Whenever we look at modern single-action rimfire revolvers, the common model we think of is the Ruger Single Six, with its swappable .22 LR / .22 Win Mag cylinders. I have one, I’ve owned a couple in the past, and I don’t have a single bad thing to say about them.
However.
I happened upon the same offering at Collectors Firearms, only this one’s made by the Italian Uberti company, and good grief, it’s a beauty:
…and at an old GunsAmerica listing, I found it in non-stainless:
Now we all know Uberti makes fine cowboy replica guns (and I’ve shot several of them, in .44-40, .45 LC and .357/.38), but I missed that they also make some other .22 revolvers, featuring a scaled-down Colt Peacemaker action. When I went to their website to see what was what, there was this beauty (which looks more like a Ruger Bearcat, incidentally):
Case-hardened, brass sub-frame, AND there’s a 10-shot model option? Be still, my twitching trigger finger.
And from what I can see, you’d be in for less than $500 each.
Want. All of them.
Dammit! I just bought a single six and a bearcat earlier this year. Had I known …
Those are beauties.
Most of Uberti’s cowboy rifle offerings can be had in either .22lr, or .22WMR, some in both (but not interchangeable like the revolvers).
I’ve always thought it odd that the most prolific manufacturers of “American style” firearms (i.e. SA revolvers and lever action rifles) were Italians. Why is that?
Nothing against Uberti, it just seems strange to me that other than Ruger, there aren’t (to my knowledge) any large-scale makers of SA revolvers right here in the US, which must be their largest market.
I mean, Uberti wouldn’t make all these guns if there wasn’t a market for them, right? So if there’s a market for these guns, why doesn’t somebody here make them? Or has Uberti cracked some code where it’s reasonably cheap and easy for them to make the guns in Italy and then ship them across the ocean?
Or is it likely the case that the actual “market” for these guns is small enough that once Ruger and Uberti have sold theirs, there’s not enough left over for any other competitor to come in?