Small Size, Big Surprise

The Bearcat and "mission specific" diet

I am very traditionalist in general and regarding guns in particular. Side-by-side shotguns are my passion and the only plastic gun that I admire is the Remington Nylon 66. But even being so traditionalist, I have a hard time finding a single action revolver that I can shoot well. I really have a hard time with the standard hog leg grip and I had a Ruger Single-Six Convertible that I trade off because I just could not shoot it well.

But besides being traditionalist, I am also very stubborn and some months ago I bought a used Ruger Bearcat single action revolver for my wife to give it to me as my birthday present. It is better than getting new pajamas that I would not use anyway.

The Bearcat is probably the smallest revolver ever made by Ruger and it is based on a Remington design, so the grip shape is somewhat different than that of the Colt style, and for some reason they just fit me better.

Also, this particular revolver was made in the year that I born and has never received the Ruger safety upgrade. The hammer must be brought to half-cock to load the cylinder and it must be carried with an empty chamber under it in order to be safe.

Due to my working and travel schedule I had very limited opportunity to use the little Bearcat. I shot it a bit at 50 feet at the Southern Michigan Gun Club outdoor pistol range and at 20 feet or so in my basement. In the later case I used Aguilla’s Super Colibri 22 ammo that uses only its primer mixture to shoot a very light 20 grain projectile at around 500 feet per second, with minimum noise and no recoil.

Although we have snow today, yesterday we had a beautiful sunny “Indian Summer” day in Southern Michigan with temperatures in the mid forties, and I went back to the SMGC outdoor range. In such a nice December day the pistol range was packed and since I wanted to sight-in my 375 Holland & Holland rifle and went to the 50 yard range where I met George who was alone shooting some of his pistols and avoiding crowds.

Since there is just so much fun one can have with fully loaded 375’s we transitioned to pistols and started shooting at a full size deer target. First I shot his Ruger 45 cowboy gun and then I gave the little Bearcat a try.

The tiny Bearcat 22 outshot its bigger 45 brother by a large margin and I was able to keep almost all shots in an area equivalent to a deer’s lung or the size of a letter page. A big surprise!

I intend to use the little 42 year old pistol a lot more and just taking it to a walk is a good reason to be outdoors.