Rimfire wheelgun

Tim86

Tim86

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Anyone have suggestions or recommendations for a rimfire revolver. My son is interested in saving up for one and I'm not sure what direction to point him in. He is 11 and comfortable with semiauto pistols but is wanting to learn his way around a revolver. Thankyou in advance.
 
We don’t know how big his hands are — a GP100 is a fairly big revolver. A Single Six or Bearcat might be better for an 11-year old, and single action is a good training tool. There are at least one each Single Six and Bearcat for sale in the BST section
 
Red Marley said:
We don’t know how big his hands are — a GP100 is a fairly big revolver. A Single Six or Bearcat might be better for an 11-year old, and single action is a good training tool. There are at least one each Single Six and Bearcat for sale in the BST section
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Good point about grip/hand size. The GP 100 is a handful.
 
for adult money i'd say a Smith K-22 Outdoorsman, for a young buck's money I think you would be hard pressed to beat a Wrangler
 
I may be a bit late to the party but I'll throw out a Ruger SP-101. I have one and love it. 8 rounds of "make-them-cans-dance" fun! It is smaller than a GP, but offers the same DA or SA experience.

I shot mine for a while, then smoothed out the action following this guide: https://www.kevinsworkbench.com/sp101trigger/index.html
I later worked on a couple of my other SP-101's using this kit and it worked like a charm: https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-sp101-/-gp100-trigger-spring-kit.aspx If I were to be doing another SP, I'd use this kit. Has all you need to smooth and lighten the action.

The M*Carbo kit would make a good Father-Son project. It has great instructions, isn't complicated, and doesn't take long. A good polishing of the internals coupled with a reduced power hammer spring made all the difference in the world. I chose not to replace the trigger return spring as it did not seem to make enough of a difference in my guns to matter, felt too mushy and made trigger reset slower.

Best wishes to you and your son on your quest!
 
S&W 617 10 shot or Gp100 10 shot. With the speed bees loaders.

He may want to get into some fun Rimfire Challenge and these are great for competition, and both retain their value well. Not the cheapest, but worth the extra saving. Just my opinion.
 
wheelgun_man said:
I may be a bit late to the party but I'll throw out a Ruger SP-101. I have one and love it. 8 rounds of "make-them-cans-dance" fun! It is smaller than a GP, but offers the same DA or SA experience.

I shot mine for a while, then smoothed out the action following this guide: https://www.kevinsworkbench.com/sp101trigger/index.html
I later worked on a couple of my other SP-101's using this kit and it worked like a charm: https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-sp101-/-gp100-trigger-spring-kit.aspx If I were to be doing another SP, I'd use this kit. Has all you need to smooth and lighten the action.

The M*Carbo kit would make a good Father-Son project. It has great instructions, isn't complicated, and doesn't take long. A good polishing of the internals coupled with a reduced power hammer spring made all the difference in the world. I chose not to replace the trigger return spring as it did not seem to make enough of a difference in my guns to matter, felt too mushy and made trigger reset slower.

Best wishes to you and your son on your quest!
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Thanks for the links! Plan to order the M*carbo kits for my DA's. Their DIY video is long but awesome.
 
Snal~ said:
Thanks for the links! Plan to order the M*carbo kits for my DA's. Their DIY video is long but awesome.
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I need to order some of those!
I remember last time I looked the parts of the kits were going to cost about 100$ good to see they made a kit cheaper than the others.
I have a few GP with a wolf kits and they are good but not like this kits. Thanks for the reminders!
 
I did MCarbo springs on my S&W Shield which is known for a fairly bad trigger. Worlds difference for $25ish. Definitely recommend their stuff.
 
Smith & Wesson Model 63 was the best 22 revolver I owned. I only sold it because I found it a pain to clean. Sometimes I'm sorry that I sold it but I replaced it with a 22C that I found to be a great pistol for the range.

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wheelgun_man said:
I may be a bit late to the party but I'll throw out a Ruger SP-101. I have one and love it. 8 rounds of "make-them-cans-dance" fun! It is smaller than a GP, but offers the same DA or SA experience.

I shot mine for a while, then smoothed out the action following this guide: https://www.kevinsworkbench.com/sp101trigger/index.html
I later worked on a couple of my other SP-101's using this kit and it worked like a charm: https://www.mcarbo.com/ruger-sp101-/-gp100-trigger-spring-kit.aspx If I were to be doing another SP, I'd use this kit. Has all you need to smooth and lighten the action.

The M*Carbo kit would make a good Father-Son project. It has great instructions, isn't complicated, and doesn't take long. A good polishing of the internals coupled with a reduced power hammer spring made all the difference in the world. I chose not to replace the trigger return spring as it did not seem to make enough of a difference in my guns to matter, felt too mushy and made trigger reset slower.

Best wishes to you and your son on your quest!
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Thankyou for the great advice
 
@Tim86

my GP100 in 22lr is a great handgun but not a good choice for an 11 year old. rimfire revolvers need to have very heavy mainsprings to ensure reliable ignition. This presents a problem for the DA trigger pull as it’s naturally heavy. Add to this the weight of a steel revolver and it quickly becomes unmanageable by anyone other than an adult male.

