Ruger Single-Ten

I think as folks begin to add to their gun collection, there are few collections that should be without a good, quality .22 rifle and/or a .22 pistol.  The .22 rifles and pistols are fun and cheap to shoot, plus good ones are just dead-on accurate. We've acquired a fair number of .22 rifles and pistols over the years... mostly Rugers... so I admit my bias up front... and our newest acquisition belongs to my wife for fun, 4H, or whatever she wants to shoot... as long as it's not me.

A couple of months back, we picked up a Ruger Single-Ten for my gal and we've now had a number of opportunities to put a lot of rimfires downrange with it, so I thought you folks might like an update and a review.

Bill Ruger, Sr. introduced his Ruger Single-Six all the way back in 1953, then upgraded it with a transfer-bar safety with the New Model Single-Six in 1973. Since then, the Single-Six has been offered in a variety of configurations. Ruger's most recent configuration involved some drilling and machining to let ten little .22 cartridges gather for the fun before reloading.

Now if you're lookin' for technical spec's or tactical applications, then this ain't really the review for you.  I usually don't review a gun until I've had some substantial time using it.  There are already plenty of reviews out there for this gun, but I thought some of you might find my observations helpful.

First of all, this stainless steel six-shooter, er... ten-shooter is just deadly accurate, keeping less than quarter-sized groups of ten shots when fired off the benchrest position at twenty-five yards with just about every brand of .22 long rifle cartridges we've fed it.

The Williams Adjustable Fiber-Optic FireSights that come standard have a rear sight that's both windage and elevation "click" adjustable. Even on a gray, overcast day the Williams FireSights are bright and easily acquired in visualizing your sight alignment and sight picture.

The trigger is definitely not a super light-weight target trigger-pull, but it has a wide, smooth front face and breaks crisply without any noticeable creep.  The fit and finish of the gun is well done, but not so well done you'd think twice about slipping this hog-leg into a holster or pack while you're camping, hiking, or doing a day's chores around the barn.

The loading gate gives you a clear view and room to load and unload... one round at a time.  I'm not sure this  would have made me too excited back in the days of the wild west, but for plinking, small game, and target shooting... it works just fine.  While we're looking at it, I will mention that the counter-bores at the rear of chambers in the cylinder for the rim of the .22 cartridge do tend to fill with dirt and residue while shooting, especially with cheap twenty-twos, so a plastic, gun-cleaning dental pick works well to clean that area out when it gets a bit tough to load cartridges.

We did take a couple of maintenance precautions based on past experience with our guns... Ruger and otherwise.  A little bit of blue, medium-strength thread-locker on the screws that hold the front sight and ejector housing in place will keep them from loosening up and just a dab of thread-locker on the pivot-pin for the rear-sight elevation will keep it from sliding out.

So whether you grew up watchin' westerns featuring the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and John Ford... or you're just lookin' for a .22 pistol that feels substantial, yet natural in the hand to plink, hunt, shoot targets, or whatever... this stainless steel single-action will outlast you and your kids... so if you're looking, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a... Ruger Single-Ten.