Not OUR gorilla of course. I meant this one:



Ever since I saw that ad as a kid I've wanted one of these. I've run across a few over the years, but they were either overpriced or I was undermoneyed or both.

A while ago I spotted this one in the old gun rack at Ron Peterson's great gun store in ABQ. A little dickering and I secured it for under four bills.



Its a very early one, and still in pretty good shape. Some dents and dings, just enough so I won't mind taking it javelina hunting this year.





If only gorilla season was open.



Any other fans of these?

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

I have one of those ads and I can tell you that Ruger would never run something like that now no matter what the circumstances of the kill were. As for the gun a friend of mine bought one of those Ruger's many moons ago for his girlfriend and she killed several deer with it, it was the only rifle she ever really liked and some very large bucks fell to her Ruger .44.

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Vaya con Dios

Fantastic little carbines. Have had one for about 20 years or so.

Encountered a guy that was unsatisfied with one because it wouldn't feed and shoot factory .44 SPECIALS!.
Traded him even for a much - used Ruger Security Six 4" blue .357.

Put a Weaver 1-3x scope on the Ruger Carbine and have taken a bunch of deer with it, including a 6 pt. Albino buck. It's my favorite 'close-in woods gun', and that's the majority of the type of terrain I hunt anyway.
Hornady 240 gr. XTP's shoot inside about 2.5" at 100 yards and have anchored every deer I've ever hit, pronto.

Good find. Enjoy.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

I have one of these from 1961, serial # under 250. It has a white bead front sight and a Marlin made barrel. I've never hunted with it but it's very accurate with 240 grain jacketed bullets at 100 yards! Mine is from a time before Ithaca (sp?) sued Ruger for using a name too close to their Deerstalker and stopped them from using the name "Deerslayer". I have a PDF of the handbook on this rifle, if anyone needs a copy of it I can email it to you.
Dick

Attached Images

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	RugerCarbine2.jpg (95.0 KB, 134 views)

Had one years ago, sold it a mistake for sure, if I ever find another one on a "deal" I'll but it. Great little gun for knocking around the mountains with.

Pity someone doesn't make something like that, but a little heavier, in 500 S&W Magnum.

looks like a fun little gun, but I think I'd prefer my 44mag carbine in a lever action. It just seams more fitting to the round if that makes any sense to you.

When I was a kid I read an article in my Dad's Rifle magazine about a guy who accurized one to take bear hunting. This was in the mid '70s. I actually still have the article. It really interested me and I always wanted one. About 12 years ago I found one at a gun show and paid $400 for it. I wouldn't take twice that amount for it today.
Jim

I have a similar, but much later dated, Ruger carbine in 9mm. No longer in production, it was marketed as a patrol car carbine, and accepts Ruger 9mm pistol magazines. Heavy for its size, but lots of fun to blast 9mm with. I accumulated a bag full of pistol lo-caps & hi-caps, and it is extremely accurate. I'm not a Ruger fan at all, but the 9mm carbine and 10/22 are nice cost effective additions to the collection.

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I'm with the banned ...

I gotta admit that I actually find that ad picture a little disturbing, but a nice rifle.

They seem to be a handy little rifle. I remember that ad and thought it was pretty horrible back then and still revolting today. That ad would cause me to want to avoid getting one of those if it was being used these days. Hopefully, we have advanced in our attitude toward such creatures since then.

Nice rifle(carbine). Hows that Haugen P220 holster holding up?

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Go big or stay home

A buddy of mine has one, he hunted deer with it for a lot of years in Western Oregon. I don't currently have a .44 rifle and I'm thinkin' I need to start lookin' around for one....

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Even older, even crankier....

Seems like the ideal small rifle to have at hand if just loafing around the woods when you might need to shoot an animal that attacks, or thugs.

Bigfoot protection? You bet! And a serious researcher or two can carry camera, binocular, etc. more easily if they have a trim, light rifle like this instead of a bigger one.

I'm really glad to see members post here that the accuracy is good to at least 100 yards. I read somewhere that accuracy was poor, a key reason why I never bought one.

Ruger makes a synthetic-stocked .357 bolt rifle now that seems a reasonable substitute for this auto item. I think they also make/made a .44 Magnum version. With a wooden stock, it looks a lot like a M-77-22 .

Best belt holster I've ever had. I wear it everyday.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

I had one of these a few years ago that I let get away. Then I worked on a fellows rv pad and did some trading for another one that was in like new condition. I looked at it over and over on the way home and thought what a nice safe queen this would make. Walked in the door and my second boy says to me "dad i really like that gun and since mom is going to take me deer hunting this year I think you should....
Well they really did make them for using. good bye beutiful stock hello unforgetable childhood memories. Doeboy

You and me BOTH!

I recall that ad...I was eleven years old in 1961. Maybe thats why I have never been a fan of most of the Ruger products?

FN in MT

My hunting companion and lifelong best friend had one of the earlier carbines.. He put a 4xWeaver with pivot mounts on it and that little gun was quite accurate. He harvested plenty of deer in the Catskill mountains and father North in the Adirondacks with that gun.

