Ruger Wrangler

The Ruger Wrangler is an affordable .22LR Revolver offering from Ruger and in this Ruger Wrangler review, I will give you the full rundown on this fun little revolver.

This .22LR revolver really gives you the nostalgia of watching westerns every Saturday morning with my dad. A true-to-life cowboy action pistol in .22LR is everybody’s dream!

Brief Ruger History

Ruger was founded in 1949 and has grown to be one of the largest firearms brands in the world.

Ruger is most well known for their Ruger 10/22 rifles, bolt action rifles, and revolvers. They also created a number of cartridges bearing their name including the .416 Ruger, 300 RCM, and the 204 Ruger.

Recently Ruger acquired Marlin and will now be making the Marlin lever-action rifles. They will still be under the Marlin brand with Ruger being the parent company.

Size

The Ruger Wrangler is only slightly smaller than the Ruger Single Six with an overall length of 10.25″.

For a .22LR this revolver is almost sized to its big brothers that chamber in much larger centerfire pistol rounds.

After just reviewing and shooting the Browning 1911-22 Black Label, which is only 85% the size of a normal 1911, it was nice to see a 22LR that was almost the same size as its larger counterparts.

Weight

She’s thick. The Wrangler clocks in at 30 ounces and in a world of smaller, lighter, better this is a hoss!

Revolvers aren’t supposed to be light and small though. In fact revolvers only seem to get better the larger the frame and longer the barrel.

It’s not as heavy as something like the Ruger Redhawk which is chambered in 44 Mag, but it’s good to feel gun nonetheless.

Grip

With its classic revolver grip the Ruger Wrangler feels right at home in your hand. If you love a revolver you’ll definitely love this gun.

The grip panels are two synthetic grip panels attached with a single screw in the middle of the grip.

They have a checkered textured pattern on the grip panel to add some grip texture but it’s not extremely abrasive.

Caliber

One of the best parts about this gun is the fact that it’s chambered in .22LR.

Why is that so great you ask? Simple.

Cost. Availability. Low Recoil.

All three of these things are what make the .22LR round so great and such a fun round to shoot. The only downside is how much you’ll have to reload because you’ll want to shoot it so much.

.22LR is one of those rounds I wish I had movie-sized magazines where I could just shoot and shoot and shoot without having to stop to reload.

Capacity and Barrel Length

Like most revolvers, the Ruger Wrangler is a 6-shot cylinder revolver across the entire line of products.

The most common barrel length on the Wrangler is 4.62″.

Ruger has recently released a new model with a 3.75″ barrel and a birds head grip.

The grip is the most noticeable difference on the new Ruger model along with the near inch shorter barrel.

Cylinder

The cylinder on the Wrangler is not a swing-out cylinder like you would find on Ruger’s double-action line of pistols.

If you remove the cylinder it must come all the way out of the revolver. You can easily do that by simply opening the loading gate and pushing the base pin launch and removing the base pin.

It is a very simple process but not one I’d recommend you do on the range unless you had to because of the chance of losing your base pin or base pin latch.

The cylinder does spin smoothly when the loading gate is open and the cycling of the cylinder is very smooth as well when cocking the Wrangler.

Trigger

The trigger on this revolver is actually decent. There is almost zero take up and you start at the wall. The break will surprise you nearly every time and it’s clean and crisp.

Overall the trigger is good and crisp and for a single-action gun I like it a lot. The trigger pull averages about 4 lbs.

Hammer

Being that this is a single-action revolver the hammer plays a major factor in your enjoyment of this gun.

The hammer is easy to pull back and lock in the cocked position and it has a nice texture to it for your thumb to grip.

The hammer falls with ease and looks great in silver on this nearly all-black gun.

Sights

The sights on this gun are fixed sights. They are built into the gun and are made of the same aluminum alloy the frame and entire gun is.

The sights are true to form revolver sights and cannot be adjusted or changed.

The front sight is a blade-style sight and the rear is a normal low-profile U-shaped design.

The sights work but there really isn’t anything spectacular about them. The more you shoot with them the better you get at using them.

I had no issues with the sights and once again gave you a true nostalgic cowboy feel.

They have a checkered textured pattern on the grip panel to add some grip texture but it’s not extremely abrasive.

Aesthetics

It’s hard to beat the overall look and design of the Ruger Wrangler the Cerakote finish on this gun really polishes it off.

With its matte finish, you sometimes see some smudges easier but overall I’ve had no issues with the finish.

The look of the Wrangler is that of a true classic cowboy-style revolver and it really doesn’t disappoint as a plinking gun.

Finish

The revolver is made of an aluminum alloy and finished using Cerakote. The number of models is extensive due to the finish options.

In the 4.62″ barrel model there are 11 different cerakote options available. Anything from black to “Crushed Orchid” colors is available but their availability may be spotty in the current environment.

The Wrangler is definitely one of my favorite 22 handguns in my collection and even makes the list of one of the best fun revolvers.

Conclusion