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Ruger to Discontinue Several Major Models. Part of their Ruger 2030 project to re-haul the company and
make more moneylose less money. I think it's very likely that they bring many of these models back, but this is a big surprise to a lot of people, especially anyone who happened to like Ruger's vast revolver catalog.I really didn't expect Ruger needing to do anything like this, to be honest. It seems like people are spending more money on guns than ever, or at least that's what I was doing. The ATF stating they will no longer enforce the NFA when it comes to short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors in applicable states and the resulting swarm of stock and suppressor purchases seemed to be evidence to me of this. But one commenter points out that times are a bit tough for most gun manufacturers. Since we've got a Republican administration and (last I know of) Republican leaning Congress in both the House and the Senate, there aren't any bans on the table and people aren't panic buying Glocks and "modern sporting rifles".
I remember once reading an argument between a couple right-wing users here about whether they'd press a button that had a 75% chance of wiping out all of Blue Tribe and a 25% chance of wiping out all of Red Tribe. The user against pushing the button said that wiping out Blue Tribe would be a complete disaster for the entire country because of how many industries rely on them. Perhaps I'd give this as an example of how that can manifest. It's Red Tribe buying the guns with Red Tribe money, but it's Blue Tribe driving them to do it.
Ruger is a weird company. They make top-tier rimfires, second tier revolvers and bolt guns, and Kel-Tec-tier centerfire semi-autos. Much of what they're discontinuing is "pistol" registered short-barreled versions, possibly having to do with the ATF rule changes. The revolvers are just not profitable and haven't been for a long time. The heyday of big-bore revolvers was forty years ago, and Rugers aren't as popular or well supported as Smiths.
A lot of these old legacy gun companies are struggling, while new ones like PSA, Bergara and CZ eat their lunch. Ruger is in trouble, and I'd guess Smith isn't doing too great either. Remington, Colt, Winchester etc. are all dead and buried. Name brands for the banks to fight over.
Ruger is an investment casting company that just happens to make guns. Now, casting is a fine way to make a firearm, particularly when it comes to pistols (especially revolvers because they have to be metal, but any semi-auto with a metal frame benefits) and stuff that has been designed with casting in mind (10/22, Mini-14).
Which explains literally everything about what was, yesterday, their product catalogue. But, if doing literally anything else with their casting lines is more profitable than the revolvers, then the revolvers are going to go. The 10/22 requires a minimum of machining to make, and the Mini-14 has such a fat profit margin (especially where they're the only legal option), that there's still room for those.
Or maybe they need the cash to pay for some new in-house aluminum extrusion capacity. I'm not convinced most of their new guns (the PC and LC Carbines in particular) aren't subcontracted to a different manufacturer and 9mm rifles never really sold that well to begin with (and even if the de facto nullification of the NFA does result in an uptick of 9mm rifle sales the PC Carbine was never even that great a rifle in the first place; yes, it's still legal in most states, but increased foreign competition of far better rifles will likely end up with Ruger competing with itself just like it does with the revolvers).
As it turns out, not really.
Remington was broken up and most gun companies in the US took a piece of it (Ruger bought Marlin).
It's the Colt CZ group now.
Winchester ceased to be an independent gun-making entity in 1935; they were acquired by Olin, an ammunition company naturally seeking commoditization of their compliment.
I'm pretty sure the PC carbine is primarily made in house. The internals are almost identical to a scaled-up 10-22 takedown, with the exception of the tungsten insert in the bolt.
Actually, yeah, I think you’re right. I thought the Carbines were both extruded but looking at them again I’m pretty sure they’re largely billet aluminum with cast bolts (one being its own thing, and one being an obvious conversion of their handguns).
Honestly I’m kind of surprised they never bothered to make an LC Carbine in 9mm but I guess that would cannibalize PC sales, which were probably not that great to begin with.
It's kind of a shame really. I love my PCC for plinking and I'm going to chop the barrel if the SBR changes hold.
Honestly I'd rather them just offer standalone barrels (Ruger seems to have a bad habit of making things non-user-replaceable simply by not offering the parts; I think the nonexistent demand for shorter PC Carbine barrels is indicative it didn't start selling more as time went on, but that's because you have far better options). They're basically all takedown models for some reason, not like it'd be hard.
I don't think the PC Carbine was ever actually that great or optimized a product. It's 3 pounds heavier than it should be, the magazine well is about 2" further forward than it should be, and the non-50-state/tactical version makes itself known it really wasn't designed that way. Sturdy is expensive.
It's unfortunate. Ruger appears to define themselves largely by their legacy offerings (which is why it's a shock they're ditching the revolvers) but any iteration they do make on an established formula is 15 years too late and looks like it was just slapped together. They're a lot like FN in that way.
I'm kind of surprised they didn't just go Walther MPL (where the bolt's a rough casting except for the bearing surfaces which are nicely machined), but then again, 9mm carbines are luxury products to begin with (which is also why every manufacturer feels compelled to offer some gimmick- takedown for the Ruger, folding for the S&W, and... well, I'd say Kel-Tec but they'd do it even if they didn't need to so I don't think that counts) so maybe Guntube would laugh at them for a cast part being obviously cast.
Then again, I'm also one of those weird people who think that a Mini-14 set up with changeable barrels to shoot every pistol caliber under the sun would be an interesting prospect; the last people to ever make a semi-auto rifle in a revolver caliber was... well, Ruger's modified Mini-14 in .44 Magnum. They won't do this because they bought Marlin (and because it would require designing a bunch of magwells and a substantial modification to the receiver, including the fundamentals of how it operates), but for people who don't have the kind of range available to take advantage of an optic and don't want to spend $2/round on a rifle design that's so stereotypically American the CMP is usually running low on guns to re-import? I could think of worse business ideas. (Or just stamp a bunch of clips to hold 9mm if you'd have to do it the shitty Chiappa M1-9 way from any other pistol magazine, and have them launch out the top in the Garand way. I'm sure there's at least one state that exempts fixed magazines from capacity restrictions.)
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