images from Chuck Hawks website, worldguns.ru,
Some years ago, I got a very gently used Ruger stainless steel Security Six. It was a few years after they stopped making this model pistol and had moved on into another model of .357 revolver. It's a four inch barrel model. It was owned by a police officer as a gun for his extra jobs, and he sold it to a friend of mine whose wife objected to them having a gun in the home. And then it was mine. The friend I got it from said that the officer he got it from said it had "an excellent trigger" and had been "worked on, whatever that meant", he said.
After checking out the gun, it was in like new condition. Tight cylinder. It didn't look like it had ever been fired, much less with any magnum ammo.
Before I launch into my past and recent present with the Ruger Security Six, let me give a couple of links that have quick histories and reviews of this gun that say it far better than I do.
The Wiki article is an accurate overview of this history of this gun and it's related firearms, the Service Six (fixed sights) and the Speed Six (round butt). By the way, I've always wanted a Speed Six in 9mm, and there's a picture of one above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Security_Six
Chuck Hawks does a great job of talking about his Security Six and why he likes it and what he doesn't like. http://www.chuckhawks.com/ruger_security_six.htm.
You really need to read his review, plus check out his awesome site with all kinds of articles about hunting and guns. But here is what noted firearm authority Chuck Hawks thinks about the Ruger Security Six, and how he ends his article. I guess if there's a gun you want to be carrying in apocolypse situation, it's one you won't need spare parts fer.
However, and this is the real reason why these guns are a solid buy, they will simply out last any other DA revolver over thousands of Magnum rounds. (With the exception, of course, of Ruger’s follow-on piece, the GP-100.) If one bought a Security Six, one could expect a lifetime of full use and still be able to hand it to one’s children with nary a problem. I once knew of an indoor range that had one as a rental gun and it digested, by their estimate, some 1,400,000 rounds with no parts breakages and minimal maintenance. That is the essence of a good deal!
This particular gun is a 4" barreled adjustable sight gun. It has Pachmayr Presentation grips on it, which of course make shooting it a pleasure. When I got the gun, I took it to my gunsmith and asked him to give it the once over. He said with some glee that it had one of the best done trigger jobs he had ever seen, and the springs all appeared to be Ruger stock but had been polished and something else. I shot it a few times back then and was impressed with it, but having owned a Python for years, I had shot a great revolver before.
Besides, at the time I got the Ruger, I was all caught up into shooting the newly released Glock 21 in .45 ACP caliber. And I remained very caught up in shooting the Glock 21 for the next ten years or so, moving back and forth with a Colt Commander "
"Shipley Special" .45 that had been worked on by a gunsmith named Shipley. Nickle Commander, Pachmayr wrap around grips, enlarged ejection port, slightly extended safety on one side only, polished ramps and all that. It wasn't heavily modified, but these Shipley Specials were a favorite with REAL Poh-Lice officers in Houston and Harris County for their accuracy and absolute reliability.
So the Ruger Security Six became one of the main stationary house guns, really since the early 90's . In a holster, stashed in a small gun access safe in a hidden spot, with a couple of speedloaders attached to the back of the holster. It's a hunking piece of solid feeling steel. It's a good car gun too, for the glovebox of the car with a couple of reloads.
And I never thought much about the gun until lately. On the rare occasion that I might carry a 4" barrel medium frame revolver as a concealed handgun, I opt for the Model 67 Combat Masterpiece that I have. The M67 is actually heavier by a few ounces than the Security Six, but the overbuilt nature of the Security Six (which is a virtue discussed later) renders it a bit less concealable than a M67.
I'm a normal sized guy. I live in Texas. It gets real hot and REALLY humid where I live in the late spring, summer and early fall. It is hard for a man my size to conceal a medium frame .357 revolver with a 4" barrel during much of these hot and humid times.
Bear in mind that as a young officer back in the days when .357 4" revolvers were standard carry for myself and most other officers in Houston and Texas, when I worked plainclothes and investigative assignments I often did not carry my 4" Python. It was just too big. To have my suits or sports coats cut big enough for the Python, even with some thinner concealment grips, made the clothing look clownish and I looked like I was carrying a BIG GUN, which of course I was.
And even though I've gained a bit of middle aged girth since my slender policing days, a gun like a Python or a Security Six or even the Combat Masterpiece with a 4" barrel (not to mention adjustable sights on these guns) is not gonna conceal any easier now than it did in my more youthful days.
