Stag Grips

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flatgate

Hawkeye
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Jun 18, 2001
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Medallion location, medallion style, "age" of grips, overall "look and feel". Source of grips, and 22 other indicators that are only available to Guru's from the "past".

That's a start. Having 20 plus years of "Ruger Experience" may or may not give you any help........

flatgate
 
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Dec 11, 2002
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What Flatgate says.....and the second sentence tells it ALL......ask 10 people, get 10 different answers, most of it "depends" on if one is buying OR selling......... :wink:
Remember, Ruger did NOT make them, they bought them from various 'suppliers,vendors'.............


gets pictures or ask, get second opinions....to ME, much of it will be based on what are they on and how much the seller is asking, if it LOOKS LIKE a 'deal", can't go wrong, if they want TOP dollar....little alarms and bells should go off in your head and CAVEAT EMPTOR baby!!! :roll:

"stag" grips ,run of the mill ,sell for $150-250 (Ajax retail was $275)
factory stags, from the old days, that are "correct" ,up to $500...and again, the "correct", is opinionated... 8)
 
Joined
Jan 4, 2012
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So a grip from Ruger would always have a medallion. I have several beautiful stag grips, but no medallions. Your answer reminds me of a story.

A wealthy Texan was invited to the home of an English nobleman. He admired the nobleman's lawn, which was dense and green, but very short. It reminded the Texan of some of the best putting greens he'd ever seen, but was much larger.
"How can I get my grass to look like yours," he asked.
"We have a heavy roller and the gardener rolls the grass every day." He paused and continued, "You just keep that up for six hundred years."
 
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I have George Washington's hatchet. It was passed down thru my family over the years.

My great-great-great-great grandfather replaced the handle, as did my great grandfather, and my grandfather replaced the head.

Other than that it's in great shape.

;)
 

street

Hunter
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Jan 10, 2008
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Vinton, VA
Here is the thing with Factory Stag grips. Do to certain characteristics of the grips and with experience and the know how on what to look for. An experienced collector can tell if a set of grips are not factory. Such as the type of Eagle used being wrong. The placement of the Eagle on the grips being wrong . How and if the Eagles staking post is countersunk wrong or not at all. With this information one can tell for sure if a set of grips are not Factory. By the same token! A crook with this same knowledge can fake a set of grips that one can not tell for sure that they are fake! :roll: So one can tell if a set of grips are fake by any one of the above being wrong, but one can only guess if a set is Factory. It's mostly a gut feeling. If the grips look right, and you can't find anything wrong with them, then nobody else can either. :lol: You just have to go on gut feeling.
 
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as I said, it's "who is buying, or selling....AND how much".. there are MORE fakes out there than Ruger ever supplied :(


and YES, there are ALWAYS medallions in them,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, :wink:




(but I'd bet the farm that the old man ,over the years, GAVE some of his friends, or visitors, guns with whatever "grip material" they had handy, medallions or NO medallions :roll:
so unless there is a picture or a letter stating something like that, its "Ruger lore" 8)
 

americal

Hunter
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A pair of old stag FAKE grips XR3 shaped to the contour of a lot of factory grips...... by me years ago :arrow: like 1994 :lol:
 

