.357 Security Six at 200 yards

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Rapidrob

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Location
Albuquerque,NM
Back in '72 I bought the then new Ruger Security Six. It was built like a tank and had good resews in all of the shooting magazines for how well it shot.
I bought it as a back up for Hog hunting in South Carolina where I was stationed.
Over the years I pulled it out of the safe and would plink with it from time to time always remembering how well it shot with any load you put into it.
Yesterday I decided to load up some hard cast Keith bullet of 158 grains over 7 grains of Unique and went to the range.
I set up a steel gong at 60 yards and after 12 rounds realized it was just too easy.
I got with my club members and we set up a steel man silhouette at 200 yards and using a 2 foot hold over the target at 10 o'clock, found it was easy to hit the target.
A fellow club member tried his luck and after figuring out the hold,proceeded to hit it 5/6 shots.
The only "option" I have on this pistol is over-sized wooden grips as the factory grips are too small for my hands.
The early Ruger showed its quality build once again. It is a keeper.
 
Rapidrob

That's mighty fine shooting! For me 200 yards is mainly a rifle proposition. All the Ruger Security Sixes I had were well made and accurate guns. Should have held on to few of them.
 
Famed gun reviewer Hickock45 has a video of him making ( IIRC) 200+ yard shots, with a 1911 !!! It's pretty entertaining and worth digging up, they're on You-tube.
 
How 'bout that?

Nice way to not get bored with a revolver after 43 years. Geeze, if I even knew that they made them that long ago, I'd forgotten it. I love that you threw "Keith" into the mix. How appropriate.

Todd.
 
What barrel length? I have a 6" stainless and a blued lowback 2 3/4" but neither get any use. I keep telling myself they will get more love once I begin to reload but it simply hasn't happened yet.
 
It has a 4" barrel. I wanted the 6" and they were always sold out. The "Snubby" were known to exist but I never saw one for sale anywhere at that time.
Rugers sights were so robust when you threw the pistol up for a shoot it was like sighting over a toothed rake!
I really like this pistol and always have.
 
Rapidrob said:
Back in '72 I bought the then new Ruger Security Six. It was built like a tank and had good resews in all of the shooting magazines for how well it shot.
I bought it as a back up for Hog hunting in South Carolina where I was stationed.
Over the years I pulled it out of the safe and would plink with it from time to time always remembering how well it shot with any load you put into it.
Yesterday I decided to load up some hard cast Keith bullet of 158 grains over 7 grains of Unique and went to the range.
I set up a steel gong at 60 yards and after 12 rounds realized it was just too easy.
I got with my club members and we set up a steel man silhouette at 200 yards and using a 2 foot hold over the target at 10 o'clock, found it was easy to hit the target.
A fellow club member tried his luck and after figuring out the hold,proceeded to hit it 5/6 shots.
The only "option" I have on this pistol is over-sized wooden grips as the factory grips are too small for my hands.
The early Ruger showed its quality build once again. It is a keeper.
Click to expand...
Great write-up! The early 150 series Security-Sixes were and still are great revolvers....and this is the reason I started collecting them for the last 15 years! I currently own 9 of these Security and Speed-Sixes that are still NIB! Herrett made the "Shooting Stars" grips for these 150 series Sixes and these can still be found on ebay from time to time! Following is an example: A NIB 6" 150 series Security-Six made in 1972, from my collection:
P1000847.jpg
 
Very nice. As I was reading, I thought for sure you had a 6". Even more impressive with a 4".
The -Six Series may well be the best all around revolver ever made.
 
Wouldn't try a 200 yard shot with my 2 3/4" Security Six, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world either.
 
I need to take a photo of the pistols with the grips. I'm not sure who made them as the ink in their logo has long blurred together.
My cousin Fred collected new,in the box Rugers starting in 1969. He had at one time over two hundred of them. Every make,type,variation that Bill made.
He sold his collection in 1990 and paid cash for his house overlooking the Bay at Calvert Cliffs,MD.
His Dad,my Uncle, got us both hooked on Rugers by taking us shooting using a Ruger Mk1 .22 pistol in the late 50's.
I still have my Mk1 Target that I bought in Naples,Italy in '72 for 40 bucks where I had to bribe the Chief of Police ten bucks to allow me to take it out of country.( still have the paperwork) Strange world we live in.
 
If I had a set of aftermarket grips to fill out my 150 series security six I could see myself carrying it from time to time. The factory grips were made for someone else. I found a surprising difference in recoil between the 2.5" sp101 and the 2.75" security six. Far better trigger too.
 
I shoot our steel Javelina, which is just over 200 yds. with a 2.5" .357 mag. all the time. I only load and shoot full house jacketed 296 loads though, so probably some advantage there I'm sure.

But what I think it really boils down to, is how well we know our firearms and loads. I have been shooting the steel javelina at our range for years with the same handguns, so I know exactly how high I need to hold over to nail it. On average it may take me 2 shots to get on target, but once I hit it, I'm consistently on, round after round.

The last time I was out there, I was smacking it with my Taurus 608, which almost seems harder for me to consistently hit it, but I also haven't done much practicing with that revolver at long distance either.

I once shot a coyote on the first shot at more than 150 yds. with my Ruger SBH, JHP's and my usual full throttle 296 load. I would have just considered it lucky shooting, if not for the fact that I nailed a jack rabbit at about the same distance a week or so earlier, same revolver and loads.

