Ruger's Autoloading Rifles And Pistols

Ruger’s semiautomatic pistols and rifles have earned a reputation as accurate, rugged, reliable, practical tools for competition shooters, sportsmen, and law enforcement/military personnel.

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. comes closer to having provided all things to all people than any other firearms manufacturer in American history. No other company has ever offered such a comprehensive product line of different types and versions of guns—from single-action revolvers to elegant, engraved over/under shotguns; from big-bore single-shot and bolt-action centerfire hunting rifles to rimfire competition target pistols; from in-line muzzleloaders to high-tech semiautomatic law enforcement carbines. And more. All have been designed from scratch and manufactured completely in Ruger’s own facilities.

While Ruger in many ways carries an image as a most traditional type of company, with a characteristic flavor of classic design and conscious appeal to the nostalgic tradition of old-fashioned US firearms hunting and shooting values, at the core of the company has always been one of the most modern of all firearms types—the autoloader. From Bill Ruger’s very first firearm design, autoloaders have been at the heart of the Ruger product line—most notably the Mark I and Mark II .22 pistols, the 10/22 rimfire rifles, the Mini-14 centerfire carbine family, and the P-Series centerfire pistols—as well as the past .44 Magnum Deerstalker rifle and the recent 9mm/.40 Auto carbine. All have had a profound impact on shaping the tastes of shooters and anchoring the semiautomatic concept in the general firearms marketplace. All are truly great guns of the century. Let’s take a quick look at what has made these guns so good.

.22 Rimfire Pistols
There are few firearms enthusiasts who do not already know how the Ruger story began with the appearance of a small advertisement in the pages of the American Rifleman in the summer of 1949, heralding “The .22 RUGER pistol... the first overall improvement in automatic pistol design since the Browning patent of 1905.” Bold words, but the efficient, reliable, accurate, and inexpensive ($37.50 introductory price) Ruger Standard Model soon became, and remains today, the largest selling, most popular .22 autoloading pistol in history. The first version featured a 4 3/4-inch tapered barrel with six-groove, 1:14-inch RH twist rifling. It was definitely different from all .22 auto pistols that had come before.

It had no “slide” as in conventional-form autoloaders but instead employed a cylindrical bolt that operated within a tubular receiver, more resembling a .22 autoloading rifle than other .22 semiautomatic pistols. Coil/music-wire springs, not conventional flat springs, were used throughout its mechanism. The dovetailed rear sight was fixed atop the receiver and therefore did not move when the gun was fired. From a manufacturing point of view, perhaps its most innovative aspect was that the frame was constructed of facing halves stamped from two flat sheets of steel then welded together. Again, not typical, but plenty strong for a .22 rimfire action and less expensive to produce than the forged or milled frames of other .22 pistol models—the main reason for the Ruger pistol’s remarkably low price against its competition, a position it has maintained for many years.

The Ruger .22 pistol was an instant success. The first production shipped in autumn 1949, and from that moment forward Sturm, Ruger & Co. has been sustained by profit from sales. As soon as the Standard Model went to market, new versions, variations, and small design modifications and refinements began to be produced. The first major addition was the Mark I Target Automatic, which wasannounced in December 1950. Mechanically the same as the Standard Model, it had a tapered 6 7/8-inch barrel, a Patridge front sight blade undercut to reduce glare, a “Micro-adjustable” rear sight, and an improved trigger with stops to reduce slack and overtravel. More variations and configurations followed, and all versions sold very well. The one-millionth Ruger Standard Model pistol came off the line in 1979.

Throughout the first 33 years of continuous production,the basic mechanical operation of all versions of the Standard Model and Mark I pistols remained essentially unchanged, with differences only in barrel shape and length and type of sights. The final original-design pistol came off the assembly line on the last working day of December 1981 and was immediately replaced by the Mark II Standard Model and Mark II Target Model series, which had the same list of variations in terms of barrel styles and sight systems but also included several new mechanical features. For one, there was a long-anticipated bolt lock plus a pair of recesses at the rear sides of the receiver for easier grasp of the bolt when cocking. A magazine redesign gave 10-round capacity instead of the previous nine. Most significantly, the safety was redesigned so that it locked only the sear (instead of bolt and sear together), which allowed the bolt to be pulled to the rear for visual inspection of the chamber while the safety was engaged instead of requiring the safety to be taken off to inspect the chamber. The trigger pivot retainer was redesigned with a music-wire spring instead of a lock washer to make it easier to disassemble and reassemble the gun.

