Bill Ruger saw that the time was right to create a new, up-to-date single-action for a waiting market. The Colt Single Action Army had been out of production since 1940, and the company had announced it was no longer going to be made. Western movies were very popular in the late ’40s and early ’50s, and virtually every cast member was armed with a single-action sixgun. He liked the simplicity and reliability of the old Colt design, along with its graceful shape and the way it felt in the hand. Ruger had always been a fan of single-action revolvers.

was ready to take the next step and add another product to the line. 22 Standard Pistol that had been introduced the previous year. In 1950 Bill Ruger’s gun company was on its way to becoming a major player in the industry, thanks to the success of his.

The Flattop models tend to command the highest values on the collector's market.

There were a number of Blackhawk variants developed, including the Super Blackhawk, Flattop Blackhawk and the New Model series, along with a number of different caliber options.

44 Magnum revolvers, Ruger with an updated Blackhawk and S&W with the. 44 Magnum was underway, both Ruger and S&W strove to introduce the first.

Introduced in 1955, the Blackhawk was Ruger's first centerfire revolver, and it's still produced more than 70 years later.

What makes the Ruger Blackhawk a popular revolver, both in terms of current production and as a collector's piece? bl.In the 1950s, Ruger introduced the venerable Blackhawk revolver, which remains both a desirable collector piece and a popular current-production gun. They will add an R for rubber grips or W for walnut grips or X for convertibles.Īgain this only applies if your gun is a '6 1/2' in. Old model Single-Sixes will have a catalog number starting with RSSM. only then you have a very rare Ruger.Īll 6 1/2 in. These guns are very rare, and if your gun will letter from Ruger as a Mag. only guns but the frames were only marked Ruger. Just about all of these guns were convertibles, but they also still made a few Mag. After about serial number 340,000 they started marking the frames Ruger Single Six only instead of Ruger Single-Six Win.22 RF Magnum.

And some where toward the upper end of the serial numbers they started intermixing the convertibles in with the magnum only guns. Those Magnum marked frames ran from serial number 300,000 to about 340,000. When Ruger started making the 6 1/2 in guns they only made them as a Magnum only and as such they started stamping the frames as such. I think that Ruger listed all 6 1/2 in guns in the Magnum only list even though not all 6 1/2 in Single-Sixes are Magnum only.Ī little history. Now after all of this being said this doesn't mean that your gun is a Magnum only it only means that Ruger used RSSM for all 6 1/2 in. Which stands for Ruger Single-Six Magnum.

Ruger single six 3 screw serial numbers