Hi Guys,
I know this is a S&W forum and the only forum I belong to but I was hoping one of you might be a Ruger Speed Six fan. In the 1980 when I still had little knowledge of revolvers and what I liked I purchased a new Ruger Speed Six 4" barrel blue 357 mag. I shot maybe a box full and for some reason which I forget cleaned and then stored it at a friends house and promptly forgot about it. A few weeks ago my friend found it and now I have it. Does anyone know what it might be worth? The box has been lost ?????. I would say it is 98 to 99%. The trigger pull is quite nice. And ideas?
Thanks,
WP/Bill

Ballpark 450-550
They are nice revolvers and have a good following.
The Speed six and Security six are well respected.


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

For an accurate picture of what the market is presently supporting, I'd search for the prices of comparable guns that have sold in the last six months on Gunbroker. Your 4" tube on that fixed-sight gun is likely to bring a lot less interest than the 2 3/4" version. It will depend on where you are (don't know how revolvers are selling right now in my old home town of West Lafayette), but I'd think your gun is likely worth in the $375 range (retail - not trade value) - figure $350-425.

Nice gun, by the way. Have a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich for me if you think of it.

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The Security Six had a square butt, adjustable sights and was sold in 2.75", 4" and 6" barrel lengths.

The Service Six and Police Service Six revolvers had square butts and fixed sights with 2.75" or 4" barrels.

The Speed Six had a round butt and fixed sights, with either 2.75" or 4" barrel.

A blued 4" Service Six is basically the base model and it will sell for between $350 and $375 in 95-98% condition. You might get lucky and find one as low as $300.

The adjustable sight Security Six will sell for about $50 more than a Service Six.

A round butt Speed Six will sell for about $50 to $100 more than a square butt police six with the same barrel length.

A stainless model will sell for about $100 more than a blued model.

The 6" and 2.75" barrels will sell for more than the 4" models, and a goods stainless 6" Security Six or 2.75" Speed Six will sell for $550-$600.

If your Speed Six has the scalloped cut behind the recoil shield on the right side, it's technically worth more than if it was left in the round, but I don't think most people notice the difference.

In that regard, a blued 4" Speed Six with a 4" barrel should bring around $400-$425. If it were 2.75" it would be worth $450-$475 and in stainless with a 2.75" barrel it would bring $550-$575.

BB57 is pretty spot on.

And the pricing will depend on the venue. I can tell you that a classified for it on a Ruger forum can bring a higher amount... from what I've seen, the Speed-Six is very much sought after by Ruger fans. They are thought more highly than their GP100 successor.

As purchased a few years ago used in 99% shape, this cost me $500... and that's representative of the higher California prices we see as a result of our restrictive handgun purchasing laws and the governing "safe handgun roster".

The so called "off roster" handguns, only available by purchasing used from another California residents, can command some serious premiums over "free state prices".

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Agree with Gunhacker's statement above, I have both a Security Six (1979 vintage) in stainless steel and the GP100 (.327, 2011 vintage) and the S-6 revolvers have a more classic look to them as well, with the wood target grips and all. I pretty much stole the Security six, the GP100 came at a steeper price but I liked the cut of it's jib...

You won't find them in Indiana in 98% for 325-350

You hardly ever see them for sale at all.

Good luck on your search.


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

A nice blue 4inch Speed Six, no box, i'm inclined to believe $400would be a fair price. Perhaps $425, but the shorter barrel gun is much more sought after. Your version may be the least valuable of the bunch.

I paid $475 for a 2 3/4" Stainless one in 357 Magnum, with the box. Was happy to grab it at that price.

Since people have started talking about the snub Speed Sixes in more detail . . .



I just thought I'd liven up the thread a bit.

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Thank you guys. I appreciate your input. Oh and Erich I promise you i will have the biggest pork tenderloin I can find which is served at an Irish eating establishment called Nine Irish Brothers. The darn things are as large as a formal dinner plate and at least 1/2 inch think.
WP/Bill

Thanks KLYDE, you taught me something new about Rugers, I have 3 sixes SS ,2 security and a speed, all pre warning, and didn't realize about the cut away!

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CPO

I have two which I'd never part with. One is from '76.