The new Mark II pistols continued to be as popular as their predecessors, with many more new versions added in the nearly 20 years since the transition. The 2000 Ruger catalog lists 17 individual current model variations of the gun, ranging in price from $265 to $486, including blue-steel, stainless-steel, and polymer-frame versions; barrel lengths from four to 10 inches, tapered or bull barrels; fixed or adjustable sights. Ruger offers the largest number of sporting .22 rimfire pistols in the world—there’s something for everybody. Half a century on the block and demand has never slowed.

10/22 Rimfire Rifles
The second of Ruger’s semiautomatic firearms designs to reach the market was the first Ruger rifle, the .44 Carbine. It was a .44 Magnum hunting tool announced in 1959 and was popularly known as the Deerstalker. This gun endured in the product line until 1985 and was the design foundation for the rimfire 10/22 autoloading rifle series that was introduced in 1964. Like the Ruger .22 pistols, the 10/22 was immediately popular from the moment of its introduction and has become one of the most successful recreational shooting sports products in firearms history. One sure way to tell that a firearm design has reached “classic” status is when the marketplace starts overflowing with accessories and other manufacturers imitations, and by that standard Ruger’s .22 LR semiauto has been a classic for a good long while. The world is presently packed with variations on the 10/22 theme, including a huge list of different wood, laminated, and synthetic aftermarket stock designs plus magazines, barrels, sights, and other accessories as well as “total custom rifle” packages from some of the nation’s best-known and highly regarded gunsmiths and manufacturing firms—Clark Custom, MRI, Turner Custom, Choat, RAM-LINE, Butler Creek, and Hogue to name just a few. From backyard plinking to the Champion’s Circle at the NSSF Sportsmen’s Team Challenge and the Rimfire Action Event at The Masters (which Ruger founded and sponsored), the Ruger 10/22 rifle, in one form or another, is simply everywhere.

As with the Ruger .22 pistol, the basic features of Ruger 10/22 rifle are so well and widely known that little description is called for. The autoloader mechanism operates as a straight blowback (as do nearly all .22 semiautomatics from all makers, rifle and pistol alike), and the design employs Ruger’s trademark integrated modular subassembly features throughout. The trigger housing contains the entire firing mechanism and features a short-throw, high-speed swinging hammer for rapid locktime. The one-piece .22 LR receiver is milled from a solid block of cast aluminum and is drilled and tapped for a tip-off scope mount adapter supplied with the gun. The barrel-mounted open sights feature a fold-down adjustable rear leaf (slide/screw adjustable for elevation, drift adjustable for windage) and a gold bead front blade. The safety is a sliding crossbolt in the front of the trigger guard (easy to use for right- and left-handers alike). A manual latch just in front of the trigger guard can be used to manually lock open the bolt. The compact rotary 10-shot magazine was developed and introduced with the original gun and has since become basic to many other rimfire and centerfire Ruger rifles as well.

The 2000 Ruger catalog contains 10 different 10/22 model variations (prices range from $235 to $445), including the 10/22 .22 Magnum introduced in 1999. The .22 LR versions include the Standard configuration in blue or stainless with barrel band and one-piece smooth hardwood stock; the All-weather models in blue or stainless with barrel band and black synthetic stock; the International Carbine models in blue or stainless with full-length Mannlicher-type checkered hardwood stock; the Deluxe Sporter version in blue only with checkered walnut stock and no barrel band; and the Target Models in blue or stainless with hammer-forged, spiral-finish bull barrels; laminated, target-style uncheckered stocks; and no open sights. All except the 20-inch Target Models feature 18 1/2-inch barrels. Add the .22 Magnum model and there’s a 10/22 for just about any purpose imaginable.

A longtime fan of the 10/22 .22 LR guns, I recently had the opportunity to review one of the first .22 Magnum versions to leave the factory. Although it was externally virtually identical to the .22 LR models, Ruger has made a strong point that the .22 WMR version represents the most extensive modifications to the 10/22 series since its introduction—primarily in the engineering areas ofthe steel receiver and the “heavy metal alloy” (HMA) bolt design, which allows the higher pressure magnum cartridge to operate within a blowback mechanism of the same essential dimension as the .22 LR. At 50 yards the review sample averaged under an inch combined for 11 different loads fired and only 0.63 for the load it liked best. This from an autoloader! In my trade literally scores of fine firearms pass through my hands for evaluation every year. I covet many but can afford to buy very few. I bought this one.

Page One - .22 Rimfire Pistols, 10/22 Rimfire Rifles
Page Two - Mini-14 Centerfire Family, P-Series Centerfire Pistols, Auto Chronology

This article was originally published in Shooting Times magazine in June, 2000.

More Articles

Product Reviews