Info on Ruger Speed six 9mm

[vano57]

Well yesterday I traded into a Ruger speed six in 9mm it appears to be new in box so when i got home I looked at the Ruger web site to determine when it was produced, The sn was not listed 159-95820 so i called Ruger and the customer service rep seemed confused she rechecked the information she had and said the gun was shipped from the factory in 2009 said it was very strange since they have not produced it in a very long time.
This is a early modle it has the wire inside the cylinder so no moon clips are needed it is blued barrel is 2.75 inches has a groved trigger that is blued on the groves shipped in a Ruger red and black box but all information is hand written has the serial number and also ss92.
The story i was told and no way to prove that the man who owned it worked for Ruger as a engineer of some sort he wrote on the box 9mm hold on to this speed six for his wife this was the last of his collection she sold. I sent the form into Ruger for one of there letters today so will see what they say. Any information some you guys may have would be great.

Thanks
VanO57
will try and get pics loaded have to read up on that

 

[WAYNO]

Sounds like you have a very rare Pilorget prototype, or a gun that someone has installed a Pilorget system. I know a Pilorget Speed Six was offered via the Ruger auction, but I've lost track of what happened with it. In this case, I do not understand the late s/n, other than speculating that it was assembled from spare parts at the end of the Speed Six run.

I'd sure like to know the history of this lost sheep, and I'd really like to have this gun!

WAYNO.

Oh...And welcome to the forum! :mrgreen:

 

[Terry T]

Ditto what Wayno said. :shock:
Terry T

 

[RoninPA]

Wayno,
You may be on to something there, with the wire in the cylinder that does say Pilorget. And with the OP's background story I wonder if the person did work for Ruger and just collected some parts until he had enough to build it. I'm leaning that way because of the high serial number. The Pilorgets would either have had a low s/n or possibly a prototype s/n.

It will be interesting if the OP can get more info and pass it on to us Six Series junkies.

I agree, I'd love to add that to my collection (as I am sure 6 or 7 or 25 other people would also )

 

[Heliman]

I agree, I'd love to add that to my collection (as I am sure 6 or 7 or 25 other people would also )[/quote]




Make that 8! 8)

Dave

 

[T.A. WORKMAN]

Welcome to the forum,
That gun was a 1984 production run.
Very Nice Score!!
Terry

 

[vano57]

Hey Guys Thanks for the responses The information request to ruger went out in the mail yesterday so when I here back from Ruger I will post the info. they provide.

Is there any were I could look up any information on my own ref. books or something

Again
Thanks

 

[wizofwas]

First, welcome to the Forum. I also, would like to hear more about that Speed Six. And like the others, that would be a nice addition to my collection, if the price was right.

 

[chet15]

Hey Guys Thanks for the responses The information request to ruger went out in the mail yesterday so when I here back from Ruger I will post the info. they provide.

Is there any were I could look up any information on my own ref. books or something

Again
Thanks

Yes..would be very interested to see some pics of that revolver here as well!
I think there were maybe only a couple Pilorget 9mm revolvers known prior to this post.
Myself, I think it would be a stretch to say this gun was an engineer's, and the reason it had the Pilorget system. I think it much more likely it is a leftover from a foreign contract that sat in the factory until they decided to purge their warehouse of all things like that. Even though we in the U.S. are accustomed to most 9mm Ruger "Six" series revolvers needing half-moon clips, there is nothing out there saying the Pilorget system couldn't have been specifically requested by a foreign government or (less likely), a domestic contract. 9mm sure smells of foreign contract to me. And with a 2009 ship date, everything makes sense.
Chet15

 

[njdet354]

Does anyone still do the Pilorget System conversion ?

 

[Noah Zark]

Does anyone still do the Pilorget System conversion ?

Charter Arms in their "Pit Bull" 9mm and 40 S&W revolvers.

Noah

 

[vano57]

Well after a few weeks of waiting I got the response from Ruger about the speed six 9mm all the letter said was that it left the factory 2009. That's it nothing about were it shipped to or anything else. I have read many responses that Ruger don't provide much in their request for information but t
I was hoping for more than they told me on the phone. Well thanks to all that responded. I guess I will keep it in the safe for now

 

[Terry T]

We'd still like to see some photos.
Terry T

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I just saw this thread. I can tell you a couple of things.

One, I have a Pilorget Ruger, it was a prototype conversion done on a 150 prefix Security Six. It was one of the Ruger Auction offerings, I think in 2008. Here is a pic of the fancy business.

The other thing is that Ruger did a big Newport warehouse purge in 2009 of miscellaneous DA -Six revolvers. One of the shops nearby me got 3 cartons of them, each with a dozen guns.

I bought quite a few from that shipment including a contract gun made for the Western Australia Police and a factory high polish stainless 2-3/4" old frame Security Six. All the guns letter as having shipped in 2009 (some with dual ship dates) and they all had the modern then-current orange bar-coded end labels.

Sounds like your Pilorget gun was part of that same warehouse cleanout but shipped to a different dealer. Ruger really didn't appreciate what they were sending out into the wild for cheaper-than-new-GP100 wholesale prices. The W.A. Police Speed Six for instance, is (from communicating with a former W.A. Police agent) possibly the only example left in existence since Australian law prohibited re-selling their used revolvers; so when they switched to autos, the revolvers were all destroyed. They were used by an elite SWAT-type outfit and in .357 Mag but had no caliber marking because they didn't want regular officers who were restricted to .38 Special to be jealous. What Chad said about the Pilorget gun possibly being from a foreign contract run makes as much sense as anything, since Ruger would always keep back one or several examples of contract guns in case they needed to do a warranty replacement.

During the cleanup, some guns were completely mis-identified as to catalog number when the labels were made. The W.A. Police stainless Speed Six, for instance, was tagged as a RDA-32 (blue Security Six) and so will forever letter as such. Warehouse folks who had to label this stuff were clearly struggling with catalog numbers that had not been used in a couple decades or more.

All these collectible revolvers were dumped into normal commercial channels in 2009.

 

[T.A. WORKMAN]

:shock: Damn Bob, that was quite the treasure chest of -Six;s to choose from!!
I knew that you had that 9MM stashed back, only one I have ever seen pictures of.
Very nice snags!
Terry

PS- How's the book coming?? :wink: :twisted:

 

[vano57]

weaselmeatgravy
Thanks for the recent info and looks like you have a great collection on your hands. I have not loaded any pics yet because I havent taken time to figure out how to on this site best I can tell i need to have attachments rights but not sure.

VanO

 

[hittman]

http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51390

How 2 Use Photobucket 2 Post Photos

 

[roylt]

Photobucket doesn't work for me sometimes so I use
http://postimage.org/

 

[vano57]

I hope this works here are some pics
VanO

I edited your post to make the first pic show - WMG

 

[vano57]

Not sure why the one pic did not post just click on link it will take you to it

Thanks
VanO