I just recently paid $920.00 OTD for a 2.75" Stainless Speed Six from 1979, took a long while to find one here in the PRK. I had earlier bid on a 3" Ladysmith 65, but when it went over $1k without Fees or Tax I changed my focus and ultimately scored the Speed Six. I'm happy with the deal, but have found the 2.25" SP101 carries easier ;o)

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Retired & Livin' my DREAM :)

I've never even seen a Speed-Six or a Service-Six for sale around here, period. Not even at gun shows. I don't even know anyone around here who has one. If I did see one for sale, I guarantee you it wouldn't get out of an LGS for only $350.

I have a pre-warning Security-Six in SS with the 2.75-inch barrel and factory target stocks. It's probably 98% at least. From time to time, I've thought of selling it...but every time I get it out to photograph it for an ad, I get to wiping it down and looking at it and I think, no, better not. Not today.

For Erich,
The official sammich of Indiana.
Tenderloin as big as your head.
Nothing better.




Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

This is one opinion. I prefer the scalloped recoil shield. It makes the gun look more refined and sculptured. I think that's why it was changed.

Around here they generally are tagged in the 400-500 range, depending on condition and extra's of course. I suppose a run of the mill, average price would be around $440.00 or so.

I did buy a 4", blue, "Police Service Six" a year or so ago for $300.00 but it looked like it had been dragged down the proverbial dirt road behind that truck everyone drags guns behind.

Still shot just fine. They're good guns. I had a couple "back in the day" a 4" stainless Security-Six and a 2 3/4" Speed-Six. They were a fair amount less expensive than a Smith & Wesson if I recall.

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John 3:16 .

About ten years ago i got a Stainless 2 3/4" barrel Service Six(square butt) for $300. I round butted it,did an action job,and replaced the front sight with a XS tritium one. DA pull @ 8 lbs, no FTF with Winchester,Wolf,or any other sp primer i've used. It's not for sale or trade....Mike

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Prices change regionally. Around here $300 - $400

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

Thanks, Bill - I'll be out there briefly around Veteran's Day, so I'll be sure to hit the one on the Levee. Dang it, my mouth's watering . . . and Chud, thanks, man - I needed that (like a hole in the head)!

My personal Speed Six has the round recoil shield bump, but I do actually prefer the look of the scalloped one. Go figure. Hey, I'm just happy to finally have gotten around to finding one of these in a deal that suited me.

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I agree with you.

What collectors want isn't the same as what shooters want and with about 1.5 million of the Six series DA revolvers made over 16 years, there are not many variants that are considered to be rare or highly sought after collectors items, but they are still very highly sought after by shooters.

For those that do collect them, it's also hard to parse out where the additional perceived value is coming from - the lack of a scallop, earlier production dates in general, or pre-1979 no warning label status. It's hard to separate those three factors.

In my case, my Speed Six still works for a living and on a working gun I don't really care if it has a warning label or not - but I do prefer the scallop.



The scalloped recoil shield looks a lot better (IMHO) and shaves off a bit of un-needed weight in a revolver that is already heavier than a similar K-frame .357.

What is relevant to MY valuation of them, is that I would clearly pay more for one with a scallop than I would for one without (both for weight reasons and for looks). If I were choosing between two of them, with and without the scallop, for the same money in the same condition, the scalloped revolver would go home with me every single time.

Arguing that the scalloped Sixes are "current" production isn't accurate as all of the Security/Service/Speed Six revolvers have been out of production since 1988 - 28 years ago and counting - and they are not the same as the GP100s that replaced them.

Is this something like a chicken-fried steak, only it's pork?

Unless you count Spam, I've never eaten much pork. But this looks pretty good.

What do you do? Slice it in two and make a sandwich with one half?

Bicentennial Speed Six, pre-warning, 2.75" barrell and factory spurless hammer - these are great revolvers I think.



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In May this year a friend sold one with box and docs for $475.00

Unfired example.

Which XS did you get? I have Standard XS's on an LCR and 2.25" SP101. Would like one on my 2.75" Speed Six, looked at the XS website and only found them as front & rear sets for the Security Six.

Thanx,

Also: For the record, the seller placed mine as 1979 production. It has the round recoil shield and the warning on the left side of the barrel.

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Retired & Livin' my DREAM :)

i used a standard Dot....not a Big Dot.The one i used was actually made for a j frame Smith. The tenon was a hair too wide so i went one stroke on one side,then one on the other side, then test. Used a small file.When it just dropped in(tight) i used the red stuff they sent with the sight(threadlocker?) and clamped the sight in. When it set up i used a cordless drill and appropriate size bit to drill the pin hole. DO NOT try to drill the pin hole clear thru from one side only. In one side a bit,then the other side,back and forth till the holes meet in the middle, then put some red stuff on the pin and drive in your pin.Done deal.

