seems to shoot OK but given the sights it's a wash for me. Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of parting with mine, BUT, it's the only .22 revolver I have (mostly Ruger but a coupla S&W's) that will not pass a range rod test. No spitting and no accuracy issue to speak of, but the cylinder is a couple-thou (guessing) out of whack. I use a piece of brass stock (straight as an arrow determined by rolling on glass) from AMZ that I took a couple of 1000's off using super-fine emory paper.

The Wrangler is a good alternative to the Heritage Rough Rider .22lr SA revolver!

Ruger made them for a price point, at about 1/2 the cost of their single-six .22lr SA revolver that has been in production since around 1955.

They provide a good entry into .22lr 'western-style' revolver ownership, but I would never recommend the CCI Stinger or hotter .22lr, conventionally known as 'hyper-velocity'. High Velocity and Standard Velocity shouldn't be an issue.

I've had problems with zamak-framed .22lr firearms, and believe it was due to people using hyper-velocity, which generates more pressure/thrust that the frame was designed to handle.

Now, a Single-Six would not be a source of concern, but they also run twice as much [easily].

Davidson's Brown. My Single Six stand-in probably deserves new grips.

Only time I shot one was at a shooting match side event. Being a long time single action shooter, I figured getting hits would be cake. ( it was an event where you got 6 shots to hit 5 small steel targets at around 10 yards- targets about 3x5 card size- which I can do all day long typically)
I could not for the life of me figure out where the gun was shooting in relation to the sights. Made me a bit disenchanted to say the least, as I like the idea of a simple inexpensive tackle box gun.

quote:

Originally posted by SigSentry:
Davidson's Brown. My Single Six stand-in probably deserves new grips.

I picked up some aftermarket walnut ones which fit perfectly and are fuller - fitting my large hand better. I'd buy a Bisley Wrangler immediately.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Blackmore,

“The Wrangler has an aluminum alloy mainframe, a zinc alloy grip frame while the cylinder and cold hammer-forged barrel are steel.”
John Taffin
American Handgunner 2019

I’ve read the same thing from other sources. The grip frame is a Zamak type alloy. The main frame is manufactured from a different metal, and I believe that if a Wrangler is damaged by use with .22 caliber S, L, or LR ammo of whatever velocity level, Ruger will take care of repair or replacement.

With wooden grips that thing looks pretty good.

Which proves you can put lipstick on a pig and get good results! I put a set of wood grips on mine and does look good!