rubicon923

I was wondering when someone was going to say this.

Greg F.

I just got a response from Ruger. Much to my surprise, my joke response on here turned out to be accurate after all. Their response was that GP does stand for General Purpose and SP stands for Special Purpose. Totally blew me away. I love being right, it doesn't happen very often.

firescout

You must be married, too...

Macx

Gee guys the mid frame is a general purpose? A lighter of heavier frame would be special wouldn't it? How 'bout something so light and narrow that it only carries five rounds? That'd be special & might even have a purpose.

Sorry couldn't pass it up. Target of opportunity.

trex1310

Grande Pistola

Sorry Pistola

eggfarmer

Not as sexy sounding as the french.

LLed

I knew about the General and Special Purpose

But I still wonder about the 100 and 101

KKBMTGG/go army

Revolvers ARE pistols, autos are also pistols. Come to think of it, my contender is a pistol as is my frontstuffer Kentucky{pistol}

I refer to Sam Colt on this one. There were pistols long before there were autos or revolvers.

idavycrockett

You have got to be kidding me Greg F. Ruger actually said that is what the GP and SP stand for? Can't come up with something that sounds great. What exactly does those mean? General? Special? Oh well, I love my General Purpose gun anyway.

Greg F.

I kid you not. That's what Ruger told me in the email they sent me. I guess they're not as good at naming their guns as they are in making them.

Sugar River

I have to part company with you here, Boss. As "El Jeffe" once said, "All revolvers are pistols, but not all pistols are revolvers."
But, since this argument could consume a thousand threads, let's leave it at that.

Pete (Donning flak jacket)

Oh, and as to the original question, General and Special Purpose is what they told us in The armourer's school.

Iowegan

A little history .... not too many years ago, "pistol" was a generic term for "handgun". Then our wonderful BATFE stepped in. The Gun Control Act of 1968 required all manufacturers and importers to file reports to BATFE on the number of guns imported or manufactured in the USA by type and caliber. To avoid confusion, BATFE defined the the term "revolver" as "any handgun with a revolving cylinder" and "pistol" was defined as "any handgun without a revolving cylinder". Since that date, there has been a "legal" definition. If you note Ruger's web site or S&W's for that matter, they use the same categories for their handguns .... revolvers and pistols. Here on the Ruger Forum, we follow the same path and have a forum specifically for pistols and two for revolvers (single action and double action). Call them what you will but to be technically correct; Ruger SP-101, LCR, Security-Six, GP-100, Redhawk, Super Redhawk, Single-Six, Blackhawk, Super Blackhawk, and Vaquero are revolvers. LCP, SR9, MK series, and all P-guns are pistols. Did I miss any?

It's funny how old terms die hard. Here on the forum, we've had members get in stupid arguments over such non-important things such as 45 Colt vs 45 Long Colt, gun vs weapon, and magazine vs clip. My feeling is this ... as long as other readers know what you're talking about, it really doesn't matter what you choose to call things. It's certainly not worth getting banned for getting in a name calling argument over such silly things (which has happened). The purpose of this forum is to exchange information related to guns and specifically Ruger guns. Sometimes readers and members actually learn something and the old "die hards" (like me) learn to accept modern terms.

Quijibo

"Goon Plugger".
"Scumbag Plugger".

Still waiting for a ZP. "Zombie Plugger" (5-shot .44 rem mag, Goon Plugger frame).

Ed Zachary

Heh. Or maybe they'd rather spend time building them than coming up with names for them.

UCanoe_2

Good Profits

Wasn't that the reason they discontinued the Security Six and replaced it with the GP100?