Very Rare Police Service Six

I got a head's up on this gun and bought it about a month ago, it finally arrived today. See if you can spot the unusual feature in the first couple pics before scrolling down to read about the details.





Ever since I learned that these existed maybe 15-20 years ago, I had been looking for one. Did you spot the difference setting it apart from a regular 4" blue Police Service Six .357 Mag?

It is the heavy barrel. Note that the rollmark is pre-warning, and the "H" heavy barrel guns did not come around in production quantities until after the warning statement began to appear in 1978. This gun has a 152 serial number prefix and dates to 1977 production. The barrel is not only heavier but the muzzle area around the crown is oddly milled with a protrusion beyond where it would normally terminate. These are noted in the RENE Reference as catalog number SDA-34MB revolvers, the MB standing for "machined barrel". First reported by Sonny Johnson in the March, 1984 RCA Journal, these revolvers are quite rare with only a few examples known (and I have heard that Sonny's collection fell victim to a structure fire years ago). This is the first one I had even seen.

According to Sonny's RCA article, the sight rib is 17/32" wide with 12 grooves as opposed to a standard Service Six barrel rib being 3/8" (or 12/32") wide with only 7 grooves. And he notes the lug is 1/2" wide versus 3/8" on the standard guns. And the barrel is non-tapered 11/16" diameter versus the standard tapered barrel. His theory on the muzzle protrusion is that it was due to a "machine adjustment error" that resulted in the barrels being cut about 1/16" too long. The "machined barrel" designation was because these barrels were machined from bar stock rather than forged. Sonny's article references the model SDA-34MB, so I assume he got his lettered, which I have not yet done with this one. He also indicated that a factory source told him these should have been rejected due to that barrel protrusion. This suggests that there may be other MB guns out in the wilds without the muzzle protrusion (they would of course be more difficult to spot).

According to RENE, there is also a single stainless gun known, model GF-34MB, I'd sure like to find one of those!

Here are some more pics showing the details:

This is absolutely stunning

Bob-
Outstanding find….and great pictures and post as usual! Thanks

A thought on the protrusion because "the barrels were cut too long. I guess I have to ask, "cut too long for what" since they aren't Single Action tube stock. Being a "machined" barrel, and not forged, one would think that machining would have taken place on the front of these barrels at some point, even during the procedure of milling the front sight slot, and drilling the front sight pin hole. Surely there was a fixture for milling/machining the front of a standard DA tapered barrel. I also see a chamfer inside corner of the muzzle which would seem that the extra protrusion was on purpose. Maybe these MB barrels were machined like that in order for Ruger employees to readily tell the difference between the heavy barrel and a standard tapered barrel?

Next... if they were done like that in error (remember these barrels were made on purpose as a Heavy barrel variant), then where are all the other 152- prefix heavy barrel DA's?
Chet15

Chad, I tend to agree that the likelihood of an "error" like that not being caught seems slim. If it was an error, and it was caught, it may have been brought to Bill Ruger's attention, and knowing how he hated to waste anything, his directive was to "ship 'em!".

I was simply echoing what Sonny wrote in his 1984 RCA Journal article:



I have the whole (2 page) article scanned but hesitate to post it without RCA permission. But I think it is legal to quote small excerpts of copyrighted material as long as credit is given.

The "Machined Heavy Barrel", I had one of these in heavily used condition, I sold it off when I decided to focus more on GP100's.

By no means am I an expert on these fine old guns. But I did spot the odd end of the barrel. I missed the fact it was a heavy barrel and that being unusual.

EXCELLENT find there Bob!
KUDOS!!!!!!!!

Very nice! The variations in Ruger items is part of the fun. The muzzle is intriguing. I wonder if they missed a step in production in not being crowned and were assembled with the end of the barrel in that configuration. It would be harder to disassemble it to configure the muzzle properly so they were shipped as assembled. It's just a thought on my part....

Thanks for sharing your new find. Beautiful Service Six.

