ivory on Single six

[crsides]

Purchased a single six with ivory grips last week. I am satisfied, after reading through the material here, that the ivories are factory.
My question is whether they might have come on this gun originally. It is serial # 166xxx. Was this made in a time period when ivories were being offered.
The gun has a turn line, but otherwise 99%.

Would a ruger factory letter specify if the gun had ivories when it left.

thanks

Charlie

 

[NitroAcres]

UnWritten Rule is to get an answer to such a question we MUST see Pictures of the Ruger in Question...

 

[contender]

According to the partial serial number, your gun was shipped in 1960. I believe the ivory grips were no longer a factory offering by 1957.
And, not many, if any, Ruger factory letters ever have the type of grips that was on the gun when shipped.

 

[crsides]

Ok ok






Don't have backside pics, but they are dished out area's with pencil # 8's. The rivets look right and they are recessed.

 

[NitroAcres]

Those are Nice...good looking SS.

 

[street]

From all information that I have read, the medallions are placed wrong. If it was me, and this is only my opinion, I would say that they are not factory Ruger grips. Keep in mind this is only my opinion, and I have been wrong when it comes to Rugers in the past.

 

[rugerguy]

Again, we get to agree to disagree, to me that is the same as the early further set back versions, these matched the set back of the medallions in the early walnut grips, look,see and compare...yes, would really have to "see" the backs, but there are some versions out there, with the "dish" and the number to keep sets together.......are they factory ?? subjective, as well as opinionated, NO ONE will ever know for certain as far more "pairs" have been made up over the years than the factory ever ordered or had made for any and all of their old model guns.........when you get them on an old model, and the price was right, win-win.to buy ANY pair from ANYONE, for some of the prices that we see them wanting, as well as going for today?? caveat emptor baby 8)

I agree with Ty , the serial number range is "late" for a factory supplied gun, but they could have been ordered, put on, at any given time,by anyone...... :roll:

Colt ivory grips for the Single action Army we see STARTING at $775.... :shock:


crsides, NICE looking gun, even nicer grips......... :wink:

 

[SATCOM]

crside,

Yes, nice gun and great grips. Since you jut purchased it, look at it this way;

1. A pair of proven Ruger ivory grips are listed by RENE at $2,000.00.
2. Your grips are nicer looking than most that would sell for more than $500.00.
3. Put them on your insurance as $2K.
4. Enjoy them as what they are, beautiful grips.

SATCOM

 

[chet15]

There are only one or two Ruger SA's that would ever letter as being shipped with ivory. One was a Fred Davis, Jr. gun and from the other guns in Davis's collection I am just about positive he had some very high factory connection.
Beyond that one or two guns, the only way a pair of factory ivory would appear on an XR3 framed Ruger would be if they were purchased as accessories.
Quite honestly, the meds in that pair of ivory are set back a lot further even than Ruger's XR3 hard rubber panels. Really...the position is approaching the distance from the front as with Ruger's Super Blackhawk grip panel...the medallion position.
Chet15

 

[CraigC]

I'll give you $500 for them.

 

[daveg.inkc]

I need a pair for my 1954 Flatgate

 

[Ale-8(1)]

"Silver" screw & escutcheons??

 

[NitroAcres]

This very SS has been discussed here before...I knew it looked familiar...

http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=148760

 

[Armybrat]

Ok ok

Beautiful old SS.
To my 71 year old eyeballs, the medallion looks to be in the correct place like my 1959 SS:

 

[jstanfield103]

That is one beautiful SS. I could care less if they are original or not. I am glad I looked at this thread anyway just to see that Beautiful revolver.

Thank You !

 

[Fox Mike]

I adjusted the size of the photo and superimposed my OM SS over it and the medallions are spot on.

 

[street]

Ok ok

Beautiful old SS.
To my 71 year old eyeballs, the medallion looks to be in the correct place like my 1959 SS:

One has to understand that the medallions on the Stag and Ivory are not placed the same place that the medallions on the hard rubber grips. Check out Dougans book and you will see that the Stag and Ivory do not match the placement that the hard rubber grips do.

 

[El Numero Uno]

With regard to the Davis gun, not sure which one you are referring to, but the Single Six #51 that now wears ivories did not come on them. This pair of ivory grips was loose in a box with about 20-30 other pairs of grips. I cannot say about the 357 #51 with it's stags, as they were on it in the '69 Gunfacts picture and are still on it.

 

[UmpquaCharlie]

My ivories on my 10 inch flat top are allegedly factory. Ruger would not or cannot confirm what grips were on the gun when shipped according to my factory letter.

 

[street]

My ivories on my 10 inch flat top are allegedly factory. Ruger would not or cannot confirm what grips were on the gun when shipped according to my factory letter.

From all information that I have read is that Ruger shipped no Old Model Rugers with Stag or Ivory from the factory. That being said I'm sure if you were an important gun writer of a friend of Bill Ruger or a company executive you could get anything installed on your Ruger that you wanted. But the average gun shipped to a distributer for retail sales would not be shipped with Stag or Ivory grips installed from the factory.

 

[chet15]

With regard to the Davis gun, not sure which one you are referring to, but the Single Six #51 that now wears ivories did not come on them. This pair of ivory grips was loose in a box with about 20-30 other pairs of grips. I cannot say about the 357 #51 with it's stags, as they were on it in the '69 Gunfacts picture and are still on it.

