I picked up a Ruger Bisley Single Six. This was, it seems, just in advance of Ruger discontinuing the catalogue item, at least for now. It is a handsome revolver. I had owned a Single Ten once, but never could get it to shoot as well as folks here said theirs did and wound up trading the Single Ten on something else at the LGS. But the .22 LR-only cylinder price of the Bisley model caught my eye, and I have had pretty good luck (after a trip back to the mothership) with a Ruger GP 100 in .22, so I figured I'd give it a shot. While waiting for the weather to clear I got a set of black micarta grips for it, and I mounted an AT3 red dot on a Weigatinny mini-rail to get it all dialed in. Here's a snap of the set-up:
"And then" . . . to quote Bill Murray in Stripes . .. "depression set in."
I was shooting the revolver at 15 yards off an MTM plastic rest. This is a "Y" shaped rest that lets you take most of your shake out of the equation. It is no Ransom rest, but using it I have no trouble putting 10 shots from a S&W 617 or a Ruger Mk III in a group under an inch at that distance. From each cylinder of 6 shots, there was one I just couldn't find. Also the "groups" were horizontally strung. In order to show you all what I mean, I took a biiiiig F-class target and hung it backwards at the 15 yard berm. Point of aim was the black sharpie dot. Here are three different kinds of ammunition (Automatch, Federal Champion, CCI-SV), all exhibiting the same horrible behavior.
These "groups" are six to eight inches wide at 15 yards! And each has a wild flier off to the left, in additional to terrible horizontal stringing. Something just ain't right, but I am not sure how to describe it to Ruger CS. My experiences with Ruger customer service, in general, have been good, but it is just a shame to put a revolver that shoots like this in the stream of commerce. Yuck. And since this was off a well-supported rest, these are the best groups this revolver is likely to produce.
Any theories? A timing problem? A forcing cone problem? A canted cylinder? A badly reamed chamber?
BTW, I am 0-3 on Ruger revolvers, which seems like a Taurus-level of QC at the factory. The GP100 went back for a bad lead-spitting issue. This Bisley couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, from inside the barn.
Edit: got the RMA # and awaiting UPS for pickup tomorrow . . . doesn't seem like a user-servicable issue, if you know what I mean.
"And then" . . . to quote Bill Murray in Stripes . .. "depression set in."
I was shooting the revolver at 15 yards off an MTM plastic rest. This is a "Y" shaped rest that lets you take most of your shake out of the equation. It is no Ransom rest, but using it I have no trouble putting 10 shots from a S&W 617 or a Ruger Mk III in a group under an inch at that distance. From each cylinder of 6 shots, there was one I just couldn't find. Also the "groups" were horizontally strung. In order to show you all what I mean, I took a biiiiig F-class target and hung it backwards at the 15 yard berm. Point of aim was the black sharpie dot. Here are three different kinds of ammunition (Automatch, Federal Champion, CCI-SV), all exhibiting the same horrible behavior.
These "groups" are six to eight inches wide at 15 yards! And each has a wild flier off to the left, in additional to terrible horizontal stringing. Something just ain't right, but I am not sure how to describe it to Ruger CS. My experiences with Ruger customer service, in general, have been good, but it is just a shame to put a revolver that shoots like this in the stream of commerce. Yuck. And since this was off a well-supported rest, these are the best groups this revolver is likely to produce.
Any theories? A timing problem? A forcing cone problem? A canted cylinder? A badly reamed chamber?
BTW, I am 0-3 on Ruger revolvers, which seems like a Taurus-level of QC at the factory. The GP100 went back for a bad lead-spitting issue. This Bisley couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, from inside the barn.
Edit: got the RMA # and awaiting UPS for pickup tomorrow . . . doesn't seem like a user-servicable issue, if you know what I mean.