Sometimes I forget things, Today's re-learning lesson was all about a stainless Liberty Service Six that I have owned for about 10 years and has an unusual label on the box noting it as model GH-34. When the heavy barrels went into regular production, the 4" stainless .357 Service Six with the Heavy barrel was called GF-34H. The standard barrel model is GF-34. GH is just weird. Chad and I had been discussing this curiously marked box a couple weeks ago, but it didn't click about how much earlier the Liberty guns are than the normal production Heavy barrel guns that started trickling out in about late 1978 or early 1979. But while scanning the RENE Reference yesterday, I spotted this:



So the little bulb switched on in my head and I noticed that the GH-34 boxed gun is in that range. So I dug it out today. I believe this is the same weight barrel as the Machined Barrel blue gun, and it is certainly the same wider sight rib (Sonny's 1984 RCA article called it the No. 1 rifle rib) and underlug. But no odd protrusion at the muzzle. Whether this is what the "finished" look of the MB guns was supposed to be, I don't know. I will have to dig out a later Heavy barrel gun and make some comparisons, but I don't believe them to be the same - as I recall, the regular production Heavy barrel is barely discernable from the standard barrel.

On a related note …. Did they put a heavy barrel on any of the 2.75 or 6 inch models? Seems all we picture are 4 inch versions.

hittman said:

On a related note …. Did they put a heavy barrel on any of the 2.75 or 6 inch models? Seems all we picture are 4 inch versions.

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No, just the 4". They were trying to add a little weight to the 4" gun that was already present on the 6". And the 2.75" was not long enough to make a difference since it barely tapers to begin with. The late production 3" barrels might not be tapered though - that would be something to check.

Bill wouldn't waste good, functional barrels

This was probably an attempt to make the Six more S&W 13/65-like for LE customers who are replacing S&Ws

Great score and info Bob!!
Terry

Stantheman1986 said:

This was probably an attempt to make the Six more S&W 13/65-like for LE customers who are replacing S&Ws

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Very possible! LE was always the priority, in front of domestic sales.

I wonder compared to other gun makers of the 70s and 80s, ( the revolver years ) how much of the LEO market Ruger ever won.

hittman said:

I wonder compared to other gun makers of the 70s and 80s, ( the revolver years ) how much of the LEO market Ruger ever won.

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They got a good piece of the market , plus foreign sales . The US Army inventoried snubby Speed Sixes until the 2000s for limited issue .

The NJSP used them, a 6" Security Six was what the Trooper who was killed in 1987 or so was reloading when he was shot and killed, prompting the NJSP to go with semi autos. This happened not far from where I lived in NJ. This was one of the incidents that caused LE agencies to start going to wonder nines. Also Ruby Ridge.

S&W was still dominant though. They have just been around so long and Ruger was the "new kid". The NYPD was heavily pro-S&W despite offering Rugers as an option.

As much as I love my Rugers, S&W just had too strong of a foothold in the market and Ruger won contracts because they offered a cheaper product that required less maintenance

Colt was always expensive and maintenance intensive, and by the time they tried the Mk III action to stay competitive, the revolver era for LE was wrapping up

There may have also been a minimum weight metric at some agency they were trying to meet by adding an extra ounce or two.

Sonny's MB gun article mentioned that his came from "the west coast". Though the article came out in 1984, he must have received the gun a year before since he mentions taking it with him to the 1983 NRA show in Phoenix so he could discuss it with the Ruger reps.

Mine also came from the west, California to be exact. Makes me wonder if all the MB guns (the blue ones) were shipped out west, possibly to an LE agency.

The stainless gun came out of NH and likely never made it too far from the factory. Possibly a warehouse cleanout gun that went direct from the factory to where I bought it. There were two stainless Liberty Service Sixes and I bought them both, the other one being a standard barrel in .38 Special, model GF84. Both like new w/shippers, so factory cleanup seems likely.

very nice find