Service Six .380 Rimmed

[parkerizer]

Forgive my ignorance on this subject but a friend showed me a Ruger that I hadn't seen before. It's a Service Six in .380 Rimmed with a lanyard ring. From what I've been able to find out is they were made for the Indian Army. This one is NIB. Is there any collector interest in this revolver? He'd inherited it in his father's Ruger collection and knew nothing about it.

[flattop44]

Yes, there is collector interest in these guns, pretty scarce. Hopefully some Double Action collectors will chime in with more information for you.
Bill

[Charlie1022]

I saw a pair of them at the ROCS OGCA show last July and learned a lot about them from other collectors. You info is correct on who they were made for. These were from the over run of the contract and were sold here in the US.

[RoninPA]

parkerizer,
First off, welcome to ROCS. This place is chuck full of Ruger knowledge and if you have questions they will be answered. That said, hopefully you'll be able to make it to any shows the we display at, you'll be overwhelmed with the friendliness of all the ROCS folks and the diversity of the collectors/exhibitors.

The .380 Rim cartridge is the same as a .38 S&W round and Ruger did, as others have said, make both Police Service Six and Speed Six revolvers in this cartridge to sell to foreign governments. Most notable were the guns sold actually to the national police force in India. There were overruns to the contract and those ended up being sold here in the US. As for collector value, YES, they are wanted by collectors, especially if they have the original box, shipping container and papers that came from Ruger. Missing some of these items lessens the collectability a bit but not to a significant degree.

Your friends revolver is a Speed Six variant of the Six series revolvers:
Security Six - adjustable sight, square butt;
Police Service Six - fixed sight, square butt;
Speed Six - Fixed sight, round butt
But even with this brief description there are even variations of the configurements of what I wrote above. Come to a show that I or other Six series collectors are at and we can go much farther in depth about those variants

Don't ever be afraid to ask questions here on the forum, there are no dumb questions, not a single person here will ever belittle someone for asking a question (unlike many other forums). We want to get the word out about Rugers and clear up any misconceptions about them .

[LIBERTY FOREVER]

parkerizer,

As RoninPA indicated welcome to ROCS. This place is chuck full of Ruger knowledge and if you have questions they will be answered. He has several pairs of these military RCA releases as well as I and others in the ROCS. I've attached a link to a thread of some posts I've done with photos on your interest as well as a link of Ron's display at the Tulsa gun showhttps://www.rugersociety.com/OGCA_2017.html# ROCS.

[JAYDAWG]

Great information Gene.
Thanks for posting. I also have wondered about these.
I have never seen one in person, but I have been watching
one on GB for a while. The buy it now price must be to high
since it has been on there for a while.
Anyone have an idea what would be a fair price for one of these?

JAY

www.gunbroker.com/item/728023541

[RoninPA]

JAY,
That buy it now price is WAY too high. The gun is in great condition (by the pictures) but the box, etc. is so-so. That is, IMO, a $750-$800 or so gun, not over about $850 because of the box/paper/etc.

[JAYDAWG]

Thanks Ron.....this is why I love ROCS, lots of knowledgeable folks here
And ditto from me parkerizer, Welcome

JAY