I would suggest looking at the aluminum frame single action 22’s in the bearcat-type category, they will be lighter and the single action trigger allows a youth to use hand strength instead of just a single digit to get the necessary mainspring tension. An alternative is a semi auto 22 like a Ruger SR22 or any other decent 22 pistol.

the S&W 617 or their 317 airlite are frequent suggestions but suffer from same trigger weight issues as every other DA revolver. The only way around this is to use a light mainspring in which case light strikes are basically guaranteed.
 
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92G said:
@Tim86

my GP100 in 22lr is a great handgun but not a good choice for an 11 year old. rimfire revolvers need to have very heavy mainsprings to ensure reliable ignition. This presents a problem for the DA trigger pull as it’s naturally heavy. Add to this the weight of a steel revolver and it quickly becomes unmanageable by anyone other than an adult male.

I would suggest looking at the aluminum frame single action 22’s in the bearcat-type category, they will be lighter and the single action trigger allows a youth to use hand strength instead of just a single digit to get the necessary mainspring tension. An alternative is a semi auto 22 like a Ruger SR22 or any other decent 22 pistol.

the S&W 617 or their 317 airlite are frequent suggestions but suffer from same trigger weight issues as every other DA revolver. The only way around this is to use a light mainspring in which case light strikes are basically guaranteed.
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Great points 92, thankyou
 
S&W 647 .17hmr has been on my wish list forever….one day.
 
I have had a bunch of different single action .22lr revolver, and a few double action ones. I've sold or traded most of them. I like SP101s and GP100s. Traded a Taurus that I wish I had kept. DA trigger pull was tough! Even had a Rossi that was very nice. Also, a S&W that someone wanted more than I did.

It seems to me the Heritage Rough Riders are worth more than they cost. I've kept two of them with 6 1/2" barrels. Up close they ain't purty and the safety might be revolting to some. But bending the front sight really puts them on target. They have gone bang every single time the trigger has been pulled. The trigger pull is right at 4 lbs, right out of the box. The design of the action is much like a Colt. And a .22 mag cylinder can be had for $29.99. They work for me.
 
Same as above.

Hard to beat the Heritage for a first 22lr revolver.

Find the ammo it likes and use it. Yeah, a specific wrangler might shoot better. Yeah single sixes on up through 617's, etc are incredible.

But. Saving $100-150ish bucks (with promotions I'm into mine for under $100) gets a darn good start for a youngster to have their first revolver. Then learning how to shoot "their" pistol through its quirks...
 
It just so happens I ran the Ruger booth at SASP Nationals for 2 days last weekend. More youngins than you could shake a stick at came up and tried out the factory GP100 .22 revolver.

Honestly, for the very young ones, it ate their lunch.

As a Rimfire revolver dork that owns a VERY custom .22 race revolver, I can appreciate the double actions.

And honestly with a couple springs the GP 100 would work great. But the factory pull is awfully heavy.

If you can swing it the GP 100 is great. If you want a S&W get the 4” and not the 6” 617. Six incher is just way too front heavy. There are cheap fixes for the Smith trigger too.

If budget is limited, and I suspect it is for most 11 year olds, the Heritage revolver wins. If you want a sweet single action revolver that will be worthy of passing down, get a Heritage, Wrangler, or Single Six as others have mentioned above. A Bearcat would be awesome if within budget but that’s asking a lot.

I like the Heritage over the Wrangler because the Wrangler finish ain’t “cowboy” enough for me.

Anyhow, the kiddo testing with GP100s is something I can speak to with some small measure of authority at this point.

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I like my SP101.
I also like my single six, but I got tired of punching empties out one at a time.
 
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Tim86 said:
Anyone have suggestions or recommendations for a rimfire revolver. My son is interested in saving up for one and I'm not sure what direction to point him in. He is 11 and comfortable with semiauto pistols but is wanting to learn his way around a revolver. Thankyou in advance.
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ruger single six. never goes out of style. have had one for 50 years snd it still comes out to play.
 
I'll disagree with the recommendations for a Heritage or a Wrangler; not because there is anything wrong with them. I would certainly not turn my nose up at either one.

I just feel like a "first" should be something that is worthy of family heirloom status. All steel, or all stainless, a Smith or a Ruger. Something that your son will be handing down to his son. Not something with an aluminum or pot metal frame, sprayed with Cerakote.

I have a GP100 in .22lr, and I think it is too heavy for a non-adult, or even a small adult. A K-frame Smith would be a little better, but a SP101 or one of the S&W kit guns would fit better, and he will never outgrow it. Same with the Ruger Single-Six and Bearcat. I love the bird's-head grip Bearcats. Need to buy one for my wife.😉

One outlier, just a personal favorite of mine, is the old H&R Sportsman/999 top-break revolvers. They are fine revolvers, and the top-break action is really cool, although probably not practical from a training standpoint since there are no defensive guns that use that any more. But, it would be an instant heirloom that is small enough to be manageable for your son, but big enough to work for him for the rest of his life.
 
I'm not too sure how fast an 11 year old can save....but for something a bit less expensive than some of the great suggestions above:

Taurus 94 scrubbed.jpg 20200831_121226.jpg

My 9-shot Taurus 94 has always been a favorite of the youngins.
 
A K or J frame S&W would be the best. I love Rugers, but S&W are hard to beat and as long as they are not abused, they retain or go up in value as time goes on.
 
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