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All,

I wanted to share with you the last salt cod pistol shipped from the first production run of Standard Autos. This one was acquired from Poulins last auction. While awaiting a factory letter, I'm seeking out any and all information that anyone might have on #0660 as it's quite unique. I have Mr. Whitcombs contact from Poulin and was introduced to him in Tusla via Mr. Findley. He told me that he wrote the following description and had more to tell me but thus far I've not heard back. Please read the description and take a close look at the photos.

"PISTOL. Cal. 22 LR. S# 0660. Bbl. 4 3/4". Very special custom pistol utilizing THE last pistol of Ruger's 1st batch of 660 guns mfg. late 1949. First batch numbered 0001-0660; 2nd batch 2000-2415. In 1950, numbers started at 2416 to the millions of today. Only a handful of pistols mfg. between 0660 & 2000. Early standard features include rounded muzzle crown, sm. dovetailed rear sight & squared ejection port. Bolt is blued w/ polished ejector port area having separate recoil spring assembly as used on current production models. Rear of receiver scalloped like MK-II for easier bolt retraction. Safety lever opening altered to smooth cornered rectangular shape w/ grooved thumb safety lever. Fully checkered grips that follow contours of grip frame to top in High Standard style (extend slightly below frame at bottom center). Bottom rear of grip frame filled w/ metal creating straight bottom silhouette. Uses altered mag. w/ special skeletonized base having checkered circles resembling Luger mag. Follower is raised opaque plastic creating last shot hold open function. Right front portion of mag. has an added silver soldered mag latch to work w/ the added push button mag. release located in line of trigger guard frame protrusion. Elegant smooth in the white trigger resembles Luger / Nambu style. CONDITION: bore near excellent, balance very good w/ occasional sm. scratch on factory appearing finish. MAGS: 2 very good identically altered 9 rd. mags. that likely hold about 7 or 8 rds. due to taller replacement follower. (19-2530/NW). CURIO"

Whoever did it knew their way around a shop. This has quickly become one of my favorite Rugers with all of its eccentricities. Frankenstein? Maybe. Cool? Absolutely. Let me know what you think and especially if you KNOW something about the genesis of this gun.

Kind Regards

I can't tell you more about it, but it is for sure unique! I never seen one quite like it. Thanks for sharing!

Great Snag!
This one will be interesting to follow.
Terry

I'm following your piece as well Chuck, unfortunately I've nothing to add.
I'm leaning toward toward an employees piece.
I hope you can gather some clues to deduct the 5 W's on its existence.
Best,

What a unique and interesting find, Chuck! Besides being a very limited RST4, availability and value has to be very special....Congrats!!

BTW, Merry Christmas to the ROCS membership and families!

Ted

Very interesting pistol. Actually there has been only one Standard pistol located between numbers 660 to 2000, # 1130. That was a special for a friend of Mr. Ruger. Of the 2 special magazines pictured here, the top (magazine) is 1949 production the other is a little later production. Those magazines are a work of art (as well as the pistol).

Very Interesting! Never seen something like them!
Learning every day!

Have known about that one for a long time. Zero info about its originality.
Chet15

Chuck I must say that is a one of a kind pistol. The magazines have a Luger or Nambu look with the bases configured the way they are. Someone spent a lot of effort and time making #0660 into the special piece that it is. I really hope you can find the full story on this piece of Ruger history. Perhaps this was made as a special gift or project by an early employee. Maybe it was something tinkered on by Bill Ruger or Alex Sturm seeing that it was the last pistol before the serial number break. The possibilities and conspiracies are endless!!!

Thank you for your interest everyone. I was very excited to obtain this even knowing that the factory isn't going to have anything to say about the special features in letter form. I did notice at auction that the magazines were not identical as Don indicated but stated as being so in the description. Maybe some employees did this with ideas taken from meetings about future improvements or ways to customize them. Whoever did it had a nice shop and knew what they were doing according to Dougan. It being the last of the first production just makes it that much stranger to me and it's probably going to drive me insane. We know that Bill appreciated some of the other manufacturers' guns with features similar to those on 0660...

For now, here are some photos of the 0660 with its sibling 0657. It's the closest that I have in the production sequence. I do find it very interesting to see the two together.