Welcome to the forum. You inherited a classic Ruger. Your grandfather’s revolver is beautiful. I love the plum color on the early Rugers. A Single Six from the first thousand produced is a very collectible handgun. The Flat Gate model was where it started. What a fantastic gun to remind you of your grandfather every time you hold it.

 

Yep, you got a good one there. Worth even more if you have the original box!

 

That’s a beauty! Even more so since it belonged to your grandfather. Looks like he kept great care of it.

 

The first 2000, give or take a few, had a different receiver than any made after that and command a much higher price. They are referred to as Type I's. Your's also has the nice purple hue to the receiver. Ruger was shipping these with a letter advising the customer of the bluing issues and offering to address it if they were not happy with the finish. I don't have a photo of the letter on my laptop but will try to post it when I get back to the house later this week.

 

twriggen, Let me make a few adjustments to your post. First, SA revolvers don't have a "receiver", they have a cylinder frame and a grip frame. There were four "types" of flatgates, according to RENE. They all had identical grip and cylinder frames. What set the type 1 different is the non-serrated front sight blade, there's no dash between the roll mark "Single" and "Six", plus they have a unique ejector rod button. Serial number range was 1 to 1985. Type 1s are indeed the scarcest flatgates. The value of a 100% type 1, is well over $1k. The box alone is worth $200.

Here's my Type 3 flatgate, like new but no box (1955 vintage). The heel of the hard rubber grip is starting to turn brown. A sought-after defect, much like plumb colored bluing, caused by exposure to daylight.

 

D, that’s a really nice piece you have there. I hope you pass it on down to someone in your family.

 

Welcome from Wydaho

 

Very nice. I've never even seen a flatgate in person. One day I'll trip across one.

 

Great looking flatgate

 

Ruger ordered, and received 2000 of the frames that were used for what would become the Type I Singe-Six units. The total number that were used is not known but it is expected that some of them were trashed and not used. The highest known serial number with the Type I frame and features is serial number 1985. The frame on the Type II is different than the Type I in that the breach face is flat on the Type I but not on the Type II. It's not always the easiest thing to see but if you run your finger across the breech face you will feel the dip. Best I can do it this picture of a single six casting with a pen pointing at the area where you will feel the dip.

If you can find one for $1000 I would not pass it up as you will make money on it. I've seen quite a few go into the $2000 range this year on different auctions. Thankfully I already own one and I'm a typeset kind of collector, in most cases, so I'm good having just one example of the Type I.

Here is an image of the original "recall" notice that Ruger shipped with the early Single-Six regarding the finish issues with an offer to fix if requested.

The purple hue is very common as well as the Copper blotching on my Type I below. You would also see "Lightning" streaks of copper like on my Hawkeye pictured below the Single-Six.

 

twriggen, I called my friend in Omaha. He is an avid Ruger collector with over 300 Ruger handguns and more than 200 Old Models. We discussed the "Type 1 frame issue" and he is of the same opinion as me .... it's not a different frame, rather an anomaly in the casting that can occur in any model. Tonight, he brought his LNIB Type 1 Flatgate to my house so we could compare it to my Type 3 Flatgate.. I don't doubt there are some anomalies but neither of us could feel or see the "dip" you spoke of.

BTW, there's no such thing as a "breach face" in a revolver ..... it's called a recoil shield. Rifles and pistols have breach faces or bolt faces but not recoil shields.

I like your Hawkeye. I have a LNIB Hawkeye complete with a Bushnell 1.5X scope, made specifically for the Hawkeye. I recently got a 20-round box of 256 Win Mag ammo so at long last, I can shoot it. I've owned this gun for 10 years, but with no ammo. Hawkeyes are a strange breed. First off, they are a single shot. They do resemble a revolver but the "cylinder" is not a cylinder at all .... it works like a breach block. The cartridge is actually chambered directly in the barrel and the pseudo cylinder locks it in place and contains the firing pin. According to BATFE, it is not considered a revolver, rather it falls in the same "pistol" class as a Thompson Center Contender.

The "plum" color, lightning streaks, and blotching was a very simple fix. Brownell's came up with a "Type S" additive where a small bottle in a large bluing tank made the guns come out blacker than a whore's heart .... and they stayed black. Ruger collectors go GAGA over the bluing defect. I have several OMs with the plum color but it does not excite me. As it turns out, the chemical reaction with bluing salts can take up to 20~30 years to stabilize so even guns that left the factory with a nice bluing job. may turn plum colored as they age. My early Type 3 Round Gate Single-Six is a prime example. The bluing was perfect but now you can see some slight plum color in the cylinder frame and loading gate.

 

I had my numbers wrong as it was 4000 that were shipped but 2000 were returned as defective. From Dougan's "The Vintage Years" page 157 and 158.

 

The Type 1 definitely have a flat face on frame and the later have a slight step.