[Ale-8(1)]

Yes, there were dedicated .22 Magnums built.

They were roll-marked "RUGER SINGLE-SIX WIN. 22 RF MAG. CAL." on the left side of the frame. They were made from 1959 thru 1964, serial numbers 300000 thru 398349.

They were all 6-1/2" barrels, model RSSM. There were a few with "extra" .22 LR cylinders, model RSSMX.

Most had the "black plastic" grip panels, but a few shipped with walnut, model RSSMW.

Early ones had XR3 grips, a few later ones had XR3-RED grip frames with walnut grip panels because there weren't any "black plastic" XR3-RED grip panels.

Neat guns.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

And not only that, some of the early .22LR convertibles were marked in the same serial number range as the "Magnum only" guns. My 5-1/2" convert RSS5 is numbered 343XXX (November, 1962).

And I also have a similar 9-1/2" RSS9 gun with one cylinder stamped and the other one "scribed", serial 360XXX (March, 1963).

With Ruger, ya never really know . . .

 

[Ale-8(1)]

I apologize for "pirating" this thread, but we're having fun here.

Follower, if you'd care to share at least the "front half" of your serial number, we might be able to tell you even more about your gun. And if you call the Ruger factory's records department, they will tell you your gun's ship date (month and year) and confirm its "shipped configuration" by model number. If you ask nicely, they'll even provide you with a FREE letter confirming this information.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Good info, MCPO.

The pic actually shows the "back" of the cylinders.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

According to the references, the early Ruger grips were made from the synthetic rubber copolymer known as nitrile butidiene rubber, a specially engineered type known as Butaprene. These have always been referred to as hard rubber in the older Ruger references.

To the best of my knowledge, they have never been near a rubber tree. I'll refer to them as "black plastic" because that's what they look like, feel like, and respond like when working on them. I'll include the quotation marks because I don't want to start any fights with some of the purists. I refuse to call them hard rubber because I think that's misleading. True hard rubber is real rubber that has been heat/pressure treated (vulcanized) to produce specific characteristics.

This is entirely my opinion, of course.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

455XXX could be either a convertible from 1966 or a non-convertible of the same era.

Interesting that both cylinders are numbered. It's possible that the gun was shipped as a non-convertible as Ruger has told you, but was later returned to the factory to have a magnum cylinder fitted, which would most likely been numbered. This was a common practice. The fact that the magnum cylinder is "bagged and boxed" tends to support this thought. The factory probably cannot confirm this retrofit, however.

At any rate, a nice old gun. Enjoy.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

It gets even more confusing when you consider that on the 6-1/2" single-cylinder guns the magnum cylinder was considered the "standard" and the LR was considered the "extra" cylinder.

In addition, after about 360XXX both cylinders of a convert were "scratched".

Info from Reference of Ruger Firearms, Volume One.

Consider all the ramifications there, throwing in the possibility of a single-cylinder gun being returned for a retrofit cylinder.

Ain't we got fun?