But again, the big Security Six surprise was the great DA and SA trigger pulls. I had simply forgotten how great the trigger pull on that gun is. And reading reviews from other blogs and the websites of so-called gun gurus (and some are gurus, I submit), I know my trigger is better than most. It's a sheer pleasure to shoot, and makes all the difference in the world in accuracy.
So a few weeks ago, when a ton of discount .38 special ammo came our way via my great local gun dealer who bought out another store and got some screaming deals on some old ammo. Very old ammo. Double D Ammo with some nice 125 grain semi-wadcutters. We got boxes and boxes of it and two boxes of some kind of blazer wadcutter ammo. All new, no reloads.
We shot the hell out of our .38 Special revolvers that day and just had a great time, and we rediscovered what great guns with great triggers can do and just how well they can shoot. Challenging my great shooting Colt that day was the Ruger Security Six for nice groups at 15 and 25 feet.
Billy Ray and El Fisho Jr. and I were as happy as can be with the huge box of .38 Specials we lugged out to the firing line at the outdoor range. We had boxes of what turned out to be some of the nicest shooting (and very accurate and very clean ammo, I'll add) ammo for the .38 Special revolvers and so I took the opportunity for Billy Ray and El Fisho Jr. to learn the same practice techniques with revolvers that I were taught in the academy and later on several police shooting teams I shot with.
Earlier in the day, I had shot some AMAZING groups at fast double action and doing point and shoot drills with the Ruger Security Six. Unfortunately for me, after El Fisho Jr. discovered that the DA trigger on the Ruger Security Six was even nicer than his previous .38 Special favorite, the Smith and Wesson M67 Combat Masterpiece, he took over the Ruger for the rest of the revolver session and was doing double taps and the drill they taught me in the academy so many years ago: two in the chest and one in the head.
After checking out the gun, it was in like new condition. Tight cylinder. It didn't look like it had ever been fired, much less with any magnum ammo.
Before I launch into my past and recent present with the Ruger Security Six, let me give a couple of links that have quick histories and reviews of this gun that say it far better than I do.
The Wiki article is an accurate overview of this history of this gun and it's related firearms, the Service Six (fixed sights) and the Speed Six (round butt). By the way, I've always wanted a Speed Six in 9mm, and there's a picture of one above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Security_Six
Chuck Hawks does a great job of talking about his Security Six and why he likes it and what he doesn't like. http://www.chuckhawks.com/ruger_security_six.htm.
You really need to read his review, plus check out his awesome site with all kinds of articles about hunting and guns. But here is what noted firearm authority Chuck Hawks thinks about the Ruger Security Six, and how he ends his article. I guess if there's a gun you want to be carrying in apocolypse situation, it's one you won't need spare parts fer.
However, and this is the real reason why these guns are a solid buy, they will simply out last any other DA revolver over thousands of Magnum rounds. (With the exception, of course, of Ruger’s follow-on piece, the GP-100.) If one bought a Security Six, one could expect a lifetime of full use and still be able to hand it to one’s children with nary a problem. I once knew of an indoor range that had one as a rental gun and it digested, by their estimate, some 1,400,000 rounds with no parts breakages and minimal maintenance. That is the essence of a good deal!
This particular gun is a 4" barreled adjustable sight gun. It has Pachmayr Presentation grips on it, which of course make shooting it a pleasure. When I got the gun, I took it to my gunsmith and asked him to give it the once over. He said with some glee that it had one of the best done trigger jobs he had ever seen, and the springs all appeared to be Ruger stock but had been polished and something else. I shot it a few times back then and was impressed with it, but having owned a Python for years, I had shot a great revolver before.
Besides, at the time I got the Ruger, I was all caught up into shooting the newly released Glock 21 in .45 ACP caliber. And I remained very caught up in shooting the Glock 21 for the next ten years or so, moving back and forth with a Colt Commander "
"Shipley Special" .45 that had been worked on by a gunsmith named Shipley. Nickle Commander, Pachmayr wrap around grips, enlarged ejection port, slightly extended safety on one side only, polished ramps and all that. It wasn't heavily modified, but these Shipley Specials were a favorite with REAL Poh-Lice officers in Houston and Harris County for their accuracy and absolute reliability.
So the Ruger Security Six became one of the main stationary house guns, really since the early 90's . In a holster, stashed in a small gun access safe in a hidden spot, with a couple of speedloaders attached to the back of the holster. It's a hunking piece of solid feeling steel. It's a good car gun too, for the glovebox of the car with a couple of reloads.
And I never thought much about the gun until lately. On the rare occasion that I might carry a 4" barrel medium frame revolver as a concealed handgun, I opt for the Model 67 Combat Masterpiece that I have. The M67 is actually heavier by a few ounces than the Security Six, but the overbuilt nature of the Security Six (which is a virtue discussed later) renders it a bit less concealable than a M67.
