I'm trying to remember the story of how and when my Dad bought this gun. I DO know exactly where, but that shop has now been closed for a couple decades.
I was too young to legally buy handguns until 1975. My Dad only ever bought himself two handguns, this stainless Single Six and a Stainless Blackhawk in .357. I got a 1911 for Christmas 1972 after I got home from USAF Small Arms Instructor tech school, and then in either '73 or '74 Dad got me a 4" Smith M19. Apparently while dealing for the M19, Dad got the bug to own a single action (I guess he was an old-school cowboy movie fan, or something) and bought, much to my surprise, the stainless Blackhawk. I think at some point thereafter, the gun shop called him up and said "We just got in a couple stainless Single Sixes, you want one?" He went out and looked at them and I do remember this part of the story: They had both a 5 1/2" and a 6 1/2" and he looked at them and decided on the 5 1/2". They sent the 14-day paperwork off to the state police and by the time the papers came back he'd changed his mind and wanted the 6 1/2" (I suppose to match his Blackhawk) so the dealer just changed the serial number on the police papers before final submission. (That was acceptable in those days--today you'd have to start the whole process over again from scratch.) When he called and told me he'd bought it I though he was confused about what he'd bought because the stainless Single Six hadn't been announced yet. The next month, or maybe two months later, the stainless SS was written up in all the gun rags and I remember checking and his SN was lower than any of the gun mag test pieces.
I was too young to legally buy handguns until 1975. My Dad only ever bought himself two handguns, this stainless Single Six and a Stainless Blackhawk in .357. I got a 1911 for Christmas 1972 after I got home from USAF Small Arms Instructor tech school, and then in either '73 or '74 Dad got me a 4" Smith M19. Apparently while dealing for the M19, Dad got the bug to own a single action (I guess he was an old-school cowboy movie fan, or something) and bought, much to my surprise, the stainless Blackhawk. I think at some point thereafter, the gun shop called him up and said "We just got in a couple stainless Single Sixes, you want one?" He went out and looked at them and I do remember this part of the story: They had both a 5 1/2" and a 6 1/2" and he looked at them and decided on the 5 1/2". They sent the 14-day paperwork off to the state police and by the time the papers came back he'd changed his mind and wanted the 6 1/2" (I suppose to match his Blackhawk) so the dealer just changed the serial number on the police papers before final submission. (That was acceptable in those days--today you'd have to start the whole process over again from scratch.) When he called and told me he'd bought it I though he was confused about what he'd bought because the stainless Single Six hadn't been announced yet. The next month, or maybe two months later, the stainless SS was written up in all the gun rags and I remember checking and his SN was lower than any of the gun mag test pieces.
