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Police Service Six grip question

8K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  Xringshooter 
#1 ·
Hey Folks,
New member here with a question.
Just purchased a police service six 357 blued revolver
with a 4" barrel that was manufactured in 1982 according
to the serial number. It came with a set of Pachmayr
Presentation grips. I also have a security six with factory
wood grips. I bought a set of factory square butt grips for the
service six off of ebay assuming the service six was a square butt,
because I thought only the speed six revolvers had round butt frames.
My question is: did ruger make round butt police service six revolvers and
what kind of factory grips do I need for this revolver ?
 
#2 ·
Hey kemper - welcome to the forum. You have come to right place for answers but be patient. The resident gurus of the old Six series have not found your post yet.

Are you saying you removed the Pachmayr grip off the 1982 Police Service Six and found a round butt frame? You mention you have a Security Six with factory wood grips but that may be throwing me off track - that has nothing to do with your question, correct?

As described I think it would have to be an SDA-34RB but I can't find that in my copy of RENE. There is mention of several models being used to make up Speed Six inventory at the end of the Six production run as they had run out of Speed Six frames. But those were shorter barrel models in stainless steel. Hmmm....

Hopefully one of the Six gurus will be along to shed more light. I would assume a set of Speed Six grips would work for you but I can't promise they would.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for help in advance

Hey kemper - welcome to the forum. You have come to right place for answers but be patient. The resident gurus of the old Six series have not found your post yet.

Are you saying you removed the Pachmayr grip off the 1982 Police Service Six and found a round butt frame? You mention you have a Security Six with factory wood grips but that may be throwing me off track - that has nothing to do with your question, correct?

As described I think it would have to be an SDA-34RB but I can't find that in my copy of RENE. There is mention of several models being used to make up Speed Six inventory at the end of the Six production run as they had run out of Speed Six frames. But those were shorter barrel models in stainless steel. Hmmm....

Hopefully one of the Six gurus will be along to shed more light. I would assume a set of Speed Six grips would work for you but I can't promise they would.
Waveform:

Thanks for the welcome and your help.

Yes, I removed the Pachmayr grip off my 189 series Police Service Six and
it is a round butt frame. My service six revolver is blued with a 4" barrel. It appears to be all factory. Sorry to confuse my question by including information about my security six. (Different revolver and it is a square butt)
 
#7 ·
kemper - see the attached link and click on "Request Letter of Authenticity" on the web page (Ruger's website). That will take you to a form to print off, fill out and mail in with the princely sum of $10 and you will get a letter back in a month or two. It will probably tell you that your serial number is a Speed Six and yours was just mis-marked. Kind of a "Rugeroddity" in it's own right. There are collectors you like mis-marked guns, upside down rollmarks and other mistakes.

Ruger Instruction Manuals & Product History

1)There have been reports by owners of Speed-Sixes that were mis-marked as Service-Sixes.

2)The Police Service-Sixes were never produced with the round butt grip frame.

3)Although there have been rumors that Ruger had round butted some Service-Sixes to fullfill a Speed-Six contract- in fact, since the floor plate of the grip of a post scalloped Service-Six and a correctly marked post scalloped Speed-Six measues differently-as the Speed-Six is 1/8" thicker-therefore, it would be impossible to grind off a Police Service-Six frame and pass it off as a Speed-Six mis-marked gun. For reference, The Security-Six, Service-Six and Speed-Six with scalloped recoil shield on the right side of the cylinder frame was changed by at least s/n 158-31336.
kemper - the "Six-meister" has spoken. ptblank owns NIB examples of every Six series gun ever made and has forgotten more about them than the rest of us will ever know. If you want an education on the Six series do a forum search on threads and posts by ptblank!

Wave
 
#6 · (Edited)
1)There have been reports by owners of Speed-Sixes that were mis-marked as Service-Sixes.

2)The Police Service-Sixes were never produced with the round butt grip frame.

3)Although there have been rumors that Ruger had round butted some Service-Sixes to fullfill a Speed-Six contract- in fact, since the floor plate of the grip of a post scalloped Service-Six and a correctly marked post scalloped Speed-Six measues differently-as the Speed-Six is 1/8" thicker-therefore, it would be impossible to grind off a Police Service-Six frame and pass it off as a Speed-Six mis-marked gun. For reference, The Security-Six, Service-Six and Speed-Six with scalloped recoil shield on the right side of the cylinder frame was changed by at least s/n 158-31336.
 
#9 ·
My question is: did ruger make round butt police service six revolvers and what kind of factory grips do I need for this revolver ?
Yes Ruger did make Police Service Six's with round butt frames. I believe they are rare, and I myself own a 2.75" Police Service Six that came that way. You can read more about it this thread:
http://rugerforum.net/ruger-double-action/77027-my-2-75-ruger-police-service-six-rare-pics.html

I ended up getting a letter from Ruger and they verified that it did leave the factory with a round butt. Doing some research online I was able to find some information that Ruger had done this to fulfill orders.

