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My big brother Jeff Quinn passed away on July 27th, 2020, at the all-too-young age of sixty-one years. Jeff's untimely passing was a shock to most, but those of us who were closest to him knew of the suffering he had endured for several years previous; Jeff kept his health problems mostly to himself, both because he didn't want to burden others with his problems, and because he was too proud to appear weak to his many friends and fans. Since his death, the outpouring of love and respect for my brother has been overwhelming. Jeff never really knew the extent of the regard in which he was held by his friends in the Firearms Industry, his peers in Firearms Media, and the many thousands who came to know, respect, and even love Jeff over the past twenty-one years that Gunblast has been in existence. Jeff always sought to make Gunblast not about Jeff Quinn, but about the firearms we all enjoy, the Rights which we as Free Men cherish, and the sense of Community resulting from these shared passions. Shortly before he passed away, Jeff asked me to keep Gunblast going in the same spirit, and since then I have been trying with all my might: not to attempt to replace Jeff (which would be impossible), but to answer that responsibility in my own way, keeping to the practices and principles that Jeff established from the beginning.

When Jeff and I started Gunblast in 2000, along with our oldest brother Greg,  the Internet was seemingly in its infancy, and we had begun by reviewing guns that we already owned. At our first SHOT Show as Gunblast in January 2001 (we had been to a few SHOT Shows in previous years, as Jeff had an FFL in those days), we didn't have a lot of success getting the gun companies to talk to us. Maybe their refusal to take us seriously was partly because we were a couple of long-haired, bearded Hillbillies, but it was greatly because most gun companies thought the Internet was just a passing fad, and the idea of an Online Gun Magazine was just more than their conservative business minds could comprehend.

One notable exception to this mindset was Ruger: the men and women at Ruger embraced us as fellow travelers, along with the Internet as a concept, as an inroad into an entirely new and exciting Marketplace. While most gun companies refused to even speak to us, Ruger was first among the very few companies that were on-board with us from the beginning. Their forward-thinking approach to Engineering and Manufacture, as well as Marketing, has much to do with the fact that Ruger leads the firearms world today, in sales, quality, and Customer Service. Over the past twenty-one years, our relationship with Ruger has flourished, and many of the folks who make up Ruger have become personal friends as well.

Among these personal friends is Mark Gurney, Ruger's Director of Product Management. An engineer by trade and temperament, and a long-time Product Manager at Ruger, Mark has earned his share of the credit for the many design triumphs that Ruger has produced over the years. We grew into our business as Mark grew into his, and over the years at the various Trade Shows, Mark would take us into the Ruger booth's Sanctum Sanctorum, the hallowed "back room", where he would show us products that were in development but not yet ready to be announced: cool things that most Media did not get to see, some of which would not see the light of day for years, if ever. Mark, and the other executives at Ruger, knew that Jeff's word of secrecy was his bond, and we've never had to sign an NDA; a handshake between two good men was enough, which is seldom seen in today's business world.

Within about a month of Jeff's passing, Mark asked if Ruger could make a special run of guns in Jeff's honor, an idea that had been put forth by the senior executives at Ruger. Mark enlisted me and our very close friend and brother Shootist Jason Cloessner of Lipsey's distributors to cooperate on a fitting design. Jason is Vice President and Product Development Manager at Lipsey's, and he is the guy who is personally responsible for dreaming up all the cool Lipsey's Exclusive products; I always say that Jason is the only guy I know who has as cool a job as I do, and of course I was more than honored to have some input in the project. We decided to offer a revolver chambered in 44 Special, as Jeff loved revolvers in general, and the 44 Special was one of Jeff's favorite calibers. We further decided that it would be fitting to offer the special revolver in a configuration that Ruger had never before made, with custom touches to honor my brother. After some months of emailing back and forth regarding design elements, Ruger produced a prototype late last year, Jason and I enthusiastically approved the final design, and production began on the "Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100".

The Ruger Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 is a very special revolver in many ways. Firstly, it honors the memory of my beloved brother, in a Limited Edition of only 500 units. Secondly, the configuration of this GP100 model is unlike any Ruger has produced to date. Finally, proceeds from the sale of these GP100s will go to Jeff's favorite charity; more on that later.

