For many years, revolvers from mainstream wheelgun purveyors like Ruger and Smith & Wesson stuck to six-shot rimfire revolvers no matter the frame size, purely out of tradition. You had to venture off the beaten path with a High Standard Sentinel or Harrington & Richardson 999 if you wanted the experience of a nine-shooter in .22LR.Click through to RTWT...
Smith & Wesson’s small-frame .22/.32 Kit Gun had been around in one form or another since the early 20th century, but is wasn’t until the late 1990s that the cylinder received an extra two charge holes, bumping the capacity by 33 percent to eight rounds.
The current J-frame offerings, in 8-shot .22LR or 7-shot .22WMR form, combined with newer rimfire loads designed with personal defense in mind like the Federal .22LR Punch or Speer’s .22 Magnum Gold Dot Short Barrel, offer a viable alternative to the recoil sensitive or folks with infirmities that interfere with using a heavier caliber.
Meanwhile, in larger revolvers like Ruger’s Single Six and the medium frame Smith & Wesson 617, the larger cylinder can swallow as many as 10 shots of .22LR. This is a capacity equivalent to most rimfire semi-auto pistols, as well as delivering the same potential benefits to the double action trigger pull as the eight shot N-frame.
.
