Rare Hawkeye "custom"
Re: Rare Hawkeye "custom"
BEST NOT TO....but......clearly he did not like collectors.........told me all of our parents were not married and we were trying to make money off of him in the secondary market.......I was "suited" up, credentialed as a displayer(two sites) with the RCA, and the President of the Arizona Gun Collectors.........I had asked about putting a formal Historian in place.........
Re: Rare Hawkeye "custom"
AH yes, TRUE story too,,,,we too ran into that when we were a Director for the OGCA and with the RCA and at these various "National NRA conventions got to see ,talk with and listen to many of these "elders" back in the early 1990s "true stories" and as our friend Don Wilks always said part of "Ruger lore".....
as for the Hawkeye conversions our shop back in the early 1970s when the Hawkeyes were NOT "selling" well, too many left over at yes, less than $95 out the door !!!our gunsmith converted a few to different calibers that would "fit", be short enough to lay in the rotatiing breech block....and "chamber" some using the small diameter bore, others we used Douglas air gaged barrel blanks, threaded to fit the frame and yes they worked.....wish I knew where any of them are today, same went for the.256 Dan Wessons we built, got written up in American Handgunner back then...they too long gone.....
T/C had the "market back then.........
as for the Hawkeye conversions our shop back in the early 1970s when the Hawkeyes were NOT "selling" well, too many left over at yes, less than $95 out the door !!!our gunsmith converted a few to different calibers that would "fit", be short enough to lay in the rotatiing breech block....and "chamber" some using the small diameter bore, others we used Douglas air gaged barrel blanks, threaded to fit the frame and yes they worked.....wish I knew where any of them are today, same went for the.256 Dan Wessons we built, got written up in American Handgunner back then...they too long gone.....
T/C had the "market back then.........
Re: Rare Hawkeye "custom"
Gentlemen,
Thanks for sharing your Ruger stories. The subject of their ambivalent relationship to the aftermarket and collectors deserves its own book.
The Hawkeye conversions are very interesting. I wonder if other shops made them. Did the caliber choice doom the originals?
Yeah, a 1964 Single-Six Convertible I was looking at had a $69.50 price tag on the box.
Thanks for sharing your Ruger stories. The subject of their ambivalent relationship to the aftermarket and collectors deserves its own book.
The Hawkeye conversions are very interesting. I wonder if other shops made them. Did the caliber choice doom the originals?
Yeah, a 1964 Single-Six Convertible I was looking at had a $69.50 price tag on the box.
"My greatest fear is that, when I die, my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them." Anonymous Collector
Re: Rare Hawkeye "custom"
There are 2 Hawkeyes in .221 Fireball, one of which was WBR's pistol Carbine serial number 69.
Chet15
Chet15