I believe it was a 4-5/8" gun of Fred Davis's that lettered with ivory, although they may have come in the package and not installed on the gun. Don't remember the sn right now.
Chet15

 

[chet15]

My ivories on my 10 inch flat top are allegedly factory. Ruger would not or cannot confirm what grips were on the gun when shipped according to my factory letter.

From all information that I have read is that Ruger shipped no Old Model Rugers with Stag or Ivory from the factory. That being said I'm sure if you were an important gun writer of a friend of Bill Ruger or a company executive you could get anything installed on your Ruger that you wanted. But the average gun shipped to a distributer for retail sales would not be shipped with Stag or Ivory grips installed from the factory.

Right. Ruger was very strict in saying his guns would not come with any special features other than what was described in their catalog. For the company that just made things a whole lot easier in the sales and distribution process.
But...as Street mentions, if you knew somebody you could have just about anything done...i.e. 7-1/2" barrel on a two-digit Single-Six #16 for Herb Glass, various engraved guns, various inscribed guns, two known 4-5/8" barrels on .44 flattops, etc.
Right up to the #1 even, there are cases of special work done like ebony forend tips etc.
....and Ruger says they never had a custom shop.... :roll: Well, not officially.
Chet15

 

[Armybrat]

That is one beautiful SS. I could care less if they are original or not. I am glad I looked at this thread anyway just to see that Beautiful revolver.

Thank You !

What Stanfield said. I'm not a nitpicker. 8)

 

[crsides]

Your welcome jstanfield103 and thanks for the comments to all who posted. i was going to post the back sides, but you can see them by following the link by NitroAcres above. Thanks for that. It does appear to be the same gun/grips in both threads.

Until I hear definitively otherwise, it's a Ruger factory gun with ruger factory grips.

Charlie

 

[crsides]

I have heard the medallions placement discussions before. We got to remember the gun factories were not in the collecting business, they were in the manufacturing/selling business.
As an example, I got a S&W Chief Spl Target a couple weeks ago. It is a J frame and has a target trigger on it, made in the late 50's. Who has seen J frames in the late 50's with target triggers? All S&W frames were to have model #'s stamped in the yoke cutout starting in 1957 due to some gov't purchasing decree. THE S&W book says this gun is in a serial number range of 198 guns made in 1959. Roy Jinks advises it shipped in 1961. It had a couple years at least to get that model number stamped, but it is not there. And collectors should have been chomping at the bit to get an uncataloged target version of a chief spl with total production at the time of 300 units. But it sat there in inventory for 2yrs.

So now it's our job as collectors to figure out what some guy on a production line was thinking 60 yrs ago when he put that medallion 1/32" too far back. :mrgreen:

Charlie

 

[street]

The medallions were not just drilled by hand with each medallion drilled at a different place, but the grips were put in a jig. The jig insured that the eagle was drilled low enough to be flush with the top of the grips. The jig allowed the countersink on the back of the grips to be drilled so that the medallion could be staked, as the Ivory and Stag were thicker at the medallion because they were fragile. There is one other point to make about using this jig. IT ALLOWED THE MEDALLION TO BE PLACED AT THE SAME PLACE ON ALL IVORY AND STAG GRIPS.

Check Dougans book as it shows where the medallions were placed on the Stag and Ivory. Even when everything looks OK there is no guarantee that the grips are factory. When something is not right then that is the guarantee that they are fake!

Check the two photos below. That gun was sent to the NRA in June 1953, when the Flatgate first came out. Check the placement of the medallions.

 

[chet15]

And if they weren't done that way, it would be the only thing at the Ruger factory (or any reputable machinist operation in any quality manufacturing industry) that wasn't done by exacting specifications. Imagine...a quality manufacturer who machines pieces of art out of steel to exacting specifications, but actually freehanding the medallion holes in an expensive pair of stag or ivory grip panels. Really??
When doing the math I figured that Ruger would have to sell a bunch of pair of ivory or stag to make up for one broken pair....there wasn't the same kind of profit in stag and ivory panels as there was in the guns.
Drilling the medallion holes freehand at Ruger would show a level of incompetence that I don't believe WBR would have put up with.
Somewhere there should be a copy of an original Ruger blueprint that would have been sent to J.L. Galef when they were contracted to make those six pairs of ivory grip panels "with installed medallions". Why would anybody think Ruger wouldn't have used those same specifications? And if the grip makers installed the medallions (which I don't think they did), why would anybody think Ruger wouldn't have spelled out those specifications with a blueprint as well?
WBR didn't like losing $...so he had it spelled out for his employees and his contractors. For examples of this all one has to do is look at the correspondence that exists between him and his contractors or potential contractors...even Charles Jerred the engraver.
Chet15

 

[steve8261948]

Factory or not still very attractive! I'm sure the the elephant tusks I have on my 27-2 Smith aren't factory but, wouldn't let them go for anything.
Steve

 

[street]

No one is saying that the grips are not beautiful, nor that they are not valuable! The question was whether they are factory or not. I thing Chad and I listed enough thoughts on the matter to say they are NOT.

 

[CraigC]

My $500 offer still stands.