It's basically a schnitzel: a round of pork loin that's pounded out flat, breaded and fried. Other than the preparation, it doesn't bear any real eating resemblance to a chicken fried steak (the pork become light and crisp, while retaining juiciness - much less "pull and tug" needed to eat than a CFS). Here's an article that might be of interest:

Breaded Pork Tenderloin sandwiches: An Indiana institution - tribunedigital-chicagotribune

Back on topic: pmosley, that Bicentennial you've got has real character. Wow. My snub (now) has a factory spurless hammer, too (mine is the kind with the knurling on top - I'm given to understand some were made without it), and it makes for a really fantastic carry package. Getting to be that time of year, in fact (he says, as he looks out on all the hot air balloons out the window behind him).

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Thanx, Zoner. The one on my SP101 will also fit the S&W J, so I will get another enroute.

Erich, my Factory Spurless Hammer also has the Knurled top. I bought mine off Evil-Bay and changed it out myself, I wanted to keep the original with a spur incase I didn't like the DAO.

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Retired & Livin' my DREAM :)

Food revues and guns! Wow what a combination!!

I agree. I have both the round and scalloped recoil shields on my Rugers and prefer the scalloped.

Have you not seen the food pics here with a gun included? For food protection, supposedly.

And we have reviews of coffee, tea, wine, etc., and about hamburgers and the like. Not to mention discussions of steakhouses.

It is a presumptuous conceit of the liberal elite that "gun people" are just ignorant rednecks, incapable of enjoying food, wine, and other refinements. It is true that we have members who can't even spell simple words like "knives." Or, distinguish between to, too, and two. But it isn't universal.

Not to mention info on Rolex watches and Scotch and bourbon whiskies. Also, those wonderful members who are all too willing to offer health information. The 3 of you, you know who you are and I can never thank you enough.

Kaaskop49
Shield #5103

I just recently paid $920.00 OTD for a 2.75" Stainless Speed Six

wow I thought things were bad here in the Commiewealth.

If memory serves, folks told me before that my 4" stainless Speed Six was in the $500 range. I looked at it the other day and it's from 1981 and doesn't have the scallop. Now I need to go take artsy photos like everybody else, haha.


When I used to live in Nebraska many places also had a pork tenderloin sandwich that looked similar to the photo posted. It was usually always sold out at a few of the bars in town by dinner time.

Klyde,

Take a heart pill and relax. I'm just saying that you're conflating two things when you say that pre-warning label, round shield Speed Sixes are worth more.

I agree pre-warning label Rugers sell for more than warning label Rugers, and that's pretty much across the board on Rugers. But tell me exactly how you control for the effects of both "pre-warning label" and "round shield" in a single revolver?

You're also lumping the market into a single "collector" category, where older pre-warning Rugers are more highly valued than newer Rugers.

All I'm saying is that Ruger made a boat load of Six series DA revolvers - over 1.5 million of them. Very few configurations rise to what would be considered rare or collectible status, and at heart the Six series were strong, competitively priced, but still basic revolvers that were very popular with shooters and remain very popular a second hand revolvers as shooters. It's going to take another few decades before shooters wear enough of them out for that to happen.

I that regard, their perceived value as daily use guns still has a great deal of impact on the market, and again very, very few of them have true collector appeal.

And there's still the issue of aesthetics. The scallop was adopted and remains on the current GP100 for a reason - it looks nicer in the eyes of most of the potential customers. If an individual is buying a revolver for daily use, it matters more than having an "old" configuration that might have more collector appeal.

So let's just agree to disagree on this one. Eventually in a few decades when the Six series revolver's primary appeal is as an old revolver to collect, you'll no doubt be correct about the round shield configuration. We just aren't there yet.


----


There's actually a great deal of irony in defining value solely by collector status. These same collectors when confronted with a revolver (Ruger, S&W or Colt) that isn't in the desired configuration, has excessive wear on the finish, has been refinished, etc, will state it's worth almost nothing, totally ignoring the $300 or so intrinsic value that same revolver may still have as a shooter to an individual looking for a good shooting revolver.

That's the other flaw in letting collectors be the sole determinant of market value, and then irony is that as much as they like to claim a revolver is worth less or not worth much, those revolvers still bring a pretty fair price as a "shooter", based on the personal preferences and bias of the people who shoot them.

