Dantforth said:
Street....it may well be that it was shipped with the hard rubber grips. But, original owner says it was purchased with walnut. Other owners of early Magnum Only single sixes have shown that the only indication that their revolver came with walnut was a sticky on the end of their box. Box marked RSSM only. Either way it is a fine example. As a note to all members here.....the lady I spoke with at Ruger, Linda, told me that this extra info is available and will be provided if the request contains a seperate note asking for those particulars. David.
PS- possibly I should note that fact somewhere else her on this board so all members see it?
Yes! All 6 1/2 in Single-Sixes only had RSSM on the box, even the ones with walnut grips, even the convertibles, and even the convertibles with walnut grips. All of these guns the box will only have "RSSM" as the model number on the end of the box. Only the shipper will have RSSM, RSSMW RSSMX to denote the model number. And yes the early ones with walnut grips will have the small brown sticker, "with walnut grips" on the end of the box. This stopped when they started shipping the guns with Walnut grips in 1960 I think! And of course when the XR3-RED grip frame started being used then only walnut was used, in 62-63.
Now as a collector, what someone says doesn't mean anything when you have a letter from Ruger stating otherwise. As a collector only what will letter counts, even if it is wrong. If it's wrong, then one needs to do everything in his power to get it changed. If you can't get it changed then the letter will over ride everything else.
Now the gun in question, which doesn't have the original box, with the walnut sticker, is a RSSM per the Ruger letter. If Ruger says it was shipped with the walnut grips then the letter will state a model number RSSMW, which it doesn't.
So from a collectors point of view then the gun is a magnum only with black hard rubber grips. As most of the early magnum guns were.
