Big problem with 1977 Single Six cylinder.

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ontarget

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The SS I picked up this week looked pretty good in the poor lighting of the lgs.
Bore and chambers were dirty as if not cleaned after the last range trip.
I figured, it's a Ruger .22, what could go wrong?
I promised myself I was going to do some shooting today, so I grabbed my new six gun and headed out the back door.
I opened the loading gate, dropped in the first cartridge, advanced the cylinder, tried to drop in the next cartridge, but no way it was going in without a fight. Next one same, next one drops right in, next one drops in, next one no way.
I mean I had to use enough force to push them in that it hurt my fingers. Before anyone asks, I do have lumberjack hands, not snowflake hands.:neener:.
Now, after 3 cylinders I could no longer load 2 of the chambers at all, so I put it away and grabbed my 1956 flat gate SS and finished my range time.
Now that there is a smooth operator.
Afterwards I cleaned and polished the chambers of the offending cylinder, thinking maybe someone was firing shorts through it without good cleaning. I saw no signs of a crud ring or anything else that looked like it would cause my problem, but kept scrubbing and polishing with Mothers until I could easily chamber all of the rounds. There was also alot of lead build up in the leade so I cleaned that barrel and leade very well too.
I hope to be able to retest this one on Tuesday.
Other than fouling, has anyone else experienced chambers that tight on their SS?
 
No clue, but with a 45 year old gun, a lot of things could have happened. You have done the right thing by giving it a thorough cleaning.

All that occurs to me if the problem persists is to try different brands of ammo, especially foreign made (or American made, if you were using foreign made). And to try and take a photo of the chambers, maybe by putting the cylinder on an illuminated surface like a smart phone or a computer monitor. People here can be a lot more helpful if they can see what you have.
 
I recently bought a Ruger GP100 .22 in stainless and had the same problem.
A few tight cylinders at first, then after a few rounds it was too tight to insert. Took it home and gave it a good cleaning and tried a different ammo. Results were a lot better, but after a few cylinders it started back up. Took it home and went at it with Mothers. Problem solved for me.
 
Other than fouling, has anyone else experienced chambers that tight on their SS?

Unfortunately, yes.

All the chambers of both cylinders of my Single Six needed a lot of polishing to make ammo insertion and extraction the way it should have been. The same had to be done to my Bearcat for the same reason. My Single Six and Bearcat were both made in the 2010s.
 
Unfortunately, yes.

All the chambers of both cylinders of my Single Six needed a lot of polishing to make ammo insertion and extraction the way it should have been. The same had to be done to my Bearcat for the same reason. My Single Six and Bearcat were both made in the 2010s.

This cylinder was not fouled badly at all. The previous owner must have just struggled with the extremely tight chambers all these years because the wear on the guns finish shows plenty of usage.
I've got it polished up enough now so that 3 chambers drop right in, which I only lightly polished, and the other 3 go in with only very gentle persuasion. I will probably work on those 3 a bit more after I shoot it again.
 
This cylinder was not fouled badly at all. The previous owner must have just struggled with the extremely tight chambers all these years because the wear on the guns finish shows plenty of usage.
I've got it polished up enough now so that 3 chambers drop right in, which I only lightly polished, and the other 3 go in with only very gentle persuasion. I will probably work on those 3 a bit more after I shoot it again.

That's the way both of my guns were. Some chambers polished up to proper "specs" more quickly and other chambers required several goes at it after follow up test shooting sessions.

I did buy my Single Six new, but my Bearcat was bought second hand. I figure the previous owner of the Bearcat was fed up with it since it was only a few years old when I got it.
 
That's the way both of my guns were. Some chambers polished up to proper "specs" more quickly and other chambers required several goes at it after follow up test shooting sessions.

I did buy my Single Six new, but my Bearcat was bought second hand. I figure the previous owner of the Bearcat was fed up with it since it was only a few years old when I got it.

