Every so often I pick up a gun and just can’t put it down. I suspect some of you folks are the same way. My latest case of serious addiction is the Ruger Shopkeeper. This is one of those guns that is not available directly from Ruger. Rather it was commissioned by Lipseys Distributing Co. and will be sold exclusively through them.

The Ruger Shopkeeper is a stainless steel Ruger Bearcat with a 3-inch barrel and ejector rod. It also features a birdshead grip shape and attractive laminated-wood stocks. As with all Bearcats, this one is chambered for .22 LR and will handle shorts, longs, and long rifle ammo. The ejector-rod thumb piece, by the way, has been skeletonized so that it will clear all empty cases, even with the short barrel.

This little sixgun fits quite nicely in the hand and is very well balanced. It is small enough to just be dropped into a jacket pocket, leggings pocket. I imagine it would be just the ticket to take along on your woods bumming, camping, and fishing trips. The only complaint I can think to make about it is that it is not chambered for .22 Magnum. 

As nice as this little pocket revolver is, I just had to get some leather for it. The nice crossdraw rig that you see in the photo is courtesy of Mike Barranti, at Barranti Leather Co. Mike makes some great gun rigs out of quality leather. He is also the place to go for traditional gunleather like the Threepersons holster and other rigs of the Old West. In addition, he builds custom holsters for today’s armed citizen.

You can expect to see my review of the Ruger Shopkeeper in the Dope Bag section of the American Rifleman in the very near future. I’d write more, but I’ve got a brick of .22 cartridges and am headed for the woods. Check you later!