Single Sixes, that is.
My Dad was never a "gun guy," but in 1974, when we went to pick up my Smith 19 4" at the gun shop, they had just gotten in a pair of brand-new Ruger Single Sixes in stainless, the first I'd ever seen or heard of (and I read all the gun rags in those days). He took an instant liking to them (one 5.5", one 6.5", as I recall) and put money down on the 6.5" one on the spot. I guess he had grown up in the '40s watching cowboy movies and had been harboring a secret desire all those years to own a "six shooter" of his own. (A couple years later, he also bought himself a stainless Blackhawk in .357/9mm.)
A couple months later, the new Stainless Single Six was on the cover of most of the gun rags, and I couldn't help noting that the serial number on Dad's was actually several hundred lower than any of the test guns in the magazines.
Couple years later, I was offered a blued, Old Model Single Six 6.5" (turns out to have been made in 1969) for the sum of $65. (Sounds cheap today, but about the same time, I bought a brand-new Smith K-22 with Target Hammer and Target Trigger for something like $120, just to put things in perspective.) I grabbed it, thinking it would make Dad a cool "unmatched set." Of course, he loved it. He sent it back to the factory for the transfer bar conversion many years ago.
I've never owned a SA revolver myself, and have only gotten the chance to shoot these a couple times over the last 35 years. I don't think either one has been fired anywhere near 1,000 rounds since Dad got them. Maybe a few hundred at most. To this day the only handguns Dad owns, or has ever shown the slightest interest in, are his three Ruger SAs and the 1911 I built him.
Dad lent them to my kid for the weekend a couple months ago, so thought I'd snap a pic of them while I had the chance.
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My Dad was never a "gun guy," but in 1974, when we went to pick up my Smith 19 4" at the gun shop, they had just gotten in a pair of brand-new Ruger Single Sixes in stainless, the first I'd ever seen or heard of (and I read all the gun rags in those days). He took an instant liking to them (one 5.5", one 6.5", as I recall) and put money down on the 6.5" one on the spot. I guess he had grown up in the '40s watching cowboy movies and had been harboring a secret desire all those years to own a "six shooter" of his own. (A couple years later, he also bought himself a stainless Blackhawk in .357/9mm.)
A couple months later, the new Stainless Single Six was on the cover of most of the gun rags, and I couldn't help noting that the serial number on Dad's was actually several hundred lower than any of the test guns in the magazines.
Couple years later, I was offered a blued, Old Model Single Six 6.5" (turns out to have been made in 1969) for the sum of $65. (Sounds cheap today, but about the same time, I bought a brand-new Smith K-22 with Target Hammer and Target Trigger for something like $120, just to put things in perspective.) I grabbed it, thinking it would make Dad a cool "unmatched set." Of course, he loved it. He sent it back to the factory for the transfer bar conversion many years ago.
I've never owned a SA revolver myself, and have only gotten the chance to shoot these a couple times over the last 35 years. I don't think either one has been fired anywhere near 1,000 rounds since Dad got them. Maybe a few hundred at most. To this day the only handguns Dad owns, or has ever shown the slightest interest in, are his three Ruger SAs and the 1911 I built him.
Dad lent them to my kid for the weekend a couple months ago, so thought I'd snap a pic of them while I had the chance.
I sold a pre-warning RSS4 convertable saw it in friends safe couple weeks ago,he has not even shot it, I might be able to get it back man--- I was not thinking when I let that one go :? :?
