quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Perry:
How did the Mini 14 survive the massacre? It can't be that big of a seller for them.

Interestingly, the Ruger website indicates nearly all of their Mini 14/30 models have limited availability or currently unavailable status.

quote:

Originally posted by Sharkey717:
I’m part of a dying breed, I absolutely love revolvers. I’ll never sell my GP100 4”, thought about buying a Redhawks.357 but geez I have 10 revolvers, mostly Smith’s and Colt’s and don’t need anymore!

I'm not even a revolver guy, though all of the revolvers I have owned have been Ruger, however sir, your last three words are blasphemy!

quote:

Originally posted by Chuck Perry:
How did the Mini 14 survive the massacre? It can't be that big of a seller for them.

Legal in some ban states.

quote:

I'm not even a revolver guy, though all of the revolvers I have owned have been Ruger, however sir, your last three words are blasphemy!

"Kachi wa saya no naka ni ari" ("Victory comes while the sword is still in the scabbard")

Lol you make a great point!!

Many companies try to do too much and they do it really poorly. An example from Smiths line up is 15 different K frame offerings. All come at no extra cost with questionable QC. How about we reduce it to just a couple that we build very well.

I do expect that Lipseys will offer limited Ruger runs in the years to come.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Many companies try to do too much and they do it really poorly. An example from Smiths line up is 15 different K frame offerings. All come at no extra cost with questionable QC. How about we reduce it to just a couple that we build very well.

I do expect that Lipseys will offer limited Ruger runs in the years to come.

Agree 100%. The problem with this Ruger decision, though, is that they're dumping the stuff that they've historically done very well in favor of keeping stuff that's mostly shit, or other companies are already doing better.

It’s what sells. Deep blue handcrafted N frames would sell. To a very limited extent due to the expense it would cost and the lack of popularity.

But, I am running into more guys in their 30s that are taking up revolver division in competition. Still not as popular as other divisions but not completely dead.

I don’t like saying this but I wish smith would reduce their revolver line to very limited but high quality J frames and L frames. With very occasional K and N frame runs. Produce L frames that work out of the box without having to go back or have stuff fall off of them.

The Ruger American Pistol has already been discontinued, but it dropped off the radar not long after introduction.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
https://x.com/Guntalk/status/2111791617963385288

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Any links to the interview?

Not so far

I just listened to it on Apple Podcasts. It's also available on Spotify for those who don't use Apple devices.

Anyway, Ruger was losing a lot of money on these older product lines for a cocktail of three reasons. 1) The manufacturing processes for these older lines were never modernized, and are highly inefficient by today's standards. 2) The rising and inflationary cost of steel has been disproportionately affecting these older lines. 3) Demand has been too low.

As a result, Ruger is choosing to invest its money in the further development of the product lines that are in demand, namely the RXM pistols, Generation II rifles, AR-15 rifles (Ruger's purchase of Anderson was also alluded to in the conversation), and rimfire pistols.

The president/CEO of Ruger emphasized that it's a "pause", not discontinuation; should demand for these older product lines sufficiently increase in the future, Ruger will revamp the relevant manufacturing processes to produce new & improved versions. Unsurprisingly, he also stated point-blank that Ruger's primary obligation (as a publicly-traded company) is to its shareholders. For those wondering about Beretta (now a shareholder), he said that they did not contribute any input regarding these decisions, and that their only relevance here is simply Ruger's fiduciary duty to them as a shareholder like any other.

I’d encourage anyone who is interested to listen to the podcast. The president/CEO of Ruger speaks frankly and politely. The conversation only accounts for the first 15 minutes of the 45-minute segment, so it’s an easy listen.

Sounds like he was honest about the reasons. Seems logical. I havent bought steel in 13 years in large quanities but I can believe inflation has played a role same as it has with milk and eggs.

A lot of us that like Single-action revolvers can look this and say, "there is a demand", but it's probably extremely low compared the the rest of the shooting population.

Single-action revolvers, and the redhawks for that matter are probably a niche firearm in the grand scheme of things.

Younger shooters are all about double stacks with dots and slide to frame fits. Or polymer.

Hopefully limited releases through Lipseys and other places continue. Even with current production I was having a hard time finding specific models of blackhawks to fill a collection. And like other posters have mentioned, I hope these runs are given a little more attention to detail. Even if that raises the price.

I don't see it driving up prices to crazy amounts in the long term. Not a lot of folks saying, "I gotta have a blackhawk NOW". The same three have been sitting in a local gun store (three screw) for months. They'll likely be there next month as well. Though their slightly overpriced price tag may be more inviting than it has been.

Based on that conversation with the CEO, it certainly sounds like there's not much chance of any of these "paused" product lines coming back unless they're able to find a way to retool them to make them more efficient and cost effective. So even if we do see some of these guns come back, they won't be made the same way as they used to be. Which may be better, may be worse...time will tell.

Colt went through several "phases" of cheapening the product to keep the price down, usually in the finishing process. Because either the polishing and bluing got too expensive or the old farts doing it retired and there were no replacements, some models didn't even bother with the polishing. My dad had an Agent revolver that looked like a monkey went at it with a coarse file. And nobody bought them. Smith & Wesson also introduced cheapened products (remember the zinc slide Sigma .380 with its finite, 2500-round service life?), and they not only didn't sell, but turned off a lot of people who were expecting S&W quality. The upshot of all this is that maybe Ruger is better off discontinuing or pausing their expensive, slower-selling guns than trying to sell cheapened versions of them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

Beretta and the BeaNcounters are forcing Ruger to become more profitable unfortunately at the cost of their identity. Ruger Redhawks, Blackhawks and GP 100s are what built the company. A new Ruger GP 100 retails for over $1100 now. Not many people are going to buy them for that unfortunately. Now they’re a company that makes a GLOCK clone for $50 and sells it for 400. Very sad day. Next, they will cut workers and then get swallowed up by Beretta or whomever and that will be that.

Maybe Ruger could make their own Beretta M9 clone. They could call it the "XM9 Trials Revenge".

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Based on that conversation with the CEO, it certainly sounds like there's not much chance of any of these "paused" product lines coming back unless they're able to find a way to retool them to make them more efficient and cost effective. So even if we do see some of these guns come back, they won't be made the same way as they used to be. Which may be better, may be worse...time will tell.

Hmm, yes and no. As I understood him, occasional runs using the old tooling (which they aren’t getting rid of) aren’t out of the question either. In other words, “noticeable future demand” (so to speak) would result in an occasional run (using the old tooling) to satisfy it, whereas “strong future demand” (i.e. very high) would result in the modernization of the manufacturing and a return to regular production. That seemed to be the overall implication.

This is why a “pause” makes sense, especially if most of the stocking dealers continually have inventory just sitting in the case unsold.

However, is it possible that it is all just lip service (i.e. the Ruger president/CEO just giving us all the brush-off)? Absolutely.