A Rare Bird XGI

[PapaDetail]

Photos of a rare item I'm guessing, believe one of the rifles escaped captivity at some point in time, may have been sold on the Ruger auction.

Photo of an XGI magazine in my collection of odds and ends

 

[krw]

One did indeed sell at Ruger auction. If I remember correctly brought lil north $10k. I sure did want one!!!

 

[Laserbait]

I don't think I ever heard of that before - I had to look it up. Basically a M14-ish rifle. Kinda wish they still made them.

 

[pisgah]

I don't think I ever heard of that before - I had to look it up. Basically a M14-ish rifle. Kinda wish they still made them.

They never made it onto full production, or into the commercial market. A few were made, and some of them have migrated into the marketplace in the years since, but they are strictly collector pieces.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

I don't think I ever heard of that before - I had to look it up. Basically a M14-ish rifle. Kinda wish they still made them.

Ruger teased us heavily with that one.....mid/late 80's I think it was in back to back catalogs....never to make it out of production to the shelves.....my eyes burned holes into that catalog page showing the Mini 14 and XGI during deployment....even worse than they did to us with the P85...but at least the P85 hit shelves eventually.

Tired of waiting on the XGI back then the "new" Mini 30 found it's way to me.

 

[contender]

If you have a magazine for the XGI,, it's a true collectable item. But mostly to the VERY FEW folks who may have one of the escapees from Ruger.

 

[black1970]

Have heard that the XGI could not be made accurate enough for Bill Ruger to let them go into production.

 

[chet15]

Photos of a rare item I'm guessing, believe one of the rifles escaped captivity at some point in time, may have been sold on the Ruger auction.

Photo of an XGI magazine in my collection of odds and ends

I think there were two or three on Ruger auction, one was a .243.
Chet15

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Have heard that the XGI could not be made accurate enough for Bill Ruger to let them go into production.

That's the story I always heard, too.

 

[NH Rugerman]

The story i heard directly from a couple of Newport engineers and from Henry “Rody” Rodeschin on multiple occasions was that the XGI was only capable of 4” or so groups at 100 yards which upset the old man greatly and he did not want “his name” on a version of the M14 that wasn't capable of much better accuracy so he demanded that the engineers come up with a solution. (Ruger had already announced the rifle and manufactured at least 250 of each caliber rifle at this point — I have heard 500 of each caliber or even more sat in the warehouse as the old man refused to release them.). The engineers came up wiht a simple soliton, they added an after market harmonic barrel stabilizer to the XGI and the problem went away, MOA accuracy at 100 yards.

They presented their solution to the old man….he flew into a rage, and it pissed him off so much, that then and there, he declared the XGI dead….and the gun disappeared from the Ruger catalog and all dealer price sheets etc. The finished rifles sat in inventory for years. I have heard that they were eventually scrapped but a few of each caliber rifle escaped the factory either by employee sales or auction. The one or two auctioned were the rifles that were in the model library in Southport, not the ones in inventory storage in Newport. I also heard that they were still in inventory as they were depreciated down to zero value….only the current management knows for sure!

 

[eveled]

Pretty neat magazine to have.

 

[XUSNORDIE]

I remember that all too well.....and the magazine ad with them all pictured.....