Value guide

What is my Ruger worth?

Ruger built guns to be used and priced them to be bought, so most of what turns up is honest working equipment worth honest money. There’s one genuine exception, and it has to do with a safety change the company made in the 1970s.

No page can price your gun, and any page that offers to is guessing. What this one does is show you the things that decide the number, so you can look at what you have and know whether you’re holding something ordinary or something worth a proper look.

Old model three-screw revolvers, before the transfer bar

Ruger's single-action revolvers made before roughly 1973 used a three-screw frame and no transfer-bar safety. When the design changed, Ruger offered to retrofit older guns with the new mechanism free of charge, and a great many owners sent theirs in. Collectors want the unconverted original guns, with their original parts, and a converted one is worth less. If the factory kit was fitted, the original parts were usually returned in the box — and if a family still has that little bag of parts, it matters.

The models that turn up, and what they mean

Model	Made	What it means for value
Single-Six	1953–present	A .22 single action. Old-model three-screw examples, unconverted, are the ones to identify.
Blackhawk	1955–present	Same story as the Single-Six, in centerfire. Flat-tops and early production are distinct markets.
No. 1	1967–present	A single-shot falling block. Discontinued chamberings and early production carry a following.
10/22	1964–present	Made in vast numbers. Ordinary money, with early production and certain factory variants as exceptions.
Red Label	1977–2011	An American-made over-under. Discontinued now, which has firmed up prices for clean ones.
Mark I / II / III pistols	1949–present	Target .22 pistols. Early Mark I production and unusual configurations are the ones worth checking.

What to check before anybody makes you an offer

On a single action, whether the frame has three screws in the side or two pins — the quickest way to tell old model from new.
Whether an old model has been converted, and whether the original parts came back with it.
Any 'before using this gun read the instruction manual' warning on the barrel, which indicates later production.
Boxes and paperwork, which Ruger owners kept more often than most and which help.

And the two rules that apply to every gun on this page:don’t clean it, and keep the box and papers. Removing original finish is permanent, and on the right gun the packaging is a real fraction of the total.

"Rugers are modern guns, there's nothing collectible here"

Mostly true and expensively wrong in a few specific cases. The old-model single actions, early Mark pistols, discontinued No. 1 chamberings and clean Red Labels all have real followings. It’s worth having a Ruger looked at, not assuming it’s simply a used gun.

How do I tell if my Ruger single action is an old model?

Look at the side of the frame behind the cylinder. Three screws in a row means the earlier design; two pins means the later transfer-bar version. It takes a second and it’s the difference between an ordinary revolver and a collectible one.

Model by model

What is my Ruger 10/22 worth? (1964–present)
What is my Ruger Single-Six worth? (1953–present)

Getting an actual number

Condition, originality and configuration decide it, and none of the three can be judged from a description. Send photos and we’ll make you an offer, wherever you are in the country. It comes itemized, showing what we’ll pay for each firearm, so you can see how the number is built instead of being handed one figure for the pile.

Worth reading alongside this

Police trade-in guns — department markings and what they do to the value. Engraved guns — factory grade or added later, and why the difference is most of the money. What determines value on any firearm.

Other makers

Winchester, Remington, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Marlin, Browning, military surplus rifles, Glock, Beretta, Intratec, Savage, Mossberg, Ithaca, Walther and SIG Sauer.