Most shots were at 50 yards or less but he made a couple kills out to a 100 yards. Most all deer taken were one shot kills!

I now have the gun and it sits in a place of honor in my gun safe. Upon his death 10 years ago his children knowing our lifetime friendship gave me the gun. I shot it a few months ago and the little gun can still do a great job of hunting.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

" Kong not bad. He love little lady. Just protect her, take to top of building..." Neat Gun!

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PTLAPTA!

I have had one since Ruger made them in the Mannlicher stock. I have shot several deer with it, but you want to use the solid nose bullets. The HP bullets open up to quickly and do not penetrate enough to do a good job. Mine has a little Redfield, 2.5X post and crosshair scope and the whole thing is easy to carry. Love it!

Mine was stolen Saturday before Xmas, 1986.

I loved that little carbine. Killed my first hog with it, right through the ear/brain stem, dead right there.

Used in WA state but never shot a deer with it there. What I did do was shoot at targets at +500 yards with it out in some of clear cutting logging areas east of Seattle up in the mountains. Pretty cool to make a shot, bring the gun down, get the binocs and then watch your shot hit the target (hopefully!).

Dang you OP, now I want one again!!!!

I remember that ad from when i was a kid. I picked up a used finger grooved sporter in 1988 and have had it since. Shoots 1.5 to 2" groups at 100 yards.

You and alot of other people..... Ruger received so much hate mail over it, that the Ad was pulled, It is considered extremely rare in Ruger Memorabilia collecting.

Dan

I'm surprised that the ad was received so badly in gun magazines. The gorillas were shot on special license for a museum group. And they weren't as endangered then as now.

Still, shooting any primate is going to stir some emotions, except among jungle tribes where monkey meat is much prized. I think this is pretty common in Amazonia.

I have no real desire to shoot primates, other than maybe popping a spider monkey in the wild if it threw something at me that people normally flush, thanks to Sir Thos. ******* and his wonderful toliet invention. But even that is probably illegal now.

I did see a photo of a really big primate of unknown species that was shot in Brazil many years ago. It was hung from a tree to show that it was bigger than a man. It had charged someone on a expedition. The group had other priorities and it was never ID'd as to species. It looked something like a really big spider monkey, but too large for that species. But it had a similarly nasty disposition.

I also wouldn't mind shooting baboons. They are potentially dangerous to humans and raid crops in a very destructive manner.

Certain species of both the cercopithecoid and the ceboid monkeys and the wild apes are endangered. But baboons aren't. In some countries, they are dangerous pests.

Still, PETA and other groups have fanned public opinion so much against hunting that I wouldn't use dead baboons in an ad.

Savage had the same idea in 1919:



Now we have the makings for a real "gorilla thread". What's the best - .44 Mag or .250 Savage?

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Someone thought a Mannlicher Schonauer was good gorilla medicine. This rather disturbing photo was taken from a reprint of the 1935 Steyr catalog. No photo info was given.

George Leonard Herter thought a good broadhead arrow was a pretty good primate stopper, the primate in this case being a baboon. (Personally, I always found this photo a little distrubing, especially since the caption said this was the largest of 35 baboons this fellow shot that day.)

If Herter (or whoever this is) shot 35 baboons in a day with a bow, my hat's off to him. That'd be a really good score with a rifle! Herter wasn't known for modesty or understatements...

Seriously, ad hyperbole aside, baboons are alert and post sentries. They can count to at least four and if riflemen are needing to thin out their numbers to save crops or to prevent attacks on native women, four or five riflemen can enter a patch of woods and leave one as the others leave in sight of the baboons. The hidden man can then often get in a few shots as the baboons converge on the area where the rifleman is hidden.

Baboons definitely distinguish between native women and warriors with spears and often attack the latter and steal crops from them. One baboon that I read about waylaid stragglers and travellers and ripped out their guts, leaving them to die by the road. Another turned out man-eater, although that seems to have been an isolated case, as with elephants that have eaten humans. Insofar as I know, the few elephant cases were zoo-involved and may have been deranged individuals.

The leopard is the most succcessful predator on baboons, but if they see one in time, the male baboons will usually drive him off. Leopards have been preying on our kind and similar species for eons. There is a well known fossil leopard skull whose teeth exactly fit into the holes in the skull of an australopitihicine found in its den. That takes us back maybe three million years.

Seriously, if that archer did kill that many baboons with a bow, he must be a remarkable hunter, with good concealment skills. Might be interesting to try that with a .44 Magnum revolver. But what if several big males charged, let alone a whole troop? Have you ever seen the teeth on a big male baboon? If a leopard respects what they can do, I certainly intend to learn from his attitude. The baboon in the photo is not especially huge.

Did Herter say where he killed those baboons? That looks sort of like a Gelada baboon in the poor photo angle. They live north of where the more familiar Olive and Chacma baboons do. (From Kenya and nearby to the Republic of South Africa, in the case of the last.)

