Single-Six Magnum (3 screw) question

[Sacramento Johnson]

Hi al!
Would a Ruger Single-Six Magnum Model Revolver (3 screw) made in 1963 come with both a 22mag and a 22 LR cylinder?
Thank you!

 

[GasGuzzler]

Depends on the barrel length ... at least it did in 1965 when mine was made. 6.5" were called Single Six Magnum with a LR cylinder extra. Other barrel lengths were Single Six with an extra magnum cylinder. Someone else here can explain it better. Here's my box.

 

[peachhead]

It's my understanding the ones marked 22wmr, did not come with a long rifle cylinder.

 

[contender]

Yes, it's possible.
The Single-Six .22 Magnum marked guns also came with a .22 LR cylinder during production.
According to the RENE Guide, A "RSSMX" (X being the addition of a .22 LR cylinder,) had a few variations during it's production. One, a serial number range of 308310 to 339003 was from 1960 to 1960 with about 5000 made. the next variation was in the range of 324338 to 340031, with about 5250 made. This was between 1961 to 1962. Then a 3rd variation was between 336518 to 340057 with about 2400 made. This was in 1962. A 4th variation was between 339389 to 340086 with about 700 made. Again 1962.

So, you can see that it's POSSIBLE one was built, but it would take a factory letter to verify. Plus,, with the variations more details would be necessary.

The RENE Guide is invaluable for such questions & answers. JOIN THE RED EAGLE NEWS EXCHANGE to get a guide. It's a CHEAP thing & a MUST HAVE for Ruger fans.

 

[rem58sport]

Please excuse my jumping in on this thread....but....I just received my Single six letter. It stated my 1970 SS 6.5 is convertible and designated as a RSSMX model. It is stamped 22LR and there is no serial numbers on the LR cylinder, the only cylinder with the revolver. I guess I'm confused with the RSSMX code. Is it a LR with extra mag cylinder or a Mag with an extras LR cylinder?

Is there a list or link for the "catalogue numbers" to help decipher what is what?

Thanks for the info.

 

[rugerguy]

Yes, it does get a bit confusing back then as the true
Magnum marked guns,( in the #3000,000 range) rolled as such on the leftside first came out magnum ONLY< and as noted above by contender they added a spare 22 lr cylnder later, then they decided why make two "different guns??? so went back to the 22 lr marked, and the 22 mag cylinder was the spare....yes the same box, the "M" was supposed to be "magnum" but in reality was the 6 1/2 inch barrel.......unlike the RSS 4, RSS 5, or the RSS 9, the 6 1/2 was the "M".....hhhmmm..marketing 101..........

....so yes, it is possible..........

 

[contender]

Dan has offered good info.

"Is there a list or link for the "catalogue numbers" to help decipher what is what?"

YES,,, subscribe to the RENE I mentioned above, and get the Guide.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Yes, it does get a bit confusing back then as the true
Magnum marked guns,( in the #3000,000 range) rolled as such on the leftside first came out magnum ONLY< and as noted above by contender they added a spare 22 lr cylnder later, then they decided why make two "different guns??? so went back to the 22 lr marked, and the 22 mag cylinder was the spare....yes the same box, the "M" was supposed to be "magnum" but in reality was the 6 1/2 inch barrel.......unlike the RSS 4, RSS 5, or the RSS 9, the 6 1/2 was the "M".....hhhmmm..marketing 101..........

Pretty much what I said and my letter says my 6.5" barrel gun is a convertible Magnum with an extra LR cylinder ... IIRC.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

So I don't understand the "It is stamped 22LR" comment. The early RSSM frame was rollmarked WIN .22 RF MAG. CAL, then after introducing the convertible, it went to the ".22 CAL." marking (no LR) like the other barrel length Single Sixes.

But if you are talking about the box that is marked as model RSSM and also .22 CALIBER instead of .22 W.M.R., then you have a pretty scarce box. There was a mixup at the box maker and they mislabeled a number of RSSM and SC6 boxes, mixing up the calibers. Here is an pic of all the combos, normal boxes on top and the rare misprint boxes below:

Convertibles were offered in the other barrel lengths as well. But only the RSSMX considered the LR cylinder to be the "second" cylinder, so before Ruger started marking the last 3 digits of the SN on the end of both cylinders, the RSSMX only marked the LR cylinder, whereas the RSS4X, RSS5X, and RSS9X only marked the WMR cylinder.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

Forgot to add that the SC6 is the adjustable sight SUPER Single Six and of course the RSSM and RSSMX was fixed sight.

Also, the boxes never included the "X" which denotes convertible. That was only included on the rubber stamp used to mark the shipper.

Found a few more pics. Here is an early RSSM frame marking:

And here is a later one:

Notice that the early gun has so much text that there was no room for the eagle. So it got moved to the barrel:

Another collector variant came along when they used the wrong barrel roll die without the eagle on a batch.

That early frame roll die was so cluttered with text that placement had to be very precise or this would happen:

I don't know how often that happened but I kept that gun just due to the marking. I suspect the machine was aligned for the regular Single Six roll die but had the Mag die installed so at least one was marked with the offset and Ruger didn't waste stuff, so out it went.

 

[Johnnu2]

Well, THAT clears that up...

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

It is indeed confusing.

The convertibles started to appear around 308vxx but the frame marking did not change until 340xxx.

