A True Cowboy Gun: A Range Report on the Ruger Wrangler .22 LR

Fans of “cowboy culture” will immediately recognize and associate the name Wrangler with a popular line of western clothing.

But the clothing isn’t the only “frontier style” product that bears the Wrangler name; it was also awarded to a single-action (SA) rimfire revolver made by one of America’s Big Three handgun manufacturers. Greetings Revolver Ruger Wrangler .22 Long Rifle (.22 LR)..

Ruger Wrangler Initial History and Specifications

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inch. (based in Southport, Connecticut) has introduced the 2019 Wrangler, based on their perennially popular Ruger Single-Sixwhich dates back to 1953 (four years after the company was founded). As Ruger product manager Graham Rockwell said in an October 2019 interview with J. Scott Rupp Weapons and ammunition Pistols Magazine:

“Our ultimate goal was to offer another rugged and reliable firearm to our customers at an affordable price… With the Single-Six as our starting point, we saw an opportunity not only to use different materials, but also to advance our single-action manufacturing process. to a modern level. The combination of those two things is really what sets the Wrangler apart from the rest of our single-action lineup in terms of affordability.”

These “various materials” include an aluminum alloy cylinder frame, synthetic checkered black grip plates, and a manufacturing process known as investment casting which gives advantages to both parties as both are more durable and more affordable than the manufacturing processes used by competitors such as Colt and Smith & Wesson. The weapon also comes factory standard with a rust and corrosion resistant finish known as Cerakote, with color options such as black, silver and burnished bronze.

Barrel length options include 3.75 inches, 4.62 inches, 6.50 inches, and 7.50 inches. The 4.62-inch version has an overall length of 10.25 inches and a weight of 30 ounces. As with most revolvers, the cylinder capacity is six rounds (hence the slang term “sixgun”).

According to my colleague Peter Suciu, “since the end of June [2020]the gun was at the top of the list for best selling revolvers to those under fifty years of age and came in second place in the category — only after the extremely popular Colt Python— for shooters over fifty years old (Source: National Shooting Sports Foundation [NSSF] data).”

Range report and marksmanship impressions

I have thirty-five years of shooting experience under my belt, thirty of which I am an actual gun owner, and those of you who know me personally and/or have read my previous firearms articles know that I m more pistolero but a person with a long weapon. As for that pistol experience, I own multiple semi-automatic pistols and double-action (DA) revolvers; in the latter category, I particularly like the Ruger’s GP-100 and Redhawk in .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum.

However, I have relatively little experience with the SA revolver and have never owned one. Accordingly, I plan to remedy this in the near future by making a so-called “hogleg” with my next gun purchase. Moreover, I’m about to get one in .22, since an anonymous friend of mine generously donated a huge container of .22 ammo (mostly .22 LR, but with some .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire [WMR] thrown in for good measure; the first can be used in my beloved Beretta M9A1-22but not the latter).

With that in mind, I recently went to an excellent XCAL an indoor shooting range in Ashburn, Virginia, to test their rental Wrangler; this particular example had a 4.62 inch bbl. and finish Burnt Bronze. To enable my evaluation, I bought fifty pieces CCI Mini-Mag 22 long rifle ammo 40 grain copper plated round nose ammunition ia USPSA/IPSC paper target. I divided the course into twenty-five rounds of headshots at 7 yards and twenty-five rounds of torso shots at 25 yards, delivered from Classic Weaver stance.

Impressions?

It had decent accuracy, once I took the “Kentucky wind” and adjusted the fire for a 5 hour hold at both distances to compensate for the fact that the gun was reading extremely high to the left of my aiming point; at 7 yards, my first shot missed the head completely! After setting up, I scored twenty hits in the A-zone of the pit and four in the C-zone of the head. At 25 yards, I got six hits in the A-zone, seven in the C-zone, and the rest in the D-zone. (For whatever reason, the USPSA/IPSC targets omit the B-zone.)

I like the fact that this gun, unlike more old SA wheelsit does not require reaching halfway to the valve for loading and unloading.

It also has a decent trigger.

The blade front sight and rear sight with integrated notches provided a good sight picture, but not as easy to use as those on DA revolvers of the same manufacturer.

The extraction of empty cartridges was a main pain! Unless you line up the individual chamber with the loading port just right, the empties will stick…and even when I got the alignment right, I often had to work the puller bar multiple times to clear the damn thing, which wasn’t just frustrating than hell, but also carved into my 1 hour range booking time limit (and remember, I he still had one more gun to try after). Thank God for the invention of the double-action (DA) revolver (with its swing-out cylinder) and a semi-automatic pistol!

Bottom line, while the Wrangler is a decent gun, it doesn’t impress me as much as the DA revolvers. I feel a great desire to try it Heritage Rough Riderwhich has an MSRP of $207.99 — and also comes with a .22 WMR cylinder as a bonus for the money — before I make my final purchase decision.

Want yours?

The real value of the weapon states that “a RUGER WRANGLER pistol is currently worth an average of $226.90 new and $140.27 used. The 12-month average price is $225.55 new and $140.65 used.” Sturm, Ruger’s official website lists an MSRP range of $269.00 to $279.00.

About the author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force Security Officer, federal law enforcement officer, and private military entrepreneur (with assignments in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and a master’s degree in intelligence studies (concentration in terrorism studies) from the American Military University (AMU). It was also published in The Daily Torch, Journal of Intelligence and Cybersecurityand Simple flying. Last but not least, he is a follower of the Order Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you want to study his brain further, you can often find him at Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, enjoying fine stogies and quality human companionship.

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