What is your Favorite non-S&W Handgun?
First off, a big thanks to JJEH who responded to my frustrated inquiry/rant in the Forum Office on how to attach photos.
Herewith, if not my favorite non-S&W handgun, certainly a contender. It is my PPC gun, built up on a Ruger Police Service Six in 1977.
As much as I like this revolver, I actually backed into it. When I finally decided I wanted a dedicated PPC competition revolver, I, like most shooters, wanted it built up on a S&W K frame, stainless steel, .357 cal. But there were none to be had. In fact no stainless K frames at all. I knew nothing of the Ruger DA revolvers except that they were K frame sized and were reputed (as were all things Ruger) to be extremely strong. I called my gunsmith and asked him if he could build the gun on a Ruger, and he said he could.
The completed revolver itself was fine. The action not so much. He lightened the action by cutting the coil main spring. When he finished the gun and tested it in his Ransom rest, he only fired it SA. In DA it would constantly misfire.
Time for me to take the bull by the horns. I started doing my homework. I first found out that a 10/22 recoil spring would work as the main spring if one narrowed the strut. Turns out it worked perfectly. Around this time after market trigger return springs hit the market, so I replaced the stock very heavy trigger return spring. Now the DA pull was very light, but consistent. It felt about the same weight as my colleagues' K frame PPC guns, albeit slightly different with the coil vs leaf spring. I had no problem adapting. Later on I learned that legendary gunsmith Jim Clark had developed an adjustable mainspring for these Rugers, so I went with the Clark. That is how it sits today.
Not too long after I had everything dialed in, another teammate, a Governor's 20 member, and I were out at the range practicing. My bride was there, along with our German Shepherd, who would never pass up a range trip. My teammate's K frame based revolver quit on him because one of the frame mounted internal pins broke. He remarked that if this had been in a match, he would be done, because he did not have a back-up. As we were driving home, my bride, always my greatest supporter, said that she would not want me to have to quit a match under such circumstances, so I should get a back-up.
Since I wanted identical feel, and since my Ruger was performing to my expectations, I had my back-up built on another Ruger. This time, since we had both learned, my gunsmith as part of the action element of the build, put in a light trigger return spring and the Clark adjustable mainspring. If anything, the completed action was even smoother than on my original revolver.
I started bringing my back-up with me to the matches, in my Pachmayr gun box that my bride had also bought me. But I gave up on that because my primary never failed on me. The back-up gun, except for test firing by the gunsmith and sighting in by me, never saw another round downrange. So I am in the unusual position of now still having a new circa 1979 PPC revolver.
My primary PPC revolver, the one pictured, like me, is retired. Unlike me though, that revolver can chew out the X ring at 50 yards. I've done a little maintenance over the later years, so it carries up perfectly and locks up completely tight on all six chambers.
The final score for that revolver: The highest scores I ever shot. The most dust collectors I ever won. The most rounds I ever fired through any firearm I have ever owned. Too many fun memories to even count.
Pretty strong credentials to be held as a favorite.