The 3xxxxx range was initially exclusive to the 6.5" barrel guns but other lengths were numbered in the upper end of that range after Ruger exhausted the 1xxxxx range (the 2xxxxx range being exclusively for the Lightweight Single Six... until it wasn't... there were a few RSS5 and RSS5X guns in the 2xxxxx range after the Lightweight was discontinued). Then after the 3xxxxx range was exhausted, everything jumped into the 4xxxxx range, but the next range was 8xxxxx because the adjustable sight Super Single Six was using the 5xxxxx range and I guess Ruger thought the Super might run into the 6 and 7 ranges, but GCA68 came along requiring completely unique SNs on all guns by one manufacturer, so the prefixed numbers appeared in 1969 to comply. The 20- then 21- prefixes were used for Single Sixes. Then the old models were dropped in 1973 and New Models got a different prefix, first starting with 62- because 60- and 61- were taken by the later old model Super Single Sixes and since the New Model was at first only offered with adjustable sights, it probably made sense to continue numbering in the same vicinity as the OM Super.

As contender suggests, all of this info is in the RENE Reference.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Here is 5 variation of the Magnum Marked Single-Six. The extra 22 LR Cyl. is marked with the last 3 of the serial number. The one in the bottom right did not come with the extra 22LR Cyl. since it is an early 1959 model The other 4 are 1961 5000 made, 1961 5250 made, 1962 2400 made, 1962 700 made.

 

[rem58sport]

So I don't understand the "It is stamped 22LR" comment. The early RSSM frame was rollmarked WIN .22 RF MAG. CAL, then after introducing the convertible, it went to the ".22 CAL." marking (no LR) like the other barrel length Single Sixes.

But if you are talking about the box that is marked as model RSSM and also .22 CALIBER instead of .22 W.M.R., then you have a pretty scarce box. There was a mixup at the box maker and they mislabeled a number of RSSM and SC6 boxes, mixing up the calibers. Here is an pic of all the combos, normal boxes on top and the rare misprint boxes below:

View attachment 19645

Convertibles were offered in the other barrel lengths as well. But only the RSSMX considered the LR cylinder to be the "second" cylinder, so before Ruger started marking the last 3 digits of the SN on the end of both cylinders, the RSSMX only marked the LR cylinder, whereas the RSS4X, RSS5X, and RSS9X only marked the WMR cylinder.

Yes, thank you, my 1970 is marked .22 CAL, I was going from (not a great) memory. I see now how the factory changed the nomenclature and roll stamping of the same production model basically as a marketing adjustment over time.

Excellent photo documentation on the boxes, I did understand that the 1970 RSSMX 6.5 would be boxed in the .22 WMR RSSM box.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

My misprint boxes w/shippers are 1968 (564xxx SC6 marked .22 WMR CALIBER) and 1969 (815xxx RSSM marked simply .22 CALIBER).

There were just a few hundred misprinted boxes, so you are correct that by 1970 they would be back to the WMR marking on the RSSM box in spite of most being convertibles by then. They kept the RSSM catalog number and WMR markings through the end of OM production and never did refer to the 6.5" fixed sight gun as a RSS6 to fit in with the other 3 barrel lengths.

RSS4 - 4 5/8"
RSS5 - 5 1/2"
RSSM - 6 1/2"
RSS9 - 9 1/2"

The earliest (flatgate) 5.5" Single Sixes were simply RSS because that was the only barrel length at the time. The Lightweight came along with a 4 5/8" barrel but it had a completely different (LWAC and later LWSC) catalog number.

It all changed in 1959 when Winchester introduced the WMR round and Ruger not only came out with the RSSM to chamber it, but they also started making the RSS4 and RSS9 that year,

 

[rem58sport]

Bingo, this is where all my confusion came from. Thanks again.

 

[Star43]

So I don't understand the "It is stamped 22LR" comment. The early RSSM frame was rollmarked WIN .22 RF MAG. CAL, then after introducing the convertible, it went to the ".22 CAL." marking (no LR) like the other barrel length Single Sixes.

But if you are talking about the box that is marked as model RSSM and also .22 CALIBER instead of .22 W.M.R., then you have a pretty scarce box. There was a mixup at the box maker and they mislabeled a number of RSSM and SC6 boxes, mixing up the calibers. Here is an pic of all the combos, normal boxes on top and the rare misprint boxes below:

View attachment 19645

Convertibles were offered in the other barrel lengths as well. But only the RSSMX considered the LR cylinder to be the "second" cylinder, so before Ruger started marking the last 3 digits of the SN on the end of both cylinders, the RSSMX only marked the LR cylinder, whereas the RSS4X, RSS5X, and RSS9X only marked the WMR cylinder.

To a lot of guys, those beautiful boxes you have are worth as much as the guns. To some guys, the boxes are worth more......very nice.

 

[GasGuzzler]

To a lot of guys, those beautiful boxes you have are worth as much as the guns. To some guys, the boxes are worth more......very nice.

It's the only Single Six I have right now, the only Old Model Single Six with a box I've ever owned, and likely will be with me forever. It's never been more than 100 miles from Dallas since Ruger sent it to the store it was sold from in 1965.

 

[Star43]

It's the only Single Six I have right now, the only Old Model Single Six with a box I've ever owned, and likely will be with me forever. It's never been more than 100 miles from Dallas since Ruger sent it to the store it was sold from in 1965.

To me, especially as the years keep going by, it's going to be a slim chance to get a 3 screw with the box these days.....Take care of it.