By John Markwell | Contributing Editor
It doesn’t pay to go to a gun show when you’ve got an extra part for a gun you really don’t need laying around the gun room.
For the last couple of years we have been exploring the practicality and application of the .32 H&R Magnum cartridge, and revolvers chambered for it, for use here in the woods and fields of the Allegheny Mountains. As with some of our past endeavors in the world of the gun, this one has reached critical mass.
Our first .32 H&R Ruger Single Six (ss#1) took two years for Mike Broerman at Salmon River Custom to complete. Seeing as he was fazing into retirement during that time, a questionable completion date of the project was understandable. While awaiting the delivery of Single Six #1, we completed Single Six #2 with the help of Ronnie Wells at RW Grip Frames and .32 guru Fermin Garza. Single Six #2 was featured in a previous TGM article, Tales from the Highline: Guns, Gophers, and RW Grip Frames.
Single Six #1 was finally completed in July of 2022. We have been wringing it out for about nine months now and must say it’s quite the sixgun.
At first glance, the thing one notices about SS #1 is its purely utilitarian appearance. Finished in an almost black matte blue, this Custom Ruger exudes an all-business aura that understates its custom features.
Single Six #1 started life as a stock .32 H&R Mag. Ruger Bisley Model with a 6.5-inch barrel. The barrel was cut to 4 5/8-inches and sports a stepped and recessed crown that is perfectly square to the bore. The front sight was replaced with one of Fermin Garza’s Ramped brass bead units. These, by the way, just screw on the barrel for you DIY folks. Frame modifications have been kept to a minimum and are quite frankly mostly cosmetic.
We have always liked the look of scalloped recoil shields/loading gates on single action revolvers and Mike did a stellar job on SS#1’s. Although they do reduce the revolver’s weight just a bit, we have to admit the scallops just add a touch of class to the gun and we really like the look. The butt of the grip frame received a minimal round butt treatment and a lanyard loop from a WWII S&W revolver was attached to the bottom of the grip. We have to admit that lanyard loops are a personal affectation but, they are also a practical addition to any handgun that may be used around water, ATV riding, or on horseback. We know a Federal Predator Control Officer who is still looking for his Sig 226 that he lost while checking coyote snares on his ATV a couple of years ago.
The factory Bisley hammer and trigger have been retained and Mike polished and tuned the internals of the action to a buttery smoothness (that’s “gun ’riter speak” for slick). A unique trigger-stop, to eliminate over travel, was added which is threaded thru the frame below the hole for the cylinder base pin. The trigger breaks consistently at just a hair under two pounds according to our Lyman digital trigger scale. The rattle of the Ruger transfer bar is still present as even Mike doesn’t have a cure for that.
As we all know, cylinder throat dimensions are critical to accuracy when shooting cast bullets. We’ve learned thru this .32 H&R journey that many older Ruger SAs chambered for the .32 H&R have tighter throats than the newer guns. SS #2 which was produced in 1985 had tighter throats than SS#1, which was built in 2017. We had Fermin Garza hone the cylinder throats of SS#2 out to .3135” while all mike had to do to SS#1’s throats was to polish them mirror smooth since they measured .314”. To be honest, since our most used load for both revolvers is a 125-grain Keith style SWC from Rim Rock Bullets sized .313” we don’t notice much difference in the performance of the two revolvers. Could be that we are not as good a shot as we used to be in youth. Regardless, SS#1 will keep most of all those 125-grain Keith bullets inside of 2.5-inches at 25 yards and that’s good enough for us.
Shooting SS#1 is a bit easier due to the increased weight of the all-steel gun; SS#2 has an aluminum grip frame which reduces that gun’s weight considerably. All test firing was done with the revolver supported by our Ransom Multi Cal Steady Rest. This relatively new item from the Ransom Rest folks has been a welcome addition to our bench and is a considerable improvement over our old set-up which was a couple of sand bags and a chunk of 4×4. We have bench tested the following five loads for accuracy from SS#1; two factory offerings and three handloads.
Load 6 shot group average
Federal 95 grain lead SWC- 829fps 2.45”
Hornady Critical Defense 80 grain FTX- 1030fps 1.80”
125-grain Rim Rock Keith SWC/3.7gr. Win 231- 995fps- 2.50”
115-grain Rim Rock RNFP/GC /9gr. A#9- 1220fps- 1.92”
100-grain Hornady XTP/9gr. A#9- 1170fps- 2.30”
A note on accuracy testing when one is “an older guy.” The above groups are representative of those shot over a two day period from our bench, which is in a grove of trees and our 25-yard targets are also partially shaded; especially when the leaves are off the trees.
This partial shading of the bench and targets makes shooting groups pretty tough at times due to the varying light/shadows on both the handgun’s sights and the targets. Yep, we know it’s making excuses for poor shooting, but that’s truly the case on our range. The best conditions for accuracy testing iron sighted handguns on our range is overcast weather which provides nice even light on both sights and targets; it helps if it’s warm as well. And then there’s that older- eyes thing. However, it has always seemed we more easily shoot better groups on a silhouette target than when using a bullseye or similar aiming point.
Single Six #1 is now field ready and we are looking forward to taking it West this Spring (along with SS#2) for some gopher and maybe, some rock chuck shooting. Being late winter here in the Alleghenies, it’s still “reloading season” and we’ve got a pretty good supply of our 125-grain Keith SWC load put up. Need to get some more hard cast 115gr RNFP/GCs from the Rim Rock folks and get them loaded up as well. And, as the weather warms we need to practice some more with both revolvers just to maintain our edge.
So, what’s this all got to do with a gun show and spare parts?
A couple of weeks ago at a local gun show we ran into a guy who had a really nice 1985 vintage .32 H&R Mag Ruger Single Six with a 6.5-inch barrel on his table at an incredibly good price. Yep, another one! We didn’t really want another Ruger Single Six in .32 H&R Mag but couldn’t resist asking him what was the best he could do on the gun price-wise for cash. He came down a bit, but we couldn’t resist making the guy what we thought was a ridiculously low offer. Damned if he didn’t accept it!
Not by choice, but through circumstance and a bit of cockiness, we are now committed to another Ruger Single Six .32 H&R Mag project; SS3#. The Spare part we happen to have is a RW Grip Frame’s Lightning Model for a (you guessed it) Ruger Single Six. Stay tuned.
