Most of us are well aware of the torrid history of the Ruger .357 Maximum. This is a little known part of that history. When issues of flame cutting and forcing cone erosion started to become and problem and came to light, the project was turned over to Walter Howe, head of special projects. Walter was friends with Jeff Munnell who was one of the principals of US Arms when they were in Arizona. Walter had called Jeff asking basically asking him what issues they had. After the course of conversation, Jeff offered to send Walter a Seville so that they could test it. Jeff walked out on the production line and randomly pulled this gun and sent it to Ruger. This gun has had 1000 "proof" loads through it as well as over 9000 factory rounds.
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AS shipped
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Note the stamp on the inside of the box lid.
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Rockwell testing points on underside of barrel.
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And again on frame above cylinder window.
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On it's own, without the Ruger connection, this Seville is fairly scarce.
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letter from Waler Howe to Jeff Munnel, sorry, not able to rotate it for some reason.
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Letter from Jeff Munnell to me.
AS shipped
Note the stamp on the inside of the box lid.
Rockwell testing points on underside of barrel.
And again on frame above cylinder window.
On it's own, without the Ruger connection, this Seville is fairly scarce.
letter from Waler Howe to Jeff Munnel, sorry, not able to rotate it for some reason.
Letter from Jeff Munnell to me.