Ruger Single Six Standard Serial Number History The above chart shows the approximate first serial number shipped for the indicated year. This number should be used as a point of reference only. It is not necessarily the very first serial number shipped, but it can be used to determine the approximate year your Ruger firearm was shipped. OM Magnums were made from 1959 to 1964. Ruger started making convertibles in 1961 with 22 LR and 22 Mag cylinders so there was a period where both the Magnum models and Convertibles were in the same serial number sequence. Your Single-Six was shipped in 1961.
RUGEROLDMODELSINGLE-SIX “MAGNUM ONLY” REVOLVERS
PRODUCED1959 - 1962
GENERALOVERVIEW
The .22 Magnum cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1959.Ruger introduced its Single-Six single action revolver in .22 “Magnum Only” around June of that same year.
The Magnum guns had 6-1/2 inch barrels, round loading gates, checkered black hard rubber grips, and no firing pin groove in the rear of the cylinder.They were roll-marked“RUGER SINGLE-SIX WIN. .22 RF MAG. CAL” in two lines on the left side of the cylinder frame.In early 1960 the Magnum Only guns were also made available with varnished walnut grip panels.
These Magnum Only guns were put in a special serial number range of their own beginning with 300000 and ending at 340XXX.About March 1961 Ruger began to produce these Magnum Only marked guns with an extra .22 caliber cylinder.The extra cylinder, the .22 caliber in this case, had the last three digits of the gun’s serial number stamped on its front face, close to the cylinder base pin hole.The idea of producing these dual cylinder guns or a “convertible” came from customers requesting that Ruger retrofit their “Magnum Only” single-cylinder guns with a .22 caliber cylinder or their .22 caliber only single-cylinder guns with a Magnum cylinder.
The “Magnum Only” marked guns came in a black and red box with a yellow wreath on top like the standard Single-Six but designated with Cat. No.“RSSM” on the box end labeling.
Ruger Single Six Serial Dates
The production of these “Magnum Only” Single-Sixes ended sometime in August – September 1962.The 6-1/2” barrel length soon was made available in the standard “Single-Six .22Caliber/.22 Magnum Convertible” model.The boxes for these 6-1/2 inch barrel convertibles continued to be marked with the catalog number “RSSM”, not RSS6, throughout the Old Model Single-Six production that ended in 1972.
Age Of Ruger Single Six
There are several rare or scarce variations of these guns, some with only one or twoknown, that I will not attempt to cover here.If you are interested in learning more about these guns, I suggest you become a member of the Red Eagle News Exchange.The publisher of that newsletter has done extensive research and study and goes into considerable detail describing those and many other rare Ruger models and variations.
RUGEROLDMODELSINGLE-SIX “MAGNUM ONLY”REVOLVER
SOMEOFTHEMAJORTYPESANDVARIATIONS
Ruger Single Six Serial Numbers By Year
Single-Six , Magnum marked:
1953 TOPRESENT
byBill Hamm
photographyby Bill Hamm & Boge Quinn
March18, 2003
(Pleasebe patient - this page will take some time to load!)
I have had many questions over the yearsfrom folks about which “grip panel” goes on which single action Ruger.Especially about the difference in the early Single-Sixes andBlackhawk “Flattops” when compared to the later Blackhawks and Single-Sixes,short barreled New Model Super Blackhawks, and on into the New Model Blackhawks,Vaqueros, and Bisley Vaqueros.Itcan be quite confusing unless you are a student of the subject.These questions are primarily generated by someone attempting to purchasereplacement grips or custom grips for their Ruger single action revolver.Also it may beabout a gripframe on an old collectible Ruger that someone is about to lay out a goodly sumof dollars to purchase and they want to make sure the gun is “right”.
Severalmonths ago a Gunblast reader requested that I provide some information onthe different type grip frames that Ruger installed on their single actionhandguns.I thought thiswould probably be an interesting subject for others as well and have compliedwhat I believe is a complete listing of the different types used since 1953.I have included the year the specific type was introduced, type ofmaterial and finish, grip panel information, and the current production statusof each of the grip frames.
During the research of the different types Iwas surprised to find out that Ruger has produced fourteen differenttypes of frames since 1953, more than I had first thought.
Ihope this helps you identify and answer questions that you may have about thesegrip frames.If anyone has anydifferent observations or comments they will certainly be welcome.