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Acquired a Single Six
- Thread starter HogMaintainer
- Start date
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If your gun has a 6 digit serial number Ruger would have retrofitted a magnum cylinder if requested. Guns that had a serial number 150000 or lower had the smaller .22lr barrel diameter and consequently they would not fit a magnum cylinder.
HogMaintainer
Bearcat
Mine is 6 digit, but I'm sure it was never fitted for one is my guess.
Rare gun in that SN block and they were all convertibles..........244020 to 244318(1962) pg. 71-72 in Hiddleson's REFERENCE OF RUGER FIREARMS, Single Six Convertibles
HogMaintainer
Bearcat
That's nice to know. Thank you for tracking down that info
HogMaintainer
Bearcat
So I was digging through my things and I found the matching magnum cylinder for my gun! Lucky me because I was gonna buy one.
chet15
Hawkeye
Not all of the 244xxx range guns were convertibles. Gotta go to the LR only series in the Ruger Reference... there were around 130 of the 244xxx range that were shipped as RSS5W LR only.
Regardless... that is a desireable gun!!
Chet15
That's a rare one indeed, in the Lightweight range but not a Lightweight. I have 244064, a convertible in about 98% condition and a 4 digit valuation.
The bulk of the 2xxxxx SN range was reserved for the 1950's Lightweight Single Sixes with aluminum alloy cylinder frames. Ruger seemed to have started to reuse that range in the early 1960s with these guns, then changed their mind and switched to the 4xxxxx range (because the 3xxxxx range was reserved for the 6.5" RSSM and RSSMX). In later years, there were some other barrel lengths in the upper 3xxxxx range but only that brief burst of non-Lightweights in the 2xxxxx range. After 4xxxxx was exhausted, they jumped to 8xxxxx because the 5xxxxx range was reserved for adjustable sight Super Single Sixes and they probably thought those would just keep going into 6xxxxx and 7xxxxx but GCA68 dashed those plans by requiring every serial number from a manufacturer to ID one and only one gun, so Ruger complied with the prefixed numbers starting in 1969.
The bulk of the 2xxxxx SN range was reserved for the 1950's Lightweight Single Sixes with aluminum alloy cylinder frames. Ruger seemed to have started to reuse that range in the early 1960s with these guns, then changed their mind and switched to the 4xxxxx range (because the 3xxxxx range was reserved for the 6.5" RSSM and RSSMX). In later years, there were some other barrel lengths in the upper 3xxxxx range but only that brief burst of non-Lightweights in the 2xxxxx range. After 4xxxxx was exhausted, they jumped to 8xxxxx because the 5xxxxx range was reserved for adjustable sight Super Single Sixes and they probably thought those would just keep going into 6xxxxx and 7xxxxx but GCA68 dashed those plans by requiring every serial number from a manufacturer to ID one and only one gun, so Ruger complied with the prefixed numbers starting in 1969.
HogMaintainer
Bearcat
Thank you for explaining some of the history. I am definitely holding onto the gun. I didn't realize how rare some of these were. Mine is a shooter and will continue being my plinker.
