.32 Revolvers Chapter 4: Ruger Single six SSM

Written on December 18, 2013   By Tony   in Revolvers

The Ruger Single six ‘SSM’ was one of the first guns chambered in the new .32 H&R magnum cartridge when it was introduced in 1986, with Ruger jumping on the bandwagon early on.

Over the last 2 and a half decades, there have been a number of versions of the Ruger single six in .32 H&R magnum. The version that I own is a first or second year production, with adjustable sights and a 5.5″ barrel. The single six frame seems very well suited for the class of cartridge. It’s always been a little large for the .22 LR NS Magnum, but the .32 seems to fit perfectly, with the frame providing enough weight to curb the small amount of recoil that the cartridge would have, but without being so large that the cartridge would be drowning in the gun, so to speak.

Most people rave about the accuracy of the early single six SSM’s but while I’ve found my gun to be acceptable accurate, I’ve never considered it something worth writing home about. That is, until I started pushing the loads a little harder than I do in most of my guns.

For some reason the Ruger seems to love speed. The harder I push the .32 H&R loads, the better the gun shoots. I try to always remain within book loads for all of my reloading, and more often than not, find myself closer to the minimum threshold as apposed to the maximum level loads. The Ruger is an exception, it loves when I push 115 grain lead bullets as fast as a book load possible can.

There are a number of other Ruger .32 caliber revolvers that I would like to pick up over time, but this one essentially fell into my lap one day, and I have really enjoyed it ever since. My first handguns were all single action revolvers, and as such, the platform holds a special place in my heart. New shooters always seem to like the ‘old six shooters’ as well.