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Help shooting Ruger Police Service Six?

3K views 14 replies 14 participants last post by  NorEaster 
#1 ·
I am a Semi Auto guy, but loved the looks of my father in laws SS 357 so much, I had to get it. I tend to shoot it a little low. Hoe do you revolver guys adjust for that with a fixed rear site? Thanks.
 
#2 ·
Practice your grip. I tend to shoot mine better when the back of my palm is up higher on the backstrap. Also dry firing the revolver (unloaded of course) will help you with point of aim–which is essential with fixed sights. Then when at the range, start out shooting targets at close distance and then furthering them out as you get better. Take your time with each shot.
 
#3 ·
Yes dry fire a lot. Get used to the trigger pull and comfort level in your hands. I just pick a object across the room and practice keeping the sights aligned throughout the trigger pull. Start of with light loads too to get used to the revolver before uping the loads. Main thing is practice fundamentals first and build muscle memory since your a auto guy
 
#4 · (Edited)
Well, there's a few things...

You may just have to adjust your sight picture and/or live with it.
OR
How much is 'a little low'?? How's the grouping?

To raise the point of impact for your gun, take some off the *front* sight. This will raise the muzzle. HOWEVER, you may find adjusting your sight picture is easier and safer (you can't put back sight material if you go too far and finding replacement frnt sites is just about impossible. I have two SS.).

Remember this a gun meant for social work not paper target scores. This is particularly true if its barrel is around 4in.

You have a great gun there. Take care of it and it will out last you.
 
#5 ·
I rememeber years ago discussing buying

a Ruger Police Service 6 when I was working part time as a police officer in a Chicago suburb. At the time I was carrying a dept. owned Smith model 15. The Dept. Armor laughed and told me "if I couldn't afford to buy a better gun he would loan me the money to buy one. His thoughts of the gun have always haunted me. In 30 + years as a police officer I have never known of anybody carrying a Ruger as a primary carry weapon. Many years later another Dept. armor in a different dept. refused to certify another Ruger semi auto as a rookies primary carry gun. I cannot remember the model. Certainly I know this man to be very knowledgeable of handguns. I never questioned him about it.

I realize these are just gun names used primarily for marketing.

To my knoledge Ruger has never been popular with police departments
 
#10 ·
Rugers and LE:

Ruger actually did fairly well with government/local LE from the 1970s until the late 80-/early 90s (when most LE started switching to semi autos).

The NYPD was probably the largest police force to issue Rugers as duty weapons to its officers (Police Service Six and, later, GP100). However, Ruger was pretty late to the service pistol game, debuting their first DA/SA revolvers in 1972, and thus had a less than 20 year window to establish a reputation/tradition as a duty gun. Nevertheless, Ruger revolvers are still very popular with overseas agencies and security companies that still issue wheel guns (usually DAO, .38 special versions).

Once LE agencies began adopting bottom feeders, the European guns took the lion's share of the market (Glock, HK, Beretta, Sig). Ruger, having only been in the LE market for some 20 years and mainly known for revolvers (with their forte being SA cowboy guns!), just didn't make it into most departments' WTB lists. But then, neither did S&W really, before the M&P line.

All that to say: the Ruger revolvers were fine service weapons which many officers depended on day in and day out, and which continue to be popular among those who carry six shooters. The P series, while fine weapons, just didn't catch on and they're gone now anyway.

Have fun with your PSS and shoot the P*SS out of it!
 
#11 ·
So, what are you shooting from it? And at what distance?

One thing to keep in mind, there is a much larger range of power available in revolver cartridges. Something like a barn-burner .357 magnum will likely not have the same POI as a piddly standard pressure .38 special lead practice load when using the same POA.

Even with adjustable sights, it's not like they have zero-resets or anything, so you probably won't want to be constantly fiddling with them with different loads. So you may want to shoot a few more types of ammo before deciding if it's really "low", or if it shoots POA with the stuff you care about.

Certainly shoot some more stuff and try some different grips/trigger techniques before you do any filing or anything. But that's generally how you adjust fixed sites for elevation. You file the front sight down.
 
#12 ·
I just bought a new semi-auto and was surprised at how low it shot the first time out. The second time out, I corrected by putting the dot on the front sight center of mass and this seemed to help, but it was strange to "cover" the target with the front sight. The third time out, I was able to split the target with the top of the front sight and grouped from .5 to 1 inch low. I thought sight alignment/picture was everything but I am re-thinking that grip and trigger-control may contribute more than I thought. I have never had this experience with any other revolver or pistol (this is the first striker-fired pistol I have owned).

The service-six is a great gun IMO. It was issued to aircrews in the '80s and was a joy to shoot.
 
#13 ·
There's actually 3 different sight pictures. The 6 o'clock hold is the one most used by revolvers (you align the top of the sights with the bottom of the bullseye). In a service revolver, this is the typical hold for a .38 caliber 158 gr bullet and this is what the factories "calibrated" the sights for. A lighter faster bullet will shoot low compared to the 158 at the same distance.

Most semi-autos are "calibrated" to shoot to POA when the dots on the sights are aligned with the center of the bullseye. The third sighting method is to align the top of the sights (whether or not there are any dots on the sights) with the top of the bullseye (basically this aligns the dots with the center of the bullseye).

To the OP. Get some 158 grain .38 Specials, at 15 yds, align the sights with the bottom of the bullseye and see where it shoots. If you get good groups, you know it's the gun and not you and you can then readjust your sighting procedure (or the sights) to get the POI/POA correct for the gun.
 
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