RugerSociety.com

My latest Digest arrived today.

Another great one!

But I really enjoyed seeing the tribute article with the special Ruger MK IV presented to Don!

That just made my day!

Don truly deserved it!

Congrats Don!

Great issue!
Congratulations are certainly in order to Don Findley on his well deserved award!!
Terry

I'm new and received mine, the first I've ever seen. Wow! Talk about excellent work! Definitely 10/10 and what all published work should aspire to.

Read mine last night. Great photos throughout the Digets. Don deserves all the accolades he gets, his books are tremendous.

Spread the word about our Digest as we had a large number of members who forgot to to renew for 2026?
Extra copies were printed for these folks, we really need to see more renewals be mailed to our treasurer,
Mike Kamler. Thanks, Lee Sundermeier, current ROCS Editor.

This Digest is one of the best we have published, it is excellent. We are lucky to have the layout and design lady that handles all of our input and makes us look good. The tribute to Don is certainly well deserved. He is a wealth of Ruger history and he has taught me a lot over the years. Our members articles are great too. Spread the word and help ROCS by signing up new members.
FT44/Bill

As always the ROCS Digest is excellent. The tribute pistol for Don Findley is amazing and well deserved. Don is our own Ruger treasure and has forgotten more about Ruger than most of us know.

Talking about Donnie, I will tell a story. Many years ago, Donnie and I were set up at the Amarillo Gun Show. Probably very early 1970.
Donnie and I just knew who each of us were. I was selling Colt first generation and Winchesters and other firearms. I don't remember what Donnie was selling but he had first generation Colts also. We were set up next to each other. Donnie went to the restroom. When he came back he told me there was a guy set up displaying Rugers. We both had a good laugh on that. Rugers...who would collect them.
At that time Hawkeyes could be purchased for $ 100.00, new Bearcats $40.00/45.00. The first engraved Single Six in the case I purchased cost $2500.00 Well the ole' boy that had Ruger's, who we didn't know was John Dougan. The rest is history as we three became close friends.

Hello Guys,

Hoober's recollection brings back a lot of fond memories from the Amarillo days. I was born and raised and lived in Amarillo until 1980. Donnie lived in Lubbock, 100 miles south and Jim lived in Canadian, 100 miles east, so the Pioneer Gun Collector's show was a perfect meeting place for us, twice a year.

The display that Jim talks about was about 20-30 single-actions spread out on a table, each with a dowel through the trigger guard to stand it up, this was before computers, so description cards were hand written.

Jim and Donnie was right, "We both had a good laugh on that. Rugers...who would collect them". I was a carpenter and didn't have a lot of money to spend on Colts SAA, I wanted to to collect and shoot single-action revolvers.

The late Ben Lane Jr., a celebrated firearms engraver who Jim and Donnie also knew was also a close friend of mine, we shot in an indoor pistol league and on the out door range when the weather was nice. At one time he toured with the great Ben Hogan, so he tried to teach me golf, I never scored under 100, Ben regularly shot par or under, he commented one day, "why don't you collect Ruger single-actions", so did. And, who would have thought that we would be where we are today.

Aside from the Amarillo gun show, we would travel throughout the year to visit each other, I remember Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Hoobler's. Marge always prepared a feast fit for a king and they had property that we could hunt and fish on.

We would spend the night at Donnie' and Gail's house and go to he Lubbock show, He always took us out to eat good Mexican food or BBQ. On occasion the four of us would meet half way between Amarillo and Lubbock and enjoy a nice lunch.

Donnie and Jim of course spent the night at my house when they came to the Amarillo gun show.

For more than 50 years the three of us have been blessed with with an unwavering bond. I can't imagine my life without them being part of it.

regards, John

Great stories. I wish I could have been there! Keep them coming.