RCA

TULSA  RUGER  COLLECTORS

DISPLAY SHOW 2008

Narrative by Bill Hamm

Photography by Matt Olivier

WANENMACHER’S  TULSA  ARMS  SHOW

November 8-9, 2008

This year’s annual fall Ruger Collectors Association’s Display show was once again held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Joe Wanemacher’s great Tulsa Arms 3,800-plus table show.   The number of the public attending was amazing; you could hardly get through the aisles!

We had nine outstanding displays representing our fine firearms and memorabilia.  The displayers traveled some long distances from various parts of the country to share their collections with us and the general public.  I want to give them a great big THANKS for all their hard work and efforts.  It was very evident that a lot of time and hard work was spent getting these displays ready for the show.  All were of pure quality and several contained very rare and unique guns and items.  There was something of interest for anyone browsing through the Ruger displays.  There were handguns, long guns, and lots of Ruger knives.  These will be outlined below along with the results of the judging.

A lot of good Rugers were for sale on the trade tables.  Several of the collectors found good deals on some fine guns for their collections.  I personally saw a couple of “D” Bearcats, Flatgates, several transition .357s, a set of consecutive numbered rare Jerred Engraved Single-Sixes, three or four 10” .44 and .357 Flattops, a couple of 7-1/2” .44 Flattops, some factory brass frame Super Blackhawks, a mahogany boxed Long Frame Super, and 6-1/2” Super Blackhawk.  Some fine Number 1s were found at the show with some other good buys of rare to scarce guns!  I could go on and on, but you get the picture; there were a lot of fine and rare Rugers at the show.

The RCA judging/award classes were expanded beginning in 2008 to include Old Model Revolvers, New Model Revolvers, Autos, Double Actions, Long Guns, and Tools/Memorabilia.  There is an Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice  level under each class.  A voluntary Masters level has also been added for those who have previously won 1st place with a display at the Advanced level and wish to opt out of the judging for that same display again or any display new or old if they so choose.  These changes were made to attract new and more displayers and level the playing field. 

Award Plaques and a one year free membership were given by the RCA for 1st Place winners in the Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice Category in each Award Class.  Chad Hiddleson, Red Eagle News Exchange, also gave an Award Plaque and one year free membership to the RENE for the “Best of the Show”. 

The Tulsa Arms show also judges displays and gives cash awards to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning displays.  All displayers get a nice plaque for their participation.  Our Ruger displays won 1st and 3rd place in the Tulsa Show awards and are identified below in the individual display write-ups.

A Ruger LCP .380 Caliber pistol was provided by the RCA and a surprise drawing was held among displayers at the Saturday night Awards dinner.  Novice and intermediate category displayers got two chances while Advanced and Masters got one chance.

Descriptions and pictures of the displays as well as awards are shown below:

(Click Pictures for a Larger Version)

RUGER KNIVES BY CASE CUTLERY

DISPLAYED BY BOB THOMPSON, NOVICE,

MEMORABILIA CLASS

AWARDED 1ST PLACE NOVICE, MEMORABILIA CLASS

AWARDED 3RD PLACE TULSA SHOW

WINNER OF THE DRAWING FOR THE LCP .380 PISTOL

This was Bob’s first display and our first displayer in our new Memorabilia class.  This display included an example of all of the Ruger knives produced by Case Cutlery with the Ruger logo on them.  This included one sold only at the Ruger store, the complete two knife set of Blackhawk 50th Anniversary knives, gift tins and a mint set.  Lots of folks stopped by Bob’s display to talk to him and learn about all those great looking knives!!  For any of you dragging your feet about displaying, just look at Bob’s Awards…WOW!!

LIMITED EDITION NO. 1 SINGLE SHOT RIFLES

DISPLAYED BY HARRY McDUFFIE, NOVICE,

LONG GUN CLASS

AWARDED 1st PLACE NOVICE, LONG GUN CLASS

This was Harry’s first display and what an outstanding way to break the ice!!  Harry had an array of 18 Limited Edition Ruger No. 1 rifles.  Included were an 1-A/Etch-A & 1-A/Etch-B .30-06 rifle, a RCA 10th Anniversary and a NRA 125th Anniversary.  We sure congratulate him on 1st Place Novice, Long Gun Class!  We are hoping to see more No. 1s next year!