I took a class in Primate Behavior in college. It was a graduate level course for zoology and biology specialists, but they let two of us undergrads in to have the minimum number of students to teach the class. There was a teacher in charge, but she oversaw us each teaching two classes, for which we had to do considerable preparation. I taught the classes on ringtailed lemurs and on baboons. Mainly on Olives and Chacmas, because my non- textbook research was largely centered on South African accounts of them from a hunter's or farmer's view or that of a early reseacher who was an Afrikaaner who had retreated to the bush after the Second Boer War to let his soul find peace in solitude, I guess. BTW, he carried a 7.63mm Mauser pistol like Churchill's famous gun. He didn't trust baboons although he got to know some quite well. But I don't recall that he had to shoot any.

Anyway, I find baboons to be fascinating, but I realize that they are pests and dangerous ones, at that. You could make a pretty good case that they are sort of like coyotes in that regard. And they're pretty smart, if not as much so as chimps, which have over 99% of our own DNA! I wrote a fan fiction about a now defunct TV show which had a group of renegade chimps that had learned to use fossil-era hand axes to smash open people's heads, leading local natives to think this was the work of the mythical (?) Nandi bear. That was a stretch, but I wouldn't be amazed if baboons could learn to do that, too, especially if they saw a chimp using a tool or weapon in a similar manner. But their teeth alone are fearsome weapons.

Did any of you see a movie called, "Sands of the Kalahari", starring Stuart Whitman as a Weatherby-carrying fellow who ran afoul of some Chacma baboons after a plane crash? Pretty good flick. Don't know if it's made its way to a DVD. It sort of did for baboons what, "Jaws" did for sharks. I wish that it had been more popular in theaters.

I remember when the .44 mag carbines first came out; I saw them for sale in the PX when I was in the service. Thought it was a handy game rifle, but in those days I couldn't afford one. Cool guns, but disturbing when used on primates!

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Sorry, I should have clarified: That's not George Leonard Herter; it's Jacques Herter, Jr., who if memory serves was some distant Belgian relation. I've always rather doubted that body count myself.

Thanks for a most interesting post, Texas Star.

I think you guys would enjoy Peter Hathaway Capstick's story The Killer Baboons of Vlackfontein, published in his book Death In A Lonely Land. Capstick and a crew of game wardens had to sort out a problem with a particularly aggressive and dangerous to local natives troop of baboons. They dug a trench around a grove known to house the baboons and filled it with fuel oil. At the precise moment they lit the fuel, effectively blocking the baboons escape, and used MAC-10's chambered in 9mm to thin their ranks.

I would love to have one of these. I have been looking at them for years. One came upon me a couple years ago and the old man wanted $150 bucks for it but it was in horrible condition. The guy was sketchy and I was afraid it was stolen. I think ill spend the money and get one in a little better condition. But I think you did well for the money that's a good price from what Ive seen.

One of my hunting buddies uses one those as his brush gun for whitetail and bear. At least once a season I try to buy it off of him but he's a stubborn fellow.
Fun to shoot, compact, lightweight and will take down anything in this neck of the woods.

Tapatalk ate my spelling and grammar.

Very cool!

Guys don't hate me for this but about ten years ago I bought one of those and a model 1100 shotgun from a friend for 100 bucks no lie.

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Steve

is he still a friend?

I acquired my .44 Ruger carbine in the mid-sixties, as I recall. I've taken a bunch of deer with it without problems. The only potential problem with them is that from heavy use, eventually, something goes in the action that prevents full cycling and Ruger no longer supports their carbine with spare parts.

I had my carbine professionally checkered before they became collectible. In retrospect, guess that was a mistake.

Great thread. Great gun and pics. While the theme or images may be disturbing to some - these ads, attitudes about primates, attitudes about over-hunting - are an important part of history. And as well all know, history tends to repeat itself, especially if we don't keep an eye on it.

Always wanted one of these Rugers myself as I loved my 1st 10/22 - this seemed like the next logical step. What were the known common issues with these? What should be inspected when purchasing a used one?

The closest thing I have is a Marlin Camp 9 which is a great compliment to a S&W 5906 as they use the same magazines. I have 4 30+ round mags that all work perfectly, one is stainless. Then the slew of 5906 mags that all work in both the carbine and pistol. Great setup for the wife.

If anyone has a line on a copy of the savage arms gorrila ad please let me know. Thanks.

Well guys, My LGS just a few weeks ago got one of these in and it was sold the same day. It was/is in new condition, I mean mint.

Sold for......................$450.00 !! yes $450.00

It's what started my Gunshop envy thread. I missed it by 2 hours or so. It went to a great guy though but he will not love and care for it as I would have. Really he is gonna use it

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Still Running Against the Wind

I saw an ad in my dad's Field & Stream and went down to the local hardware store and ordered one. We didn't have any gun stores in the area. No one had ever seen one as they had just been introduced. Well a couple of weeks and $104 later I walked out of that store with my new carbine. I had just turned 15. I hunted deer with it for several years until I went in the Air Force. Then I used it when I could get back to Maine for leave. It was stolen in a break in about 15 years ago. It was a neat little firearm.

Wow I just noticed how old this thread is. I don't know how I got recommended to come here. Apologies guys!

Lol. Old thread. Old times. Look at the post before yours. He found one and it sold the same day for $450! That was 2012. I would Imagine that gun today is easily 1k.

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP