Desert Dawg":o40el1et said:
Why were they discontinued?
Manufacturing costs too high?
Demand not enough?
A nice shotgun indeed.
I'd heard that Rugers barrels were too thin, so they had to be real careful about soldering the filler strip in between the barrels. I don't remember the numbers now, but something like only 1 in 4 sets of barrels would stay together.
Their wood to receiver fit was also terrible in my opinion. Last time I saw one on Ruger's trade show display, the gap at the receiver/buttstock juncture was about 1/16". Ruger shouldn't have even had that gun in front of the public!. At the same show S&W had their turkish over under and side by side prototypes out and the wood to metal fit on those looked perfect.
The gold label came out at a bad time too. WBR, JR. was more interested in quantity instead of quality and it really hurt that company. This is when the crap really hit the fan and Ruger's Board of Directors decided to start changing things.
Chet15