GS
 
I was lucky enough to have been taught how to shoot by a few of the best pistol shots in my time. In the early 70's I was a small arms instructor for BUDS
( Boot UDT/Seals) while stationed in San Diego. I had to be better than my students so I practiced every single day with the 1911 ( was still the pistol issued) when I could hit a 1 gallon paint can at 100 yards from the hip. While it sounds far fetched,my instructor SR.Chief Bover did it every time using a snub-nosed .38 Special. He was one of the finest pistols shots in the world at that time. He instruction stayed with me which developed into a life long passion for long range shooting. I run a long range shooting club now and all of my members shoot out to 200 yards with military issue pistols for our matches.
Even the little .32ACP does well in trained hands.
The most popular plinking matches are .22LR at 200 yards. The members do very well.
Anyone here as well as most of the other shooting sights are always welcome to stop by and shoot with us. We have a very nicely maintained 1,000 yard static range as well as moving targets out to 500 yards.
I would be more than willing to teach you how to do it. It's easier than you'd think to do.
 
Rapidrob said:
It's easier than you'd think to do.
Click to expand...

This is what I think would surprise most folks if they tried. I think far too many have this notion that 25 yards is the max range for any handgun other than a scoped hunting revolver. My standard range for practice with my iron sighted hunting revolvers is 70 yards. Folks that don't shoot at that range are always doubtful that they could hit anything at that range until I let them try. It's not as hard as folks think. I think sometimes the increased focus they need to see the target at a longer distance helps, because I think folks shooting at a big target only 15 yards away tend to just aim for the center. I shoot my iron sighted .460 out to 125 yards and with a decent rest can keep my shots within a 9'' paper plate. But it takes practice and confidence that you can do it. Most handguns have the accuracy to do it, the rest is up to the hands that hold it.

I have a 12'' orange circle on a old car hood @ 200 yards at my private range. On the big hill behind it is a tree that I have figured out aiming points with most of my revolvers so I can hit it with some regularity. Even occasionally with the snub-nosed .38. There was a time tho when I thought it impossible.
 
I had to be able to hit a 12" gong at 100 yards 5/5 shots with an Air Weight Snub-Nosed revolver in order to get my revolver qualification for rapid fire at a known range.
As long as the bullet will engage the rifling properly,even in a very short barrel,it will stabilize and be accurate.
It is hard to get owners to understand this. I had one man let me show him how it was done after I watched him shoot up 1/2 box of .38 Specials from his Colt Detective Special and not hit a man sized target at 25 yards.
I hit the 24" steel sighting in armor plate at 100 yards with ease. I turned and handed the pistol back to him. Rather than say"Show me how to do that" he said F#&# You! and stormed off. What can one do?
 
Rapidrob said:
I got with my club members and we set up a steel man silhouette at 200 yards and using a 2 foot hold over the target at 10 o'clock, found it was easy to hit the target.
Click to expand...

When I first started shooting IHMSA Silhouettes, I used a 6" 357 Magnum revolver. If i did my part, I hit the 200 meter rams regularly.

I bought a 10" 357 Magnum Contender to be able to shoot other classes using a cartridge that i already loaded for and it worked well as well.

The 357 Magnum is not the best round for IHMSA but it worked OK when on a budget.

So, I am not surprised that you were able to hit the gong at 200 yards.

The Ruger is a nice revolver.
 
This is my second post on this forum. I have been shooting for far longer than I have been posting and for for longer than there has been an internet. Attached is a photograph of the target.

My first quality center-fire handgun was a Ruger Security Six that I bought in the early 80s. I used to shoot this gun a lot!

The group in the photograph was shot from a modified Creedmoor prone position at 100 yards. The bullet was a cast 192 grain lead-gas-check from a RCBS mold propelled by WW 296 to a velocity (verified by my Oehler Model 33 Chronograph) of 1300 fps from a 6" barrel.

This group is vertically strung and measures about 4.5 inches.

P1120058.jpg
 
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One that I stupidly sold and regretted it later. I had a 6" but wanted a 4". Great guns.
 
I picked one up a little while back for $350. Included box, manuals, etc. All it had was a turn ring on the cylinder. This revolver was clean as a whistle inside and out too. Shot it today and was hitting the target at 50 yards once it was sighted in. Nice revolver, think I'll keep it.:)
 
Rapidrob said:
I was lucky enough to have been taught how to shoot by a few of the best pistol shots in my time. In the early 70's I was a small arms instructor for BUDS
( Boot UDT/Seals) while stationed in San Diego. I had to be better than my students so I practiced every single day with the 1911 ( was still the pistol issued) when I could hit a 1 gallon paint can at 100 yards from the hip. While it sounds far fetched,my instructor SR.Chief Bover did it every time using a snub-nosed .38 Special. He was one of the finest pistols shots in the world at that time. He instruction stayed with me which developed into a life long passion for long range shooting. I run a long range shooting club now and all of my members shoot out to 200 yards with military issue pistols for our matches.
Even the little .32ACP does well in trained hands.
The most popular plinking matches are .22LR at 200 yards. The members do very well.
Anyone here as well as most of the other shooting sights are always welcome to stop by and shoot with us. We have a very nicely maintained 1,000 yard static range as well as moving targets out to 500 yards.
I would be more than willing to teach you how to do it. It's easier than you'd think to do.
Click to expand...
Sounds like fun. I don't think you are talking about Zia R&P Club. I'm a member there. Are you out at Del Norte in Bernalillo? I've never been out there.
 
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