" S " Bearcat

Help Support Ruger Forum:

radicalrod

Hunter
Joined
Jan 9, 2004
Messages
3,567
Location
Bowling Green, Oh
Well I have a few but no pics that I can find....RR

10349 S the S is on the end of the serial number like most LW's
16487 these all have the S on the bottom of the frame....
54664
61587
104299

Found 1 pic.....

 

El Numero Uno

Buckeye
Joined
Feb 21, 2006
Messages
1,017
Location
Pidcoke, Texas, USA
A story on "S" Bearcats for posterity. In 1983, I bought the Fred Davis Ruger Collection. I recall that there were 8-10 Bearcats, from the 50 &51 to the prefix 90- 50 and 51, several Alphabets and several non descript ones. J. C. Brown, of Amarillo bought all the Bearcats in one group. None of us knew that one of these was an "S". I did not know it from the Inventory and did not catch it when cataloging this Bearcat. J. C. did not catch the marking. At the time, J.C. was advertising high and low wanting an "S" Bearcat. Well a year or so later, J. C. and some friends were at a San Antonio Gun Show and J. C. had this "S" Bearcat out on the table, priced at a regular Bearcat price. One of his compadres sitting around the table picked it up, looked at the bottom of the frame and said: "Hey, J. C., did you know this is an "S" Bearcat? Surprise all the way around. I seem to recall that dfindley may have been at the table that day.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2002
Messages
8,966
Location
Ohio , U.S.A.
Oh yes, happened to me exactly 3 times, first was at a Ruger theme show years ago, walking with jeff M. and spotted this bearcat on the table, Jeff said you oughta get this one for Laura, was holding it in my hand,waiting for the guy to finish, and he took it and said the other guy standing at the end of the table wanted, and had first dibs, his name will remain 'anonymous' ( may he rest in peace) Yes, it was an "S" gun, years later at the I-X center I was one of the OGCA directors and was walking around on Friday night ,check the folks setting up and making sure the guns were "tied', and helped a friend who was new to the gun shows, first time setting up and I showed him how to properly "tie" wrap the guns actions, and did a Bearcat , in the box for him ,he said he was selling it, and I said I'd come back in the morning, lo and behold another "collector" grabbed it first thing it the AM and walked by the table and flipped it around his fingers and went "Ha Ha , lookie what I got", yep the same Bearcat and another "S" gun...both these guns sold for in the $200 plus range................
some months later he brought it back around the table asking if I ( or Laura ) was still interested in it and I said yes, I wanted it for my wife...we settled on $1500........next spring guy brings me a LOWER serial number Bearcat, new in the box, and wanted to swap it for a 45 cal Vaquero, I got one from the guy behind me, for $325 , and traded for the Bearcat, yessir, it turned out to be another "S" Bearcat, needless to say my wife does not want or "need" them all, kept the lower numbered one and we sold the other to my friend Don W over in Bowling green,for HALF what we paid for it, $750 ( income averaging???) and later, SOMEHOW the 'radical one' talked Don out of it. 8) :roll:
 

chet15

Hawkeye
Joined
Jan 22, 2001
Messages
5,993
Location
Dawson, Iowa
El Numero Uno said:
A story on "S" Bearcats for posterity. In 1983, I bought the Fred Davis Ruger Collection. I recall that there were 8-10 Bearcats, from the 50 &51 to the prefix 90- 50 and 51, several Alphabets and several non descript ones. J. C. Brown, of Amarillo bought all the Bearcats in one group. None of us knew that one of these was an "S". I did not know it from the Inventory and did not catch it when cataloging this Bearcat. J. C. did not catch the marking. At the time, J.C. was advertising high and low wanting an "S" Bearcat. Well a year or so later, J. C. and some friends were at a San Antonio Gun Show and J. C. had this "S" Bearcat out on the table, priced at a regular Bearcat price. One of his compadres sitting around the table picked it up, looked at the bottom of the frame and said: "Hey, J. C., did you know this is an "S" Bearcat? Surprise all the way around. I seem to recall that dfindley may have been at the table that day.

Yeah...I believe that "second" was 90-18973...the only 90- "second" known.
Chet15
 
Top