Old school Ruger Police Service-Six race gun, 38 Special

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Crosshair

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Well I've come across something unique and oddball. Therefore I bought it. A Ruger Police Service-Six race gun in 38 Special. Clearly for 1980s PPC, a person today would easily mistake the barrel for an integral suppressor.

The double action is about as good as other guns single action triggers, but the lockup is't bank-vault tight. As you can see from the drag marks on the cylinder, it has seen a lot of rounds. It's not dangerous and I don't expect it to spit lead, but I have concerns about how well it will shoot.

"W. C. Cabell" is stamped on the barrel.

I have a few questions:

Does anyone know who "W. C. Cabell" is?

Is it worthwhile to have this gun tightened up?

If so, who would be the best person to send it to and about what would it cost?

Or should I stop worrying and just see how well it will shoot first?

https://i.imgur.com/ntWHOpp.jpg

ntWHOppl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/d5F2SVO.jpg

d5F2SVOl.jpg
 
Never heard of the gentleman. I've seen PPC guns with the gunsmith's name stamped on the barrel as well as the customer's name. I'd get me some HBWC loaded with 2.7gr of Bullseye and give it a whirl before I decided what to do. I'm betting it still shoots this load well. Most of these guns never had any got loads through them, so any play is from use and not hot loads. Unless it spits lead, I'd shoot the snot out of it as it is. If you are like me, the gun is more accurate than most of us are anyway. Some of these guns are starting to hit the market recently at really good prices. Nobody uses these in competition anymore I don't think, I had a S&W a few years back and had a ball with it. Wish I still had it. Ruger makes a great PPC gun if the gunsmith knows how to tune the action and it sounds like yours did. Enjoy it or if you are worried about shooting it, send it to me and I'll put several thousand wadcutters through it to make sure its safe when I return it to you. I'll even furnish my own ammo.
 
I can't give any useful insight into origin of the gunsmith and don't have any advice as to where to send it for service. If it were me, I'd just shoot it until you notice an issue.
Is there a lot of endshake or a timing issue?
I think it's a great looking gun and I would bet it probably shoots pretty darn good too. Congrats
 
Crosshair said:
"W. C. Cabell" is stamped on the barrel.

I have a few questions:

Does anyone know who "W. C. Cabell" is?
Click to expand...

I was able to dig up one other reference to a WC Cabell. It was a single post on a thread about someone else's PPC revolver. They said the trigger work was done by WC Cabell, and the bull barrel was similarly stamped as yours. I haven't been able to find anything else.
 
W.C. Cabell's career may have ended before the advent of the internet and be the reason searches turn up nothing on him (her).
just sayin'
:uhoh:
 
Tilos said:
W.C. Cabell's career may have ended before the advent of the internet and be the reason searches turn up nothing on him (her).
just sayin'
:uhoh:
Click to expand...
Extremely likely.

Of course you also have people like Tom Denall. Whose work is in such high demand that he doesn't need to post even his email address or phone number to have a waiting list a year long. If you want his work, you'll find someone who has it. :rofl:
 
What's the bbl twist?

If there's not enough movement to concern you if it was a "stock" revolver, then it shouldn't be a concern with that ppc revolver.

A model 10 s&w with a 1 in 11 trist bbl
FtWn2B6.jpg

I've shot countless 1000's of cast wc's & hbwc's in that model 10 using 3.0gr of bullseye, 2.7gr of clays, 3.0gr of am select. It's also been a garbage disposal for any & all 158gr cast bullets laying around using 3.5gr of bullseye, 4.2gr of am select, 3.1gr of clays.

This year I plan on doing a lot of testing with these 2 bullets in the ppc revolver along with loads for the 357's & 9mm's.
xHUCNJn.jpg

The bullet on the left is a modern version of the himmelwright wc and weighs 135gr. It has a standard crimp groove along with a large enough front drive band to crimp 9mm cases (designed that way). The bullet on the right is an old cramer "indoor" 110gr bullet designed for gallery loads. In my initial testing that 110gr bullet using 3.0gr of clays was softer shooting in that ppc revoler than a 6" bbl'd 617 22lr revolver.

With ppc revolvers it was common to have the owners name stamped on the bbl. If you can't find a lot of data on the name then more likely than not it was that person's revolver. Typically gunsmiths that make these ppc revolvers make a bunch of them (assembly line style setting up the tooling).

There were different levels of builds for these ppc revolvers. Some were made from trade-in and slapped together. Other from new revolvers an the owner requested what work/$$$ would be done. The revolver pictured above I bought used decades ago and it had an extremely low round count. Never really used it that much and it sat in the safe for years getting oiled twice a year. The picture above of that model 10 was taken in 2013 when I dug it out of mothball's and decided to take a hard look at it. I took it apart to see what level of build it was, turns out it is a full blown build with everything polished/hand fitted.
q8SYM7U.jpg

After seeing this I broke out the moly and treated everything.

awPGBBb.jpg

The same revolver with just under 40,000 rounds. Typical s&w actions make it to the +/- 100,000 mark before they start to fail. I see no reason that ruger shouldn't do the same. Sounds like a lot of rounds but it really isn't Keep hitting the go fast button and it doesn't take long to burn thru a pile of ammo. That model 10 is still tight with 3/1000th's gap & 1/1000th's shake with no side movement.

Anyway you should check under the hood of that ruger and see what your actually dealing with/what has been done to that revolver. Give it a good cleaning/oiling while looking for wear.

Something else to think about/look at/test:
When these tuned revolvers are full they turns/pin easily (balanced). Take 3 shots and now the action has a mountain to climb the next trigger pull lifting the unbalanced cylinder into place. (hence the testing of the 110gr bullets) This is the hardest on the action and where your ppc revolver should be tested at. Any play, slop, difference in trigger pull are tell tale signs of wear.

Good find, enjoy!!!!
 
Shoot it and see. If it's just the kind of rotational slack you see in an out of the box revolver, don't worry about it. Any revolver that is not linebored with perfect chamber/bore alignment should not lock up bank vault tight.
 
I love the look of that ruger. I was waffling on buying a similarly built S&W model 10 a week or so ago. The money is gone now as I bought other stuff, but the desire to dig up cash for that S&W still lingers. If I had seen a classic ruger at that level of build quality I would not have hesitated. I want to add a ruger DA to the stable but I’m not paying for a GP, they just don’t get my respect after an issue I had a while back with new in box guns. Burnt once leaves a bad taste.
 
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