 

RUGER SINGLE ACTIONS

DISPLAYED BY JERRY HERTEL, NOVICE,

OLD MODEL REVOLVERS CLASS

AWARDED 1st PLACE NOVICE, OM REVOLVER CLASS

AWARDED “BEST OF SHOW” for “S” MARKED HAWKEYE

Jerry’s display included a wide array of top condition old model single actions.  Amazingly, all of these guns were boxed!  The display included all four types of the Single-Six “Flatgate”, a rare Nickel plated Super Single-Six, a factory second “S” marked Light Weight, the only known factory second “S” marked Single-Six 5-1/2” with walnuts, a consecutive numbered pair of Lightweight Tri-Colors with one in a Green Wreath box and the other in a Black Wreath box, a “S” marked Lightweight and several round gate guns.  He also had one of the out-of-sequence RSS5s, #244194.  That was the first one of those that I can recall ever seeing.  There were two “D” marked Bearcats and Blackhawk 4-5/8” and 7-1/2” examples in .45/45ACP.  There was a .45 4-5/8” brass frame, a .30 Carbine and a .41 Magnum with a Micro rear sight.  There were mahogany boxed Standard & Long frame Super Blackhawks, consecutive numbered Jerred Engraved Single-Sixes, and an extremely rare, one of only two known, “S” marked factory second Hawkeye.  I am sure that there were a few others that I did not name, but you can see that this was an interesting and fine display of Rugers.   We are looking forward to seeing more from Jerry at the Intermediate level next year!!

 

STURM RUGER’S SUPER BLACKHAWK, 1959-1973

DISPLAYED BY ROD KIRIAN, ADVANCED,

OLD MODEL REVOLVER CLASS

AWARDED 1st PLACE ADVANCED, OM REVOLVER CLASS

To quote Rod, “Nine old Supers that show some of the many different variations that make Ruger collecting both challenging and fun.”  Two of his favorites displayed were the “S” marked 80-prefix gun and the ultra rare 10” barrel gun.  Mahogany and white box cases for the guns were displayed.  A good friend of Rod’s sold him the 10” gun and made a custom mahogany case for it at Rod’s request which was also displayed. Another Rod quote, “Good friends and good guns just seem to go together!” I agree with Rod and I am already looking forward to our get together in Harrisburg!!

 

RUGER REVOLVERS OF THE 1950s

DISPLAYED BY MIKE WOMBLE, INTERMEDIATE,

OLD MODEL REVOLVER CLASS

AWARDED 1st PLACE INTERMEDIATE, OM REV. CLASS

Mike’s eye catching display included fine 3-digit serial number examples of seven single action revolver models introduced from 1953 – 1959.  This included the Single-Six .22 Caliber, Blackhawk .357 Magnum, Blackhawk .44 Magnum, Single-Six Light Weight .22 Caliber, Bearcat .22 Caliber, Single-Six .22 Magnum and the Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum.  All seven guns were displayed with original boxes as well as an original full page advertisement when each model was introduced.  Two of the guns were adorned with factory stag grips and two with factory ivories.

 

THE SR9 HAS ARRIVED!”

DISPLAYED BY MATT OLIVIER, ADVANCED,

AUTO CLASS

AWARDED 1st PLACE ADVANCED, AUTO CLASS

Matt displayed the four current variations of Ruger’s new popular SR9 9MM striker design pistol.  Displayed were a first year production two-tone gun with black frame and stainless slide along with the CRKT knife and original pre-recall trigger; another two-tone with the black frame and stainless slide  with the new recall trigger installed; an all black variation and the olive drab frame with black slide variation.  They were accompanied by all of their boxes, a company produced SR9 baseball cap, tee shirt, SHOT and NRA Show SR9 pins, factory holster, catalogs and SR9 recall information.  Matt’s display sure attracted a lot of the public’s attention and demonstrates the desirability of Ruger’s newest products.  There was not an SR9 to be found in the house by the end of the show!!

