Red Label Question...

B

bswiv

New member
I have a older model 20 ga Red Label, the kind before they went stainless. I called Ruger today and asked them about getting a set of replacement barrels for it. The guy there said that they no longer offer barrels for the older RLs and that he knew of no place to buy aftermarket.

So what to do?
 
Wow that sucks.:( Why would the newer barrels not work on your older gun?

Strange though..... I just read an artical on gunblast.com about the 2O ga. Red Label the (the writers favorite over under) and he said that they had not changed the gun from the start of Ruger making it in 1978. (at least thats how I understood it)
Is that not so?

The artical; http://www.gunblast.com/Ruger_RedLabel.htm

Maybe you could ask Jeff Quinn, e-mail link is at the end of the artical. He seems to know a lot and its a gun he really likes.
 
Long story..........

I bought it knowing the existing barrels had been butchered by the previous owner when he had a aftermarket set of tubes installed. The job was so bad that you can see the imprint of the threads on the outside of the barrels and the remaining metal at the muzzle is VERY thin, not much more than foil.

The plan is that the existing barrels will be cut off and a set of rifled tubes be set in place. From there it will be finished out as if it was a O/U rifle except for it will be regulated for 20 ga saboted bullets such as Hornady, Remington and others make.

As a second part of the plan I was going to have a new set of barrels with tubes fitted to the action.

Yes I know it sounds kind of crazy but if it works out............

I've got a smith working on the rifled part, now I'm on a quest for the smooth bore replacements........

Make sense??
 
Diggers....thank you.

I followed the link and sent him a eamil.

Any other insights would be appreciated.
 
What would the reason be for wanting a over and under shotgun - slug gun?

It's not going to be accurate..

You would be better off just buying a new shotgun and doing what ever with the one you have.

I'm sure that when you bought this gun you knew that the choke tubes were installed. Not that it is going to matter much if there is a imprint in the barrel where they threaded it where they installed the tubes.

It was just a matter of someone not knowing how to use a inside micrometer and basic shop math...

Unless you can bend that part of the barrel with your bare hands - I doubt if it is going to make a difference as long as you do not use a turkey tube in them barrels.

The choke tube is actually taking up space in the barrel and is actually making the barrel thicker than what it was before the choke tubes were installed.
 
The idiots at ruger changed severly the..

various dimensions and tolerances. The end result is that owners on blued steel receivers were thwarted in obtaining current barrel.
I asked about new barrel when the SS receivers came with the factory choke tubes, as I have skeet choke for upland and thought I could get the tuber added for late season pheasants and waterfowl.
Just another example of Ruger thinking their pocketbook not cultivating owner loyalty.
May want to try www.corsonsbarrel.com.
 
You might be surprised, and I hope I will be, at how accurate the sabots shoot. My wife has a single barrel rifled H&R 20 ga that will drop one after another into the black at a 100 yards......and while that may not sound like rifle accuracy realize that this is with a Red Dot sight, 5 moa dot, and not a lot of shooting skill. It will shoot as accurate as my old .35 Rem.

So I'm figuring if the regulation is done reasonably well that the project will shoot 3 or 4 inches, both barrels combined, at 100 yards. In a hunting situation, and realizing that in the thick woods here in NE