Give us your Ruger story - win a shirt!

[jerry]

Looking back, even if I would have been carrying, trying to stop them from just robbing the place wouldn't have been smart.  If they would have started shooting other customers, that would have been a different thing.  I have applied for my CCW and just waiting to get it.  Went down to Ft. Myers a couple of weeks ago to the gun show to look at different pistols to carry.  Thinking hard about an XD in either .45 or 9MM.  I've never owned a pistol, always had revolvers so it's a tough choice.  My insincts say stay with a small revolver.  Never have to worry about a hickup with those, but they are a little harder to conceal wearing jeans and t-shirt.

[tombogan03884]

Leave the T-shirt hanging out and you can conceal a cannon   

[Outlaw]

The first pistol I ever owned. ( I was a hillbilly raised in N.C. We used rifles and shotguns. The shotgun was pretty much for home defense and the .22 rifle we owned was a remington single shot. We were poor and bullets were expensive. So all the real hunting I did as a kid was with the .22. I could kill anything I shot at. A box of 50 .22 long rifles lasted us a year. Anyhow, back to the story. The first pistol I ever owned (I was grown by then) was a single six convertable. I loved the gun. I only shot magnums in it. My wife and I were just married and lived in an upstairs apartment. We had been grocery shopping and the pistol happened to be in the car. We had several bags of groceries and I only wanted to make one trip. I stuck the 7" (I think) barrel of the gun in the front of my pants and started picking up as many bags as I could. Just about the time I got the last bag picked up, the gun slipped out of my pants and suddenly it seemed as if the world was in slow motion. I was still bent over and could see the gun doing a flip toward the gutter. I made it a habit to always cock it back on the first safety click so the hammer wouldn't lay against the firing pin. When the pistol hit the ground it landed right on the hammer and I could see straight down the barrel with my right eye. I suddenly got seriously religious and thanked God for sparing me that day. Had I not had that gun on the hammer safety I would not be here typing this today. I have another story with that same gun that I'll tell another time. That story is just as serious as this one.

Cheers,
J.C.

[Teresa Heilevang]

Lord almighty Outlaw..... even when I was reading that story my heart started beating extra fast.. ( Hope that you didn't smell too bad riding back home in the car with those sh**ty britches on.. LOL

Jerry.. That is what I meant by push comes to shove. I think it is the best to lay low.. until of course you KNOW it's time to do something.. Just having the gun next to your person in a situation like that would , I think, make you feel a little more apt to NOT totally freak out.  like I say... when Push comes to shove.

[jaybet]

Now I have a "faith based" Ruger story.
First we picked up a Blackhawk, which is fun to shoot and gives you plenty to do with having to eject every shell, etc.
So wifey always wanted a GP161 with a 6" barrel (blued). As documented here on other threads, I got it for her for Christmas and the thing didn't work for beans...the action kept binding up etc.
So I sent it away, crying the blues because it was BRAND NEW. 5 weeks later I got it back from Ruger and the action feels like butter, but that was really aggravating to have to send a brand new gun back.

So...see my Birthday Gun thread- I was given the green light to get a new pistol for my birthday as long as it was not too expensive. I have a wish list a mile long, but I decided to go to the one semi-local shop that we haven't bought something from and just look around....look, look, look and decide on the spot.
What did I do? I bought a Ruger SR9. Now THAT'S faith.

[Sponsor]

[Outlaw]

Back to the Ruger Single Six Convertable (from a couple threads before this one) As i said before, we lived in a small upstairs apartment in small-town Spring Hope, N.C. When you opened the front door to the house, there was a stairwell. That was the only door that separated our apartment from the street. That stairwell came right up and emptied into our living, family room and very small kitchenette. My wife and I were up in our apartment. She was cooking dinner and I was lying on the bed cleaning the crap off the pistol that had almost shot me a couple hours earlier. I had the cylinder and pin out of it and six rounds of .22 magnum from the cylinder lying on the bed next to me. We heard the front door open and footsteps slowly coming up the stairs. I yelled who is it? No-one answered and the footsteps kept coming. (approximately 24 steps on the stairs) Just like in the Clint Eastwood movie I started re-assembling the pistol. It seemed like forever, but I guess it only took seconds. Just as the guys head cleared the bottom of the bannister of the stairs I was loading the pistol. By then he was standing at the top of the stairs about 8 feet away. I had only 3 or 4 rounds in the pistol. I spun the cylinder and pointed the gun straight to his heart with my thumb on the hammer. I said what do you want man. He said he thought (some guy, forgot the name he said) still lived here. I asked him if he was in the habit of walking into that guys house unnounced. He said yes. I then told him just how close he'd come to making a fatal mistake. I could tell he was lying. He was scared. I saw his fingers twitching. I was extremely calm to the best of my memory. Bad combination. He asked me what I was gonna do with the gun. (since he couldn't keep his eyes off it)  I cocked it back and told him it was up to him. My wife then said (bless her heart) "you'd better leave or he'll kill you". And yes Marshall'ette, she was talking to him, not me . I then glanced over at her and there she stood with the frying pan in her hand with grease dripping on the floor. (you go girl!)

Ya know,  I've been around the world three times, been to a state fair, a goad roping, seen two buzzards f_ _K, and wound up in places I wouldn't think of ever going again but that still rings in as one of the most intense moments of my life.  And by the way, the BG left and I never saw him again. Shortly after that we moved on base at Seymour Johnson AFB where I was stationed.