Took it out after my last post. Yes it's great having my own range in the back yard.
It made it through 6 cylinders before it got too tight to load 1 of the chambers. Needs a little more work.
I haven't shot it on paper yet, but seems pretty good on steel at 35 yards.
I was even able to hit the 100 yard 10 inch steel pretty regularly offhand.
 
With blued cylinders, aluminum polish is a no-go. Typical solvent, instead?

My pic up thread is a blued cylinder polished with Mother's liquid wheel polish on a cloth patch wrapped through and around a slotted cleaning tip mounted into a variable speed drill. Seems like the bluing is more than skin deep.

To be honest, I was fed up to the point that I didn't care if the bore of the chambers went all the way to the white. Yet, they didn't.
 
I was going to try lapping compound but decide on Mothers first. I was being cautious but maybe is someone knew what they were doing the lapping compound might be more efficient.
 
Other than fouling, has anyone else experienced chambers that tight on their SS?
Unfortunately, yes.
All the chambers of both cylinders of my Single Six needed a lot of polishing to make ammo insertion and extraction the way it should have been. The same had to be done to my Bearcat for the same reason. My Single Six and Bearcat were both made in the 2010s.
Not with a Single Six, but my wife picked up a new model Bearcat a few years back, and it has some real tight chambers. Not every brand of ammo will work in in (I forget which ones will), and I had to do a lot of polishing before any brand would work in all of the chambers.
 
Not with a Single Six, but my wife picked up a new model Bearcat a few years back, and it has some real tight chambers. Not every brand of ammo will work in in (I forget which ones will), and I had to do a lot of polishing before any brand would work in all of the chambers.

I'm just glad to hear it's not just my gun.
I don't have a problem with needing to do some tuning. I had never heard of this issue before so I was a bit worried.
Even after the work I have done on these chambers, the Winchester ammo still won't chamber. CCI and Aguila do now.
 
I used Mothers paste and a bore mop with my drill. I think an automotive valve grinding compound would do the trick, but in my experience with it, would probably remove way too much material way too quickly.

Use Clover fine, check frequently, and you will be OK. Voice of experience speaking. It does it's job quicker than Mother's, JB bore paste, Semi-Chrome, and the other mild polishing agents so don't over do things.

Answering the OP's question: No, but then I only own two singles sixes. one I bought in the early '60's, the other a stainless made in '91.
 
I'm just glad to hear it's not just my gun.
I don't have a problem with needing to do some tuning. I had never heard of this issue before so I was a bit worried.
Even after the work I have done on these chambers, the Winchester ammo still won't chamber. CCI and Aguila do now.

Winchester rimfire is junk so you aren't losing anything.
 
I've got dad's old single six from the same Era, late 70s gun
Never had that issue, but I do scrub it real good when I'm done playing with it. He always did too.
Shoot mainly Remington T Bolts out of it. Lead
 
My ‘81 single six is tight but not so tight it won’t chamber when dirty. It does need the cartridges pushed in when chambering while dirty. All chamber well when clean. I’ve run it a long time without cleaning and it’s never offered failure to chamber.

not has a tight headspace it seems, and I’ve found occasionally, Remington bulk will have a few rims that are too thick and jam the gun. 6 years ago I had two buckets of golden bullets that were that way. About 1:20 were too thick rimmed. More recent production rem ammo has offered no issues. It’s never had an issue with CCI, aguila, Winchester, armscor, federal, or the limited Norma I have tried.
 
With blued cylinders, aluminum polish is a no-go. Typical solvent, instead?

Help me understand. If the charge holes are being polished, why would it matter what finish was on the outside? Solvents will remove the residue from firing .22 shorts (are those even available these days?), but will not help if the charge holes are too tight. Just for the record, S&W .22 revolvers are notorious for having charge holes that need to be reamed or polished to function correctly.
 
A small wipe of Clover fine Valve Grinding compound (as mentioned and available in most Autoparts stores.) on a bore mop on a low spped drill going in and out at a uniform 1 sec and straight as possible 20-30 seconds max. then rinse with solvent and blow out and rinse again should do it. Use the Mothers paste cleaner for maintence next time. Also do that Base pin hole !
 
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