As you can see there is plenty of love for other brands and I never cease to be amazed by the knowlege of the members here re other brands.

As for other websites, don't tell anybody but I actually have an account over at ****talk!

Recently purchased a non scalloped rounded recoil shield Security Six SS with a 6" barrel used in the box. Put a Wolf Spring Kit in it to reduce trigger pull and it's very nice. A Speed Six in 9MM will really set you back. Count me in the camp that feels the "Sixes" were better revolvers than the current GP100 Series as the "Sixes" were lighter and still a heavy duty revolver than their S&W counterpart, the various K Frame .357 Mag Revolvers.

Ruger got the Service/Security/Speed Six series right. S&W eventually more or less matched the Colt Python's frame as their solution to durability issues with the .357 Magnum in the K-frame .357 revolvers

Ruger took a much more innovative approach, using a frame that was only slightly heavier than a K-frame, but much stronger, and followed up with comparatively large cast fire control parts that proved to be not only very cost effective but also very durable. You don't hear about push off concerns with the Ruger revolvers.

Weight wise, my 2 3/4" Speed Six is 38 oz, compared to 40 oz for my 686+ and 36 oz for my 2 1/2" Model 66.

It's very funny, because when I was selling guns (late Eighties), you'd have a hard time finding anyone who had an aesthetic appreciation for the Six series. People loved the K-frames and the heavy duty guys loved the newly released GPs and L-frames (we all remember the S&W/Ruger marketing wars on those - good times with the burger ad! ), but the Speed/Security/Service Sixes were pretty much relegated to the guys who couldn't afford the "better" guns.

(I'm not talking smack: at the time, I was all enamored of first generation Glock 17s - which made me a full-on weirdo at the time - and TDA S&W 645s. I thought the 586 looked pretty nice, and never could quite see why a Python cost so darned much.)

Nowadays, though, as with so many things, I have an appreciation for how quality is its own aesthetic. And a little bit of distance in time gives a fellow perspective for how some designs have a loveliness, a feel to them that is not appreciated when it's commonplace (I'll note this when I see certain older cars - and its obverse as well). Nowadays, I hold a Speed Six (especially in its snub variant) and just sort of sigh. Nicely done.

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ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT!!!

Just an update for anyone interested. I paid $550 for this 2.75" Security Six back in January 2020 at auction. It's a pre-warning model (mfd. 1975) with the rounded blast shield. I got lucky. A couple months later a 4" stainless steel Speed Six came up at the same auction and it went for $700! I was a young guy of twenty when Ruger stopped making the Six series and didn't appreciate the model. Thirty-three years later I do, but finding one for sale is miraculous. I'll be holding onto this one. The target grips are Italian made reproductions (Sile) that I purchased from an on-line company called AR-7. The gun came with the original factory service grips.

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I got this Police Service Six from the Sportsman’s Warehouse rust & dent sale a month ago for $450. Its hard to mess up a stainless Ruger.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

When you're looking at Speed Sixes the 4-inch barrel models were the fewest made.

I had a NIB one that was in the Red Ruger box about 15 years ago and I sold the gun for $250 and if I remember correctly the box for $50.

A couple of years back I scored a like-new, 4-inch stainless Speed Six for $325 OTD.

This one will be going to my grandson someday!

I'd be happy with the 2.75" Speed Six.

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Can't say about current pricing but I really like my Stainless Speed Six 38 Spl.
I have the Red box and stock grips too; no it's not for sale
Mine is the older round recoil shield version.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

I bought this today at a local pawn shop for $560 OTD. I didn't mind the price at all. Last time I bought a speed-six they were a $300 gun. I alway regretted selling that gun.

This new one is from 1974 and it looks to have been used very little. I'm super psyched to have a speed six back in the stable.

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Grips or did you take them off to photo the revolver. Nice gun; I love mine.

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Yes, it came with some nice Hogue rubber grips. I will try to replace them with period correct original Ruger grips. They won't be as comfortable, I like the original look. I have figured out that being in the 150- serial range, it should take the early low round top grips. Right?

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"Free dirt, you dig."

I would not hesitate to pay $500 for a Speed Six in the condition you state they are built like a tank a Cadillac tank...

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Randy

I find the 2.75 speed six every bit as eye pleasing as a fixed sighted 3” K. But it loses to a 2 1/2 or 3” 19/66. ��

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