That all happened about a hundred years ago seems like. I was 20 and had really never thought about killing anyone. Would I behave the same now (two years later ? Hard to tell. I still wouldn't want to kill anyone. I do honestly believe had he moved toward me I would have pulled the trigger. The wife said she saw a side of me she hadn't seen before. Somthing like a dead calm. Guess the military taught me that. By the way, had I pulled the trigger, it would have went boom. It was on a live round. Something I do remember being concerned about during the episode.

One thing I can say for the wheel gun. If I'm ever in a situation like that again with a disassembled gun, I hope it's a Ruger .22 Magnum Single Six Convertable. Had that been most any semi-auto I would have been throwing gun parts at him.

[Hazcat]

Back to the Ruger Single Six Convertable (from a couple threads before this one) As i said before, we lived in a small upstairs apartment in small-town Spring Hope, N.C. When you opened the front door to the house, there was a stairwell. That was the only door that separated our apartment from the street. That stairwell came right up and emptied into our living, family room and very small kitchenette. My wife and I were up in our apartment. She was cooking dinner and I was lying on the bed cleaning the crap off the pistol that had almost shot me a couple hours earlier. I had the cylinder and pin out of it and six rounds of .22 magnum from the cylinder lying on the bed next to me. We heard the front door open and footsteps slowly coming up the stairs. I yelled who is it? No-one answered and the footsteps kept coming. (approximately 24 steps on the stairs) Just like in the Clint Eastwood movie I started re-assembling the pistol. It seemed like forever, but I guess it only took seconds. Just as the guys head cleared the bottom of the bannister of the stairs I was loading the pistol. By then he was standing at the top of the stairs about 8 feet away. I had only 3 or 4 rounds in the pistol. I spun the cylinder and pointed the gun straight to his heart with my thumb on the hammer. I said what do you want man. He said he thought (some guy, forgot the name he said) still lived here. I asked him if he was in the habit of walking into that guys house unnounced. He said yes. I then told him just how close he'd come to making a fatal mistake. I could tell he was lying. He was scared. I saw his fingers twitching. I was extremely calm to the best of my memory. Bad combination. He asked me what I was gonna do with the gun. (since he couldn't keep his eyes off it)  I cocked it back and told him it was up to him. My wife then said (bless her heart) "you'd better leave or he'll kill you". And yes Marshall'ette, she was talking to him, not me . I then glanced over at her and there she stood with the frying pan in her hand with grease dripping on the floor. (you go girl!)

Ya know,  I've been around the world three times, been to a state fair, a goad roping, seen two buzzards f_ _K, and wound up in places I wouldn't think of ever going again but that still rings in as one of the most intense moments of my life.  And by the way, the BG left and I never saw him again. Shortly after that we moved on base at Seymour Johnson AFB where I was stationed.

That all happened about a hundred years ago seems like. I was 20 and had really never thought about killing anyone. Would I behave the same now (two years later ? Hard to tell. I still wouldn't want to kill anyone. I do honestly believe had he moved toward me I would have pulled the trigger. The wife said she saw a side of me she hadn't seen before. Somthing like a dead calm. Guess the military taught me that. By the way, had I pulled the trigger, it would have went boom. It was on a live round. Something I do remember being concerned about during the episode.

One thing I can say for the wheel gun. If I'm ever in a situation like that again with a disassembled gun, I hope it's a Ruger .22 Magnum Single Six Convertable. Had that been most any semi-auto I would have been throwing gun parts at him.

I assume you took her out for dinner that night.

[DDMac]

It's a great thing to be spouse proud. Need more of it!
Mac.

[Outlaw]

Everybody's gotta have a hero..There are plenty of heroes in my world starting with my dear old departed mom. But, The only one I've had the pleasure to live with for 37 years (and counting) is my wife   She da girl!

[charliefarmerboy33]

Okay, I was telling my Dad about the forum and the Ruger T-Shirt giveaway and Grandma (my mother) comes in from the kitchen with the grandkids and says "Why don't you tell them my story?"

So here goes:
On a cold February day, my father was gone from the house. My parents have a long drive way out in the country. At the end of the driveway is a hose that rings a bell at the house, and a gate that can be opened and closed by a "garage door opener" in the car or a switch at the house. Mom had left the gate open expecting a UPS delivery later that morning. While still up stairs getting dressed, the bell rang, signaling someone coming down the drive. She quickly put on her robe and slippers and looked out the window to see a beat up old truck leaving the driveway. “Wrong house,” she thought. Lots of folks around here drive old trucks, myself included. She went back up stairs to dress when the bell rang again. Looking out the window she saw the same truck returning. She picked up the cordless phone and retrieved dad’s 7 in Stainless Steel Ruger Redhawk from the closet, quickly loading it with the speed loader of 240 grain Jacketed hollow points. She went down stairs dialing the sheriff’s department as she did. With a phone in one hand and the Ruger Redhawk in the other hand cradled in her left elbow to comfortably support its weight. She hit the garage door opener surprising the two men who were walking around the house clearly looking for the best way to break in to the house.
“May I help you?”  she said loudly readjusting the Rehawk on her arm. One of the two made a stuttered reply about doing some spraying brush for the power company and looking for a gate to access the pasture to the east.
“First, I have made a call to the sheriff’s department and someone is on the way. Second, if you were working for the power company you would know that there is a right-of-way access gate a half mile north. Third, no one does brush spraying in February.” She turned so that the Big Bore of the Redhawk was pointed right at him. He nodded to his partner in crime and turned toward the truck. “Sorry to have troubled you mam,” and they departed.
   When the deputy arrived she gave them the description of the two men their truck and license plate number. One week later while watching the news she saw pictures of the two men both had been apprehended on outstanding warrants. The one who did the talking was wanted for on to counts of murder.
Go Mom!