Speed Six

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Cosmoline

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After literally years of searching gun stores, gun shows and boards, I found a fine condition Speed Six for less than an outrageous price. This one was $200. It's vintage 1975 or so. I'll be putting some Hogue combat grips on it shortly, but the wood is very nice looking. Trigger pull is surprisingly good for a Ruger, as I've often found with the Six line. I like the balance better than the standard SP-101. The 3" SP is a close runner, but it loses by one round. The Six fits my hand better, and gives a little more weight out front to soak up recoil. Plus, the barrel is just shy of 3", and it has a better sight radius than the SP. IMHO it's nearly perfect for CCW .357. As I understand it from authoritative sources, Billy Ruger was losing money on each one of these he made because production was too time consuming. They certainly weren't phased out due to any defect. There were some complaints about "ride up" in the grip in rapid fire, but these were addressed early on and the Hogues cure any remaining slickness.

I'm calling it "The Spenard Six"

six2.gif

Six1.gif
 
Great deal! I own two of them. Does that tell you how I feel about them?
 
Before you try the Hogues, have you tried the Tyler T-Grip added to the stock Ruger grips? That's what I did before I traded away my Speed (can't for the life of me recall what I traded it for).

Oh, some guy is trading off some Ruger -Six grips in the THR Sales/Accessories forum.

Neat piece of gear. Wish they'd kept making these instead of the GP100 series. Guess they got tired of losing money though *shrug*.

-MV
 
The T-grips make it too big for my stubby fingered, potato digging mits. One reason I like the Six line is the narrowness of the grip frame. The Hogues keep it pretty trim, and I really like them.
 
nice, I know what you're saying about outrageous price, the same place I got my minty 4" security six has a SS speed six and they want $50 more and it's in well used condition.

I'd like one but I'd have reserves since to shoot point of aim I have the adjustable sights windage and elevation cranked to both stops and the groups aren't the tightest, I'm not so concerned about the grouping but if the sights weren't adjustable I don't think I'd still have it.

have fun with it!
 
I found a guy who had Mother of Pearl grips for the Speed Six on ebay and ordered them. I'm going to get matching ones for the M36 and be properly pimpified for Spenard. I used to have a Police Pos. Special with the things on them, and they were darned handy. I could always find that revolver, even with glasses off in a three AM haze.
 
I have the same one. I tried the Hogues, but finally settled on the Pachmyr Compac grips. I love my S&W's, but this little Ruger has the best trigger of any DA revolver I have ever owned.
 
The Security Sixes seem to be a lot easier to find than the Speed Sixes. I've owned half a dozen over the years, including one that was so abused it had no blue left and deep pits all over. They're amazingly well built revolvers, though at the time they were seen as a poor man's K-frame magnum.
 
That's what I gathered. I figure once I get the security six, the speed six will end up on the bottom of a rather lengthy list of other guns I need. At least I've covered almost all of the long guns i need so far.... I just need a scary 'evil' rifle of some kind.
 
I find the Tyler T grip on the service stocks to be a marriage made in heaven on my 9mm SpeedSix. I could CCW it very handily, but it is not on my lousy Calif. CCW card.:fire:
 
The 2 & 3/4 inch Speed Six Stainless is the "house gun". It is loaded with Corbon 357 DPX. Pachmayr Compacs (closed backstrap). When I bought it years ago, I ordered the spurless hammer from Ruger, which makes it double action only. The hammers can be changed easily. I prefer the option of having both single and double action. I have many other guns, but this one is the choice to grab in an emergency. You could build a house using one as a hammer without hurting it. I own Smiths too, but I have never had to send a Ruger (this one or my 4 inch Security Six Stainless) back to the factory.
Enclosed is a picture with the original grips before the change.
coach22
 

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Nice gun, i've pasted on a few of them at very good prices in the past.

One of these days i'll have to try one out.

Steve
 
Nice gun, i've pasted on a few of them at very good prices in the past.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't make a habit of passing on speed sixes too much longer! As the decades go by the appreciation of these old Rugers goes up, and a lot of guys are hording them. The sad fact is there really isn't anything like them on the new gun market today, esp. now that the K frame magnums are gone. They were made for the demanding police market, and their no-nonsense design comes from a time when they served as the main sidearm for LEO's, not just as a fun gun for recreation.
 
I'm always delighted when anyone gets a good price on one of these guns (especially me). But at some point people are going to have to stop expecting to get them for the dirt cheap prices they've bought them for in the past. Don't get me wrong, they're still bargains, but it's true. Ruger's production costs were astronomical and, frankly, he sold them too cheap.

It's like Coke and Pepsi. During the Depression Pepsi sold their product for less and folks bought it to get the extra few ounces. But afterwards, people started buying Coke because they could afford it and the economy was better. They had associated Pepsi with "cheap" for so long that serving Pepsi to guests seemed rather miserly. What seemed initially as a great marketing turned against Pepsi, whose production costs were about the same as Coke's. It was seen, in fact, as the "poor man's cola."

Bill Ruger took all the weaknesses he could find in a revolver: it's side plate, cylinder, pawl, and lockworks, and he redesigned it from scratch. But like Pepsi, he undersold it for the temporary benefits he reaped. Now, people who think nothing of spending $325 for a decent Smith & Wesson speciman groan when they have to shell out $275 for a primo Ruger. It's too bad, really, but it was a great legacy Ruger left us. Remember when he introduced the massive Redhawk in stainless for a paltry $325?

As Ruger himself put it: "Well, that was our first double-action revolver. It’s given great service, but my recollections of it are of the difficulty we had in learning how to make the inherently more intricate double-action revolvers. I don’t think we made a penny out of any Security-Six, but many shooters still like them."

Amen.

300px-Bill_ruger.jpg
 
Thanks for that post. I know it's not PC to like Bill Ruger since "the Letter," but you have to tip your hat to his vision of firearms. I just took apart my Six and was again impressed by the simplicity of it. It's even more simple than the SP-101/SRH action they went to later on.

This one had not a spec of rust on it, though there was some decades-old oil. With a cleaning and fresh CLP it's incredibly smooth, equal to a Smith, with little of the "springy" feeling that's characteristic of many Ruger actions.
 
I found the reprint of Skeeter's original article on them. The first ones had some flaws, but these were fixed pretty quickly.

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