Plum "Standard" or MKI .22 autos

[Mike Armstrong]

I like the plum-colored variations of the various Ruger revolvers and look specifically for them when I have the $$ to buy a new one: have Single Sixes, a Blackhawk, an SS, and an older blue GP-100 .38, all with various "plum" parts.

But I've never seen a Ruger Standard or MKI Target .22 auto with any plum parts. Methinks that this is because they have no investment-cast parts. True? (I have seen them turn brownish with age and humidity, but that's a whole different process, I think).

And I've never seen a blued Red Label shotgun that has "plummed up" at all, and I know that they DO have investment-cast parts. Is it perhaps because they haven't been around long enough for the chemical changes that cause "plumming" to happen? Or is it that I just haven't looked at that many?

Plum curious about "plum" guns.

 

[street]

I like the plum-colored variations of the various Ruger revolvers and look specifically for them when I have the $$ to buy a new one: have Single Sixes, a Blackhawk, an SS, and an older blue GP-100 .38, all with various "plum" parts.

But I've never seen a Ruger Standard or MKI Target .22 auto with any plum parts. Methinks that this is because they have no investment-cast parts. True? (I have seen them turn brownish with age and humidity, but that's a whole different process, I think).

And I've never seen a blued Red Label shotgun that has "plummed up" at all, and I know that they DO have investment-cast parts. Is it perhaps because they haven't been around long enough for the chemical changes that cause "plumming" to happen? Or is it that I just haven't looked at that many?

Plum curious about "plum" guns.

You probably won't ever see one because the revolvers use a cast frame and what they alloy the steel with and what they use to make the frames release from the mold combines to causes the pink frame. The .22 auto frames are not cast but are stamped out of 2 pieces of heavy sheet metal and then welded together.

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Yeah, street, I agree regarding the auto .22s.

But what about the Red Labels? Was "plumming" perhaps one of the reasons Ruger went to all stainless receivers after a few years of the blued ones?

And, while I'm obsessing, has anyone ever seen a "plum" #1 or #3 (I have not).

 

[chet15]

I have seen lightly plum blued steel Red Label Receivers, all 20 gauge that I can remember.
Ruger went to stainless receivers on their Red Labels because they found an easier way to machine stainless. And since they had the new manufacturing method in place probably did not want to jump back to chrome moly receivers, although they did do the short 20 and 12 runs for the Orvis shotguns.
Chet15

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Thanks, Chet. I didn't know any of that.

(Two more chalices of wisdom to help fill my endless cauldron of ignorance--please keep pourin', guys!).

 

[Three50seven]

The bolt on my MKII 22/45 (1997 production, I believe) is very plum. The rest of the receiver shows no sign of it.

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Interesting. I wonder if Ruger went to investment cast bolts in their .22 pistols at some point?* The timing on your .22/45 is about right; it takes a few years for the "plum" color to start to show.

Another question I've always had is what color do you actually call the parts with an altered "plum" finish? We tend to use the term "plum" but it is a range of colors. (Non-Ruger gun collectors tend to use "plum" to describe the dulling and browning of regular steel bluing over time, and that is usually a brown tone. For antique guns, I think they believe "plum" sounds "tonier." Like "rust" becomes "patina.").

But Ruger "plum" seems to be a range of reddish purple to almost pink. Whatever chemical change takes place with the steel and the bluing adds a reddish cast to the original blue-black. I've never seen one that was literally PINK, but I have seen some that were rose colored--reddish pinkish. Most of mine have remained a fairly dark purple.

And this happens with guns and parts that aren't investment cast--one of my favorite shotguns, a 1960s Finnish Valmet "Lion" 12 ga. O/U has a reddish-purple "plum" forged receiver. (My wife gave it to me in the 1980s, knowing I like such things.). Apart from the color scheme, it kills stuff!

*Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I always ASS-UMED that the original Ruger .22 pistol bolts were machined out of bar stock?

 

[Highstandardguy]

The bolt on my MKII 22/45 (1997 production, I believe) is very plum. The rest of the receiver shows no sign of it.

Same here. I've seen Mark bolts that were plum colored but no receivers, frames or barrels.