   

“FANCY RUGERS

DISPLAYED BY BILL HAMM, MASTERS CLASS

This display included six of the factory engraved Single-Sixes, model RSSE.  Displayed was the Spanish Engraved #5100 which was the first serial number of the 20 consecutive numbered guns that Bill Ruger sent to Spain to be engraved. Two Charles H. Jerred “All Blue” engraved guns and a set of three consecutive serial numbered Charles H. Jerred engraved guns; #44933, #44934 and #44935.  Examples of presentation cases, paper work, advertisements and invoices accompanied the guns.

 

THE  RUGER NO. 1 IS HERE!”

DISPLAYED BY LEE NEWTON, MASTERS CLASS

Lee’s beautiful display of three extra special and extremely rare Ruger No. 1 rifles derives its title from the early rare Ruger display banner of the same wording.   The display featured the one-of-a-kind General Vernon E. McGee rifle in .32 Smith & Wesson long, the Lenard Brownell rifle serial number 10, a 6MM with a 24-inch “A” weight barrel and the Chester Hape 7MM Remington Magnum rifle.  Mr. Hape was a good friend of Brownell who made this special No. 1 rifle with an Alex Henry forearm, 25-inch “A” weight barrel with sights!  Simply put just outstanding No. 1s!!

 

CASED RUGER SUPER BLACKHAWK

DISPLAYED BY JOHN DOUGAN, MASTERS CLASS

 AWARDED 1st PLACE TULSA SHOW

John’s display was outstanding as usual.  It included variants of the cased Super Blackhawk, model S47.  There were mahogany and white box cased examples.  Three two digit guns, #11, #26 and #58 with provenance were included.  Three very specially prepared for engraving S47s were displayed.  These three guns, #4805, #4809, and #4810 had been sent to Charles H. Jerred in August 1960 to be engraved along with another S47, #4806.  Of the group only #4806 was engraved.  These three exhibit an extremely high polish finish and are just beautiful!

 

There was a good gathering of about 50 people at the Awards dinner.  Matt did a great job of running the event.  A draft copy of the upcoming Fall Journal was circulated for viewing among the attendees.   After dinner we held an Auction where several items contributed by some RCA members were auctioned off.  The bidding was spirited and we raised about $2,700 to be used for our displayer awards, the annual NRA display, etc.  Rick Verzal and his wife Peg did a great job presenting the auction items and squeezing every last cent out of the bidders.

We also sold raffle tickets for a SR9 pistol during the show.  The tickets were sold for $20 each and limited to 40 tickets which made the odds of winning very favorable.  We had the drawing after our Awards dinner and RCA member Mike Tomblinson was the lucky winner!  Congratulations go out to Mike!  We netted about $635 from the raffle for our display fund.

We hope that you will plan to attend and hopefully bring a display to one of our future display shows.   The upcoming display show location, dates and contacts will be posted on the RCA website.  Ask anyone who attends or has attended; you will have a lot of fun!!

Bill Hamm

The Ruger Collectors' Association is the oldest organization for the Ruger collector and/or enthusiast. Membership includes the Association's sporadically-produced newsletter and invitation to members-only events. For more information (or to apply for an annual membership), write to: Ruger Collectors' Association, Inc., P.O. Box 240, Greens Farms, CT  06436

The Red Eagle News Exchange is a quarterly publication filled with new information, updates, and articles about collecting Ruger firearms and memorabilia. This is an excellent resource for the Ruger collector and/or enthusiast, and the wealth of information sent to new subscribers as a free gift with a paid annual subscription is alone well worth the money. Highly recommended. For more information or to subscribe, write Red Eagle News Exchange (Chad Hiddleson - Editor), 1945 Clover Avenue, Perry, IA  50220, or call (515) 465-2057.

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