Bob Wright
Hawkeye
To those of you who find my posts pointless, exit this post now.
The summer of 1947 (I think) I was just months away from my tenth birthday. Six or eight of us neighborhood boys were sitting around in a vacant lot. We'd do this at times, just talking about things in general. Subjects usually were baseball, cowboy movies, new boys in the neighborhood, school, whatever came to our young minds. One boy, a couple of years younger than I, Pat was his name, mentioned a Ruger pistol.
"Luger," I hastily corrected him. He persisted in saying it was Ruger. And I was equally persistent in telling him that it was a German Luger. A came to a draw then. But the next day he came to our pow-wow holding a magazine in his hand, Popular Mechanics or some similar magazine. His index finger held his place and he flipped it open before my face.
There, sure enough, was an ad for the Ruger pistol. Though to my young eyes it looked similar to a Luger, clearly it wasn't. A few years later I bought a copy of The Gun Digest and on the cover against a black background, was a Single Action revolver, engraved, gold and silver, and ivory stocked. The article announced the introduction of the Ruger Single Six, along with a photo of a case hardened Single Six. I really liked that gun, but had no funds to purchase one, and was too young also.
The summer of 1957 found me a soldier of Company "K", 10th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) at Ft. Ord, California. A small bore pistol league was being formed, each company to have a team. I signed up immediately and we organized. Some time later our pistols arrived, brand new Ruger Mk. I .22 autos. I believe these were the first Rugers the Army bought. Our team did pretty good, and we got a trophy. As I recall it was walnut and brass, with a tall center column. There were brass figures of a pistol shooter, and under each figure was the name of the team member.
Shortly after that the company commander made me the company's armorer, in charge of all weapons. Privately owned firearms had to be kept in the arms room, and had to have a letter from the company commander granting his permission to have the firearm on post. A friend of mine showed me his letter, telling me he was going to buy a pistol and bring it in. I was surprised, as I knew this man wasn't yet twenty-one years old. He told me that in California eighteen was the minimum age for buying a pistol.
Armed with this knowledge, another friend of mine and I headed out the next Saturday to Paso Robles, where we each bought a Ruger revolver. He bought a flat-gate Single Six, and I bought a .357 Blackhawk, paying the $5.00 extra to get walnut grips.
Our unit was transferred to Camp Roberts, way out in the boondocks. There we spent many weekends shooting away our Army pay out in the desert country.
Some fifty years, and some face lifts later, the old .357:
Bob Wright
The summer of 1947 (I think) I was just months away from my tenth birthday. Six or eight of us neighborhood boys were sitting around in a vacant lot. We'd do this at times, just talking about things in general. Subjects usually were baseball, cowboy movies, new boys in the neighborhood, school, whatever came to our young minds. One boy, a couple of years younger than I, Pat was his name, mentioned a Ruger pistol.
"Luger," I hastily corrected him. He persisted in saying it was Ruger. And I was equally persistent in telling him that it was a German Luger. A came to a draw then. But the next day he came to our pow-wow holding a magazine in his hand, Popular Mechanics or some similar magazine. His index finger held his place and he flipped it open before my face.
There, sure enough, was an ad for the Ruger pistol. Though to my young eyes it looked similar to a Luger, clearly it wasn't. A few years later I bought a copy of The Gun Digest and on the cover against a black background, was a Single Action revolver, engraved, gold and silver, and ivory stocked. The article announced the introduction of the Ruger Single Six, along with a photo of a case hardened Single Six. I really liked that gun, but had no funds to purchase one, and was too young also.
The summer of 1957 found me a soldier of Company "K", 10th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) at Ft. Ord, California. A small bore pistol league was being formed, each company to have a team. I signed up immediately and we organized. Some time later our pistols arrived, brand new Ruger Mk. I .22 autos. I believe these were the first Rugers the Army bought. Our team did pretty good, and we got a trophy. As I recall it was walnut and brass, with a tall center column. There were brass figures of a pistol shooter, and under each figure was the name of the team member.
Shortly after that the company commander made me the company's armorer, in charge of all weapons. Privately owned firearms had to be kept in the arms room, and had to have a letter from the company commander granting his permission to have the firearm on post. A friend of mine showed me his letter, telling me he was going to buy a pistol and bring it in. I was surprised, as I knew this man wasn't yet twenty-one years old. He told me that in California eighteen was the minimum age for buying a pistol.
Armed with this knowledge, another friend of mine and I headed out the next Saturday to Paso Robles, where we each bought a Ruger revolver. He bought a flat-gate Single Six, and I bought a .357 Blackhawk, paying the $5.00 extra to get walnut grips.
Our unit was transferred to Camp Roberts, way out in the boondocks. There we spent many weekends shooting away our Army pay out in the desert country.
Some fifty years, and some face lifts later, the old .357:
Bob Wright
