Recent content by victorio1sw

Not long ago, if you were a CCA member, the Colt Archives would give a 10% discount. That in addition to a quantity discount.

I see that. Maybe that was to cover both the assembly and shipping dates? It would have been better to have both dates, since this was a 1st day manufactured gun. Made Dec 15th, and shipped sometime later.

I noticed that the Ruger letter only gave the date as Dec 1953. Maybe that was to cover both the assembly and shipping dates? It would have been better to have both dates, since this was a 1st day manufactured gun.

Yes, I got my letter right at 2 weeks after mailing in the request. Since this thread has gotten pretty long, here it is again.

I know that someone here put a fancy long-name on this grip material. But to me it looks like simple hard rubber, introduced about 1860. Hard rubber comes in two colors, black and brick red. Merwin & Hulbert attempted to mix black & red for grips, but experienced problems with duplicating the...

Just one reason that Winchester no longer exists? At Colt something similar happened. A CEO there ordered many old records to be tossed, including the Special Order records, but one employee (surname: Hintlian) took them home -- to make them "disappear". Mercy, what nearly got destroyed...

Can you only imagine the destinations that were tossed? The Win 1873 SRC's that went to Texas Rangers, guns shipped to Bill Cody, special orders for Maximilian? I mentioned the Texas Ranger shipments, because George Madis had seen these records in 1968, and planned to add those serial numbers...

That is truly an amazing calendar of Ruger Single Six events that you have constructed! One has to wonder why the ONE gun was completed on a Sunday before Christmas. Perhaps a gift for someone on the 25th?

Some fantastic first day production information! Thanks for sharing.

Well, things could be worse at Ruger. Winchester threw away their destination records between 1968 and 1970. Remington did the same for all records before that. Records worth $Millions in history, tossed by stupid CEO's, because "they needed the space"!

I always just snug down grip screws. I have seen Colt SAA's that must have been stored in a hot car. The owner would find the grips loose, and tighten them more than before. This was repeated dozens of times, until the grips are turned almost inside out, being far from flat on the inside...

This one has been shot a lot, but the bore remains bright and shiny. I don't really plan to shoot this early gun. I do have another 6-1/2" barrel that was made in 1966, that would be more suitable for shooting. It has a matching 22 Mag cylinder, but the cheaper 22 RF's are all I need for fun...