I'm a normal sized guy. I live in Texas. It gets real hot and REALLY humid where I live in the late spring, summer and early fall. It is hard for a man my size to conceal a medium frame .357 revolver with a 4" barrel during much of these hot and humid times.
Bear in mind that as a young officer back in the days when .357 4" revolvers were standard carry for myself and most other officers in Houston and Texas, when I worked plainclothes and investigative assignments I often did not carry my 4" Python. It was just too big. To have my suits or sports coats cut big enough for the Python, even with some thinner concealment grips, made the clothing look clownish and I looked like I was carrying a BIG GUN, which of course I was.
And even though I've gained a bit of middle aged girth since my slender policing days, a gun like a Python or a Security Six or even the Combat Masterpiece with a 4" barrel (not to mention adjustable sights on these guns) is not gonna conceal any easier now than it did in my more youthful days.
But again, the big Security Six surprise was the great DA and SA trigger pulls. I had simply forgotten how great the trigger pull on that gun is. And reading reviews from other blogs and the websites of so-called gun gurus (and some are gurus, I submit), I know my trigger is better than most. It's a sheer pleasure to shoot, and makes all the difference in the world in accuracy.
So a few weeks ago, when a ton of discount .38 special ammo came our way via my great local gun dealer who bought out another store and got some screaming deals on some old ammo. Very old ammo. Double D Ammo with some nice 125 grain semi-wadcutters. We got boxes and boxes of it and two boxes of some kind of blazer wadcutter ammo. All new, no reloads.
We shot the hell out of our .38 Special revolvers that day and just had a great time, and we rediscovered what great guns with great triggers can do and just how well they can shoot. Challenging my great shooting Colt that day was the Ruger Security Six for nice groups at 15 and 25 feet.
Billy Ray and El Fisho Jr. and I were as happy as can be with the huge box of .38 Specials we lugged out to the firing line at the outdoor range. We had boxes of what turned out to be some of the nicest shooting (and very accurate and very clean ammo, I'll add) ammo for the .38 Special revolvers and so I took the opportunity for Billy Ray and El Fisho Jr. to learn the same practice techniques with revolvers that I were taught in the academy and later on several police shooting teams I shot with.
Earlier in the day, I had shot some AMAZING groups at fast double action and doing point and shoot drills with the Ruger Security Six. Unfortunately for me, after El Fisho Jr. discovered that the DA trigger on the Ruger Security Six was even nicer than his previous .38 Special favorite, the Smith and Wesson M67 Combat Masterpiece, he took over the Ruger for the rest of the revolver session and was doing double taps and the drill they taught me in the academy so many years ago: two in the chest and one in the head.
The exact definition of clean is that you can't have spent more than one year in prison have any firearm law violations have any outstanding stalking charges or domestic abuse charges. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGun Dealer License
Great post. And the important girl perspective...it is purty, too! It reminds me to get my Colt out and put some rounds through it. I have been doing more with my Glock and my shotguns than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI have ruger service six that is still going strong. A pleasure to shoot.
ReplyDeleteGreat wood grips. Where did you get those. First pic.
Skeeter Skelton wrote that he knew of three Security-Sixes, each of which had in excess of 300,000 rounds of hot magnum loads thru them. One was a little or of time, but still fully functional. That would destroy a S&W 13/19 (which I believe are vastly underrated), but he failed to document it. Still, I've heard many stories of the rugged construction of the early Rugers.
ReplyDeleteSince my last comment, I went to my safe and dug out my Ruger .38 Special 3-inch Speed-Six which, I'm proud to say, I had reamed out to accept .357 magnum cartridges.
ReplyDeleteI'm uncertain why it was made with a 3-inch barrel, instead of Ruger's stock 2.75-inch barrel, but I like the 3-incher much better, and so do most of those I've shown the gun to. The weight, size and balance are perfect, and far superior to any of the GP guns I've seen.
The one thing I'm critical of in nearly all Ruger handguns is its rear adjustable sights. They're all the same, and on nearly all second-hand guns they look like they've been in a blender! Yes, they can be blackened with paint or a magic marker, but they are much cheaper than S&W's great quality rear sights. Having a Ruger with fixed sights makes it feel like a new experience altogether! When shooting a Security-Six and then a Ruger Mark II, the sights don't change from one gun to the next, so it's a monotonous experience. I used to buy Millet sights, but they no longer exist. I just wish Ruger would have used a better rear sight for its guns.