If you can, upload a picture of it. Would love to see it. Thanks!
 
#14 · (Edited)
You do have a rare model GS-32 Speed-Six that was stamped as a Police Service Six at the factory, as your Ruger letter had indicated. You are fortunate to have found this unique Six because I don't even have a GS-32 mislabeled as a Police Service six in my collection and I have been collecting the Sixes for 20 years. I'm always looking for unique Sixes but have never found a GS-32 like yours.......yet! You better hang onto that "Gem"!
 
#12 ·
I'm no service six or Ruger expert by no means but there is also the low back variation but it was an earlier production series . I have a low back speed six myself and it is a great wheel gun . Here is just some of the great info about the Security six Service six and Speed six on this forum. Just type in the gun you want learn about in the search area
http://rugerforum.net/collectors/21887-two-rare-early-low-back-speed-sixes.html
 
#15 ·
Kemper, that looks to be factory. The round butt gives it an easier profile to conceal, which can be very convenient to have.

Now you’ll have to find a nice set of grips for it. I’ve seen Pachmayr one’s sell for $10 used and the factory walnut one’s sell for $20. I’ve got both and have been trying to track down a set of Tyler-T grips for the wood set, since they have a thinner feel with my hands.

Ptblank, if I ever decide to sell or trade mine, I’ll remember to contact you. Would rather it go into good hands than end up at a shop.
 
#17 ·
Thanks for all the help

Thanks in advance for everyone's help with
identifying my service six/ speed six or a clone of the two.
Here is another pic of the revolver with the Pachmayr grips
as I bought it and showing the marking on the frame.
This forum is a huge help especially considering I
just started out by wondering why the factory square frame
grips I bought wouldn't fit this service six marked revolver.
ptblank: in looking at the barrel how do I tell if it is a
heavy barrel ?
 
#18 ·
Thanks in advance for everyone's help with
identifying my service six/ speed six or a clone of the two.
Here is another pic of the revolver with the Pachmayr grips
as I bought it and showing the marking on the frame.
This forum is a huge help especially considering I
just started out by wondering why the factory square frame
grips I bought wouldn't fit this service six marked revolver.
ptblank: in looking at the barrel how do I tell if it is a
heavy barrel ?
Kemper:

The examples showing the 4" standard barrel versus a 4" heavy barrel below, are Security-Sixes-however, just ignore the raised sight ramp and pay attention to the shape and size of the barrels as they are the same for the Police Service Six:

1)This first example is a 4" Security-Six with a heavy barrel. Notice the barrel is heavier and of a larger diameter than a tapered standard 4" barrel(Shown further down)without hardly sloping towards the tip at all:

2)This example is of a standard skinny barrel 4" Security-Six which itapers down to a small diameter tip. It is also lighter in weight than the heavy barrel:

3)This next photo shows the front of both the standard and heavy barrels. Notice how much larger in diameter the heavier barrel is compared to the standard barrel. Also, notice the wider and heavier barrel shroud on the HB Security-Six-as well as how it is slightly longer and the tip slopes at more of an angle towards the front of the gun. And from the front, if you look close, you can see the extra width of the barrel rib compared to the skinnier barrel rib on the standard barrel Security-Six(More detail follows):

4)This next picture obviously shows how much heavier and larger in diameter the HB is compared to the standard barrel as well as the much beefier barrel shroud.

5)This picture shows the heavier and wider barrel rib on the HB Security-Six shown on the bottom compared to the lighter and narrower barrel rib on the standard barrel Security-Six shown on the top:

6)Here is another photo comparing the HB barrel rib with the standard barrel barrel rib:
 
#21 · (Edited)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ptblank
You do have a rare model GS-32 Speed-Six that was stamped as a Police Service Six at the factory, as your Ruger letter had indicated. You are fortunate to have found this unique Six because I don't even have a GS-32 mislabeled as a Police Service six in my collection and I have been collecting the Sixes for 20 years. I'm always looking for unique Sixes but have never found a GS-32 like yours.......yet! You better hang onto that "Gem"!

Xringshooter:

In the above quote I was referring to the Ruger letter that the RevolverGuy had received pertaining to his stainless 2.75" Police Service-Six which was indicated in this link(See post #30): http://rugerforum.net/ruger-double-action/77027-my-2-75-ruger-police-service-six-rare-pics.html

But you are right that Kemper's 4" mislabeled Police Service-Six should letter a SS-34 or a SS-34H(Heavy barrel)Speed-Six.
 
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