Ruger Bearcat...

[flatapple]

I have a chance to purchase a Ruger Bearcat, new model stainless steel for a price to good to pass up.  I have always wanted a Bearcat...I would have just like to get one of the old models. 
Anyone have one of these little guys?  If so are there any pros or cons about the Bearcat?  Info and thoughts please.

[Ranch13]

I haven an old Bearcat, pretransfer bar old.. The only thing that is a real drawback with the little bugger the trigger guard is a bit small to shoot with a glove on in cold weather.

[oldandslow]

I had one once upon a time. It was a nice  gun but just too small and I finally sold it to a guy with small hands.

[hillbill]

non adjustable sights would be a con. i love them little guns but i need a gun to hit where i aim out to at least 20 yrds.

[beavdha]

I've had mine for about 4 years now.  Really like it for the trap line. Will hit where I am aiming. Most of my shots are under 10 yards.

[chefjeff]

Above posters are right. Still,a cool little gun, an ideal pistol to start your gal or your child on.

[Ladobe]

Got my first two old model Bearcats in the mid and late 60's, then bought a Super Bearcat in '69 (also an old model).   Still have the SB, my favorite 22 revolver to just stick in a back pocket for decades.   I do have two holsters for it, a Hunter leather hip and a custom leather cross draw, but have never used them.   After so many decades doing so it just "belongs" in a back pocket to be on hand for any use.    The SB has 10's of thousands of rounds through it, still shoots like new, has always scored cook pot fodder just fine, took its share of rattlesnakes and saw endless shooting just for fun.   I never found the non adjustable sights to be a problem on any revolver.   With lots of use they point and hit where you look just fine, and faster than having to line up sights.   At 6-1 I also never had a problem with their smaller size, just learned to adapt to them and shooting them very well became second nature.   
 
Never had a new model Bearcat.   Being old school, especially when it comes to single actions, they just don't fit me.   A new model would be a fine SA for most folks though.   All of my Ruger SA's have been old models except for 2 of the 3 44MAG's I've had, and a NM 357MAG Blackhawk bought for a short time after I let a friend talk me out of an old model Blackhawk... until I found and replaced it in turn with another old model BH (that I still have).   My only remaining Single Six is also an old model 22MAG, but I had other OM SS's.   I've shot those of friends, but have never owned a NM SS.     

[Ranch13]

Accuracy has never been a problem with the bearcats, at least not that I've ever heard anyway. The one that's been bummin around here has been known to make 1shot stops on prairie dogs out to about 75 yds. Shot the head off of a rattlesnake the other day at about 20 ft.
 They are handy packing guns, but one still has to use some common sense about where and how you carry it. I know a fella that was carrying one in his jacket pocket while deer hunting. He shot his deer with the rifle and was going to adminster the head shot with his bear cat. Apparently the hammer snagged on something while he was pulling it out of his pocket and at somepoint the thing went off. He gut shot hisself and died a few minutes later.... The gun never left his pocket.

[gcrank1]

I have recently been trying an older model on loan to see if it suits me, and agree with Ladobe 100%, that little pup is working quite well. It is partial to 22LR HV and prints a tad high at 20ish yrds but std velo is way high (more barrel time, I expect) and windage is right on. I can easily drop the blade in the notch or hold a bit low and make things jump and fall. It is a little sweetie and Im torn between it and my old Colt's Frontier Scout now.......which is a bit bigger piece. I no longer have my S&W 4" kit gun, but I think this Bearcat holds and shoots better for me. If you get one that shoots as well as this one I predict you will like it.

[Ladobe]

gcrank1- I shot all different kinds of ammo in the Super Bearcat, whatever was a good deal.   After a couple of thousand rounds shot in one it won't matter what ammo you are shooting.   You'll be starting to know the Bearcat so well that the first shot will tell you where the current ammo shoots, and you instinctively adjust to it.
 
FWIW I too had a Colt 22LR/22MAG (New Frontier 7.5") I bought new early 70's to hunt coastal tree squirrels with, and a S&W Model 63 (the last of a string of the various kit models I'd had since before the Bearcats first came out).  But I preferred the OM Super Bearcat and OM Single Six 22MAG to either of them.  For me anyway the longer barrel on the Colt was no advantage when shooting at any range and more to carry, and the kit guns just don't point as well as the SA's do.   Maybe from growing up on a ranch with lots of old Colt SA's around, but I just don't need adjustable sights to shoot SA's well when I shoot them enough to know them.   
 
Colt NF Buntline 7.5".  Not mine, but like it except that I had custom Mexican Ebony grips on mine, and seldom used the 22MAG cylinder this one has installed.
 


S&W Model 63 4" Square Butt.   Also not mine, but close.  I had very similar custom Brazilian Rosewood grips on mine.

 
I started selling all my guns in 2005, and have sold a bunch of Rugers.  So this is the only Ruger Old Model SA's I still have left and they all wear custom grips.   A Super Bearcat wearing Hawaiian Koa grips; a Single Six 22MAG wearing stag; a Blackhawk 357MAG wearing Mexican Rosewood.

 
One of my Ruger rigs, a custom cross draw and belt with both 22MAG and 357MAG loops I had made because the Old Model SS and BH above both fit the holster perfect.  Never got to use it though.

 

[Sourdough]

Back in the late 60 and early 70s I bought several of these little guns.  The AF would send young married Airmen 18 to 20 yr olds up here.  They would rent a place out in the woods.  The little lady would be home alone most days, and wanted something to protect herself with.  They were too young to purchase a pistol, and could not afford much.  So I would buy them a .22 Bearcat.  They were about $35.00 back then.  Kept saying I would buy one for myself, but just never got around to it.  I must have bought 25 to 30 of those little guns. 

I finally bought one of the new models when they came out.  It's still wrapped in the oily plastic in the case.  never cleaned the shipping grease off or shot it.  I tried giving it to the wife, but she likes the .22/.22mag pistol she has and does not want a new one.  I'll probably give it to my Grand Daughter when she gets old enough to shoot.  Or maybe Sky will hook up with someone and want it for them.  It's just too small for me.

[spooked]

one  I bought back in the earlie seventies at Globe Drug in Tuscon soured me on Rugers for years, shave lead so bad you was lucky to hit a pop can at 8 feet, that was after paying a smith to enlarge the forcing cone...I'm glad everyone else had better luck than me. Wouldn't trade my frontier scout Colt for two of the dern things..