chet15

Hawkeye
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Dawson, Iowa
Something more I've learned in the past six months, so perceive it as you may...
The original invoice from the first six pair of ivory panels ordered, from J.L. Galef in March 1953 (before there were any stag ordered) note "with Ruger medallions inserted" (see J.D.'s Pistols and Revolvers '49-'73, page 100). These were the very first pair of stag or ivory contracted through a grip maker, and were put on the six letter prototype Single-Sixes "A" through "F" in March to mid-1953. The grips were placed on those prototypes because as the Dope Bag article states in the American Rifleman of 1953, that "there were problems with the grip dies that make the checkered hard rubber panels, so ivory was put on the test Single-Six examples", or something to that effect.
O.K....here's where J.D. and I have to agree to disagree on whether the medallions were put in by the vendors or by Ruger (I think by Ruger, except for the first six pair of ivory)...in his last letter email he did say that well, "maybe Ruger put some of the medallions in, maybe the grip suppliers put some of them in". But he did say that there's nothing noting "with medallions" on any of those other invoices from the three different suppliers.
Another point that is worth noting is that WBR had to have a certain amount of profit built into all of his products before those products went to the distributor. This can be seen in great detail with the amount of profit WBR made on his engraved Single-Sixes as compared to the amount of profit he made on his stag and ivory grip sets when sold to his distributors. According to J.D., the ivory were purchased from the vendor at between $8.25 and $8.10 per pair. These were sold to the distributor at a profit margin that was a lot less than the profit margin on the engraved Single-Six and everything that came with it. In my opinion it would have been much cheaper to pay a Ruger employee to install the medallions then have a vendor install the medallions at the vendors cost of the employee plus profit margin by that vendor for the employee's work. Believe me...WBR had his costs figured to the penny, and anywhere he could save a nickel, he did it. Well, you can see that by his costs for the ivory panels, switching vendors because he'd found one that could supply the grips for 15 cents less per pair.
And...I still think it would have been advantageous for the grip supplier to have no responsibility what-so-ever on a grip contract to somebody like Ruger, if the supplier didn't have to install those medallions...break a pair of ivory and the vendor profit margin goes right out the door, so why not let Ruger install their own medallions?
Is this why so many pair of stag and ivory were sent back to the vendor (50%) because something was wrong with them...incorrect tolerances for installing medallions maybe?
Chet15
 
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And of course there's always the possibility that a potential vendor could have "low-balled" Ruger on the initial group purchased in an effort to get his foot in the door, thinking that he'd just slightly raise the "with medallions installed" prices later hoping that Ruger wouldn't want to go to the trouble to source another supplier.

Happens all the time in industry . . . all the time.

JMHO
 
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all very GOOD points, and as always, without PICTURED or written documention, can go in any direction,,,,,,,,,,,

back to Americals pictures, AND his admission he did them, not ANY problem to ANY of us who love the look of stag and want them,oh well do what you need to do,BUIT when you look at his pictures, and the stag material, you can "see" that they are newer., later 'san bar stag' have that "whiter" glow to them, not the deep, darker colors of the older ones, and the last picture, that's what many folks did to their 'stags' back in the old days, sanded off, some of the 'bark', make them smoother, nicer to handle and easier on the hands when shooting.............as someone noted earlier above, many of the older stags were indeed thicker, fatter, and often times one panel is significantly thicker on one side or the other...old timer (grip maker) back in the early 60's told us, that is/ was a carry over from Colt, and done "on purpose" making a "palm swell", the fatter side fitting the palm better, and the thinner ,opposite side allowed ones fingers to go around MORE...makes sense to us, always did, and it works !!!!
Stag grips were the "original" pimping ones ride..... :roll:

them cowboys loved a long horned steer carved on them too 8)
 

chet15

Hawkeye
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Dawson, Iowa
Ale-8(1) said:
And of course there's always the possibility that a potential vendor could have "low-balled" Ruger on the initial group purchased in an effort to get his foot in the door, thinking that he'd just slightly raise the "with medallions installed" prices later hoping that Ruger wouldn't want to go to the trouble to source another supplier.

Happens all the time in industry . . . all the time.

JMHO

I think Ruger was on a time limit though with those six pair of ivory. They needed to get those guns out to the writers for reviews. You'd think Ruger would know the consequences of one of those magazines picturing a new Single-Six with the ivory panels when the ivory panels technically wouldn't be available as a "stock" item, and the article in the American Rifleman goes on to state that.
But note also...those medallions in the letter protoype Single-Sixes are all in exactly the same position.
And I reitterate...J.D. said the later invoices from the other three vendors say nothing about "installed medallions".
Chet15
 
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True . . . but that doesn't change the fact that potential vendors were just as likely to play games with Ruger as he was with them.

And I'd bet all your money that WBR was so anxious to get "free advertising" on magazine covers that he'd send pictures of grips made from just about anything to the publishers.

;)
 

bogus bill

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utah
Years ago I had a old ruger single six that they said they didnt build. Must have been custom?? It was nickle. It had beautiful stag grips with the ruger emblem. It was a early one I belive from the later 50s. I bought the ruger book and it looks like they never built a nickle gun back then. The hammer was smooth, no knurling.
My best friend was a early fast draw contestant at big bear with that group, jeff cooper etc. He said he once seen a identical one as a prize at a fast draw contest. The gun passed through my hands, I didnt think it was original, but it sure looked it! Hopefully I might find the serial number but I am not sure I recorded it.
 
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