Ruger currently catalogs the GP100 44 Special in several configurations, but the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 offers a unique combination that Ruger has not cataloged before. The finish is a high-polish blued carbon steel, with high-polished stainless steel hammer and trigger, which makes for a very classy-looking revolver, finished as no 44 Special GP100 has been finished to date. The barrel is 4.2" in length (4" nominal) with a "half-lug" profile, which has never been previously offered on a 44 Special GP100; the half-lug barrel shifts the weight of the revolver a bit further backward in the hand, lending a very nice balance, and the 4" length makes the revolver a bit easier to conceal than the 5" or 6" versions. The five-shot cylinder is unfluted, giving a very clean and businesslike appearance. The sights consist of Ruger's proven fully-adjustable rear sight, coupled with a gold-bead dovetailed front sight; this sight configuration is very quick and easy to acquire in various lighting conditions, while affording the ability to adjust the point of impact for various loads.

Rather than the familiar GP100 rubber grip with wooden inserts, which are very nice, attractive, and practical in their own right, the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 features a smooth hardwood grip profiled similarly to the stippled versions found on Ruger's GP100 Match Champion 357 Magnum and 10mm revolvers. This GP100 grip design has just the right amount of palm swell, and fits my large hand very comfortably; not too large, and not too small, with enough length to fully accommodate all three support fingers. Smaller-handed shooters, upon handling the revolver, also remarked to me that the grip fit their hands very comfortably, so this grip design should work very well for most shooters. These grips are customized by Ruger with a laser-engraved version of Jeff's signature and a logo design of Jeff's face; Ruger's graphic designers did a wonderful job capturing Jeff's ugly mug and beard braids in a laser-friendly way. Very nicely done, Ruger!

Specifications - Limited-Edition Ruger "Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100" 5-Shot 44 Special Revolver

As collectible as the Ruger Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 may be, I like to shoot my guns. Jeff agreed with this, and maintained that it is possible to take good care of firearms while using them for their intended purpose. When asked, as he often was, whether one should shoot this or that collectible gun or maintain it unfired for their heirs, Jeff would always reply in the same manner: "Which would your heirs rather have, a pristine 'Safe Queen', or Dad's favorite old sixgun?", to which I would add, "If the answer is the former, then they deserve neither." 

Shooting the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 was a pleasure. I have not as yet shot any formal groups with the GP, but steel targets, rocks, and pine cones were definitely in jeopardy, as the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 hit everything at which I aimed. The sights were spot-on using the various loads I tried, with minor adjustments in hold position being sufficient for slight differences in point of impact; no sight adjustments were required. The Jeff Quinn GP100 was very easy to shoot well, and managed the moderate recoil of the various 44 Special loads I tried easily. The sights were very quick and easy to acquire, and the grip design superbly provided for the only type of "gun control" that should be at issue. The trigger pull was excellent, far better than one might expect in a modern-day factory revolver: the Double-Action pull measured an average 6 pounds, 7.8 ounces on my Lyman Electronic Digital Trigger Pull Gauge, while the Single-Action pull measured an average 2 pounds, 7.4 ounces. Both Double-Action and Single-Action pulls were smooth and even across their entire length of travel. This is an excellent trigger, and makes shooting accurately easy.

Rob Leahy of Simply Rugged Holsters is among our closest friends, and has been for nearly twenty years. As a brother Shootist, Jeff and I would get to visit with Rob at the annual Shootists Holiday, and often at other events and gatherings over the course of the typical year. Rob has always offered great-quality holsters at affordable prices, and he credits early publicity from Gunblast as a major factor in his company's success, even in helping him choose the name of his company. Regardless of some words written by some hairy old biker, it was Rob Leahy's craftsmanship, attention to detail, value offered, character, and integrity that has placed him at the forefront of today's custom holster market. We are proud to have helped Rob in our limited way, but, no matter the rhetoric of some former President, he built that himself. As a way to honor his friend Jeff, Rob is offering two special holsters especially for the Ruger "Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100".

The first Simply Rugged "Jeff Quinn" holster is a version of Rob's famous "Sourdough Pancake" holster; the Sourdough Pancake was, I believe, Rob's first original holster design, and it is a very good one. It is a high-ride pancake-style leather holster that holds the gun tight to the body to enhance concealment, has an open bottom to facilitate evacuation of debris and water, and features three 1.75" belt slots so that the holster can be worn either strong side (15-degree cant) or crossdraw (45-degree cant). These are available in Tan, Black, or Oxblood, and feature a stamping of Jeff shooting on the front; the picture is the same pose from which the artist Lorin Michki painted his Limited-Edition Jeff Quinn Memorial Art Prints in August of 2020. The Sourdough Pancake directly attaches to Rob's excellent Chesty Puller Suspension System for chest carry. Rob is offering this special holster for the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 44 Special revolver at a discounted price of $80.00 US ($10.00 upcharge for Oxblood color).

The second Simply Rugged "Jeff Quinn" holster is a version of Rob's "Eldorado" Western-style holster. The Eldorado is a simple and very classy holster, and is among my (and Jeff's) favorite holster designs. It also has an open bottom, and a traditional hammer thong for retention. As befits a traditionally-designed Western-style holster, the Eldorado has the familiar belt loop on the back for attachment to a belt. The Eldorado also works on the Chesty Puller Suspension System with the use of Simply Rugged's Conventional Adapter; this makes the Chesty Puller a very versatile and cost-effective rig, as pretty much any belt holster can be effectively used as a chest holster, with only the initial moderate cost of the Chesty Puller System: the Chesty Puller Suspension System is currently offered at $70.00 US, with the Conventional Adapter selling for $30.00 US. The special Eldorado holster for the Jeff Quinn GP100 44 Special revolver, like the Sourdough Pancake version, is stamped with the same likeness of Jeff, and is also available for the discounted price of $80.00 US ($10.00 upcharge for Oxblood color).

As the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 began production, the folks at Ruger and Lipsey's decided to honor Jeff in an even more personal way. Knowing that Jeff had been a motorcycle enthusiast from a young age, an aficionado of Harley-Davidson motorcycles since about 1990, and a member of a local Biker club which existed to support local Children's Charities, Ruger and Lipsey's got together to donate proceeds from the sale of the Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100s to Bikers Who Care (BWC). Located in Clarksville, TN, BWC is an organization of motorcycle enthusiasts dedicated to supporting Children's Charities by fully supporting Camp Rainbow, a summer camp for seriously ill children, along with several other local Children's Charities. Jeff was a long-time member of BWC, and supported their mission with all his heart. Ruger's and Lipsey's donation of these proceeds will go a long way towards helping BWC accomplish their mission, and I sincerely thank them for their generosity, their compassion, and their respect for a cause to which my brother was so dedicated.

The Ruger Jeff Quinn Memorial GP100 revolvers will be offered in a limited run of 500, bearing a special serial number range of JQ-001 through JQ-500. Any friend or fan of Jeff Quinn, or any collector of Rugers, would be fortunate and proud to own one of these very special revolvers. I highly recommend you visit Lipsey's web site immediately, and get one of these while you can. They will not last long.

My personal and heartfelt thanks go out to Jason Cloessner of Lipsey's distributors, as well as to Mark Gurney and all the fine folks at Ruger who pulled together to make this very special commemorative revolver a reality. Your friendship with Gunblast, with me, and with my brother Jeff will not be forgotten.

Check out Ruger's Extensive Product Line at: www.ruger.com.

To find a Ruger dealer in your area, click on the DEALER FINDER at Lipsey's: www.lipseys.com.

Check out the many Lipsey's EXCLUSIVE products at Lipsey's Guns: www.

Buy Ammo Online at Lucky Gunner: www.luckygunner.com.

Buy the Special Jeff Quinn Commemorative Holsters at Simply Rugged Holsters: www.simplyrugged.com.

Double Tap Ammo: www.doubletapammo.com.

PMC Ammo: www.pmcammo.com.

Lehigh Defense Ammo: www.lehighdefense.com.

Lyman Products: www.lymanproducts.com.

GunBroker: www.gunbroker.com.

Bikers Who Care: www.bikerswhocare.org.

The Shootists: www.shootists.org.

Boge Quinn

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