It should also be remembered that when he took those positions they were VERY WIDELY HELD among gun owners and conservatives in general. Few owned high-caps stateside and many in the domestic industry viewed them as competition. Heck, S&W did an actual corporate deal with the Clinton administration. It wasn't just the head of S&W saying something stupid, it was the company ITSELF binding itself to Clinton's edicts. That's going much farther than Ruger the company was ever prepared to go.
Anyway, those days are gone now, as is Bill Ruger. So get over it.
Quote:
Along with that I don't see anything that he built was in any way "great"
Ruger No. 1
Single handedly revived the art of the single shot rifle with a very strong design based on a simplified Farquharson. The No. 1 and No. 3 were the platforms for the revival of many cartridges and allowed new life to be breathed into the old .45-70.
Ruger Single Six
Still one of the nicest handling plinkers, it combines incredible strength with good balance and accuracy. It also helped revive interest in the old SAA style and paved the way for CAS.
Ruger Mark One
Ruger actually turned one of the worst designs in gun history--the Baby Nambu--into a light, accurate and very fun plinker at far less than the Colt Woodsman.
Ruger Security Six
I've owned and used a great many revolvers, and the Security Six line keeps rising in my estimation. It has the lightness and balance of K-frame magnums with increased strength for sustained magnum use. My carry guns are all from this line. I would only be tempted to switch if someone offered me a Python.
Ruger SP-101
This is a smaller, more compact five gun that still stands as one of the nicest .357 carry pieces ever made. It's the smallest revolver that still permits sustained practice and firing with .357 loads. As was recently pointed out to me, it's actually stronger than the Six line.
Ruger M-77
This is a rifle that GETS USED. Used and used and used and abused. I've seen M77's with auto sealant and duct tape holding them together, but they still keep on trucking. It gets little glory, but a whole lot of game.
Ruger Blackhawk
This is a strengthened, improved version of the SAA that has been used as the basis for thousands of custom revolvers. In .44 Special it's one of the world's most perfect revolvers. Skeeter thought so.
Ruger Super Blackhawk
Though S&W's high-end 29 is the image of the .44 Magnum, it was really Ruger's SBH that made the cartridge popular. It was about half the price of the M29 and with a stronger frame to boot.
The new model BH and Vaquero also have their good points, including incredible strength and being the best platform of all for custom jobs. But they also have down sides. Still, this short list should be enough to explode the ridiculous idea that Ruger never made a great firearm.
I won't speak to the 10-22 because I have no direct experience with it or the Mini-14, but I know those are also guns that get used and used hard--A LOT. The Mini-14 is practically the signature rifle of the Alaska subsistence hunt, just as the M-77 .338 is the signature rifle of the Alaska big game hunt.