Police Service Six.

I've been looking for a descent Ruger 4" stainless dedicated .38 Special off and on for awhile now and came across a Service Six for sale in state.

The older fella that has it says he's owned it for several years and has never fired it but for some reason after getting it his son put Pachmayr grips on it for him and he can't locate the original grips or box......the box and original grips would be nice to have but because of my hands being rather large factory the 'Six Series' Rugers have always felt small to me and I've always changed them out for something larger.

We're supposed to meet 1/2 way between us this coming Saturday morning to complete the sale......from looking at one of the auction sites I may be getting into it a little deep at $400.00 but I plan on hanging onto it and shooting it quite a bit.

I guess I'll know for sure after I get back home Saturday morning but I've got a spare set of the Ruger oversize wood checkered grips that fit the 151 series Security Six......these should fit the Service Six, right ?

Yup. Those should fit the Service Six. It's the Speed Sixes that have a different grip.

I'd say $400 for an as new, stainless Service Six .38 spl. is a fair price, these days.
We est. only 20% to 25% were in .38 spl. (only) and most of those were for LE. Hard to tell how many of those were destroyed when their service life ended rather than being released back into the civilian market, making these hard to find.
I'd recommend the scalloped frame version because it has a thicker top strap which has deeper or more pronounced fixed sights.
If it's called a "Service Six", it's the later high back (normally referred to as ser. no. prefix 151- and later) grip frame which is the same as the Security Six high back grip frame.

Of course we'd like to see photos of it after you get it.
Terry T

Living in Southern California, I'd jump on any of the Six series of revolvers at $400. There aren't that many of them here, and most people don't want to let them go. I just found a smoking deal on a GP100 that was too good to pass up, but I'm still keeping my eye out for a fairly priced Six. Good luck!

Service Six = Speed Six = Police Service Six?

SATCOM

Satcom,
The Service Six and the Security Six have the same square butt.
The Speed Six has a round butt.

Therefore the Service Six and Security Six can share grips.
Terry T

That's a fine price for a stainless Service Six. The Pachs are great shooting grips. The checkered wood good showing off grips. The Six series don't show up on the market very often. Picked up a blued Service Six in .357 last November for $450 from a LGS and it was the only one I'd seen in several years. Can't go wrong if the condition is as described.

Terry T,


I was thinking 2 of these guns are really the same gun with different names and some where down the line the one name was dropped. It must have been Speed Six and Police Service Six. I thought it was Service Six and the Police Service Six dropping the word police. However that can't be possible.
I obtained a Police Service Six .38 Special in stainless steel early this year. It has a square butt ( I had to look.) just as you said. Was the name Speed Six dropped while Ruger was still making these double actions?

This certainly a minor thing about guns no longer made but can help clear this up for me?

Thanks

SATCOM

PS
Just to keep from totally running away with thread, my Police Service Six was $350.00 + 30 shipping. It came with big old ugly Pacmyer's that I replaced with originals. Any want a set of Pac's for $0.00?

Satcom,
NOW you've done it. :shock:
You've asked THE question.
Here goes:
Round butt, fixed sight, six series double actions have always been called 'Ruger Speed Six", unless.....
The Naval Intelligence Service guns were labeled " Ruger model GS32N".

The square butt, fixed sight six series double actions have had different names:
The low back (roughly ser. no. prefix 150-) were labeled 'Ruger Security Six", the same as the adj. sight model.
The High back (roughly ser. no. prefix 151- and higher) were labeled "Ruger Police Service Six" unless.....
Some were labeled "Ruger Service Six" (mostly for overseas markets and the U.S. Army).
Some round butt fixed sight guns were Mis-labled "Ruger Police Service Six" instead of the correct "Ruger Speed Six".

The adjustable sight models have always been labeled "Ruger Security Six".

Terry T

Terry T,

Thanks for the excellent explanation. I appreciate you taking the time for me.

SATCOM

I appreciate the info also Terry.

I'll report back Saturday after the deal is done.

I love my 1988 Service Six. It's stainless, .38 Special, and was not an LE gun. I am the second owner, it came from the estate of older guy who bought it new and kept it as a rarely fired home defense piece. Paid $330.00 delivered to my FFL + $25.00 transfer back in 2010. To me, it is the ne plus ultra of an open carry revolver and I wouldn't sell it for twice the price. As a bonus, it shoots point of aim with pretty much any bullet of 125-165 grains.

4in .38 special guns are hard to come by. Some places like (Boston) mandate that the only gun a special policeman can carry is a 4in .38 special.

They are gold around here.

I just dropped off a stainless Speed Six .38 Special, round butt gun with Spegel grips at Gun Runner Auctions, Cody WY for their next auction. Bought it used (Boston PD issue) around 1994; tight as a drum. Sent it off to Ruger for checkout and repolish. It came back looking unfired. Shot it a couple of times; nice, but preferred my old Security Six. If anyone wants a really nice Speed Six they might want to look into it. I'd like it to find a nice home...

Well I drove 180 miles round trip this morning and picked up the gun.

It's stamped 'Ruger Police Service Six' and with the serial number being 158-42*** it shows to have been made somewhere between 1982 and 1983.

I've gone over the revolver very closely from top to bottom and I'm confident that it has never been fired other than factory test firing by Ruger.....I'm very pleased with the purchase, if I came across the same exact condition gun again tomorrow I'd gladly pay another $400.00 for it.

The grips on the gun ended up being Hogue finger grooves not Pachmayr's.

I've got a S & W model 10-11 4" heavy barrel that really likes Remington 125 gr. JSP's over 5.0 grs. of Unique so I'll try some of those first and see what happens.

Sorry no pictures fellas....I'm technology challenged.

I see some of these sixes going for $750. And they sell very fast. I knew they would be collectible sooner or later.

I found a stainless 4 inch Police Service-Six .38 at the gun shop a mile from home about six years ago. The gun had been carried a great deal based on the surface condition, but was otherwise perfect. The gun has the best double action pull of any Ruger I've ever owned. Super accurate and dead on with just about any 158 grain load. I spent a few hours wet sanding and polishing to remove the roughed up surface. Finished with a set of Herretts Shooting Star grips which I scored on eBay.

I haven't seen another Police Service-Six in any gun shop since the one I bought.

Several years ago I made a private purchase of a .38 Special Police Service Six, 4" barrel, stainless with a flat black finish and Pachmayer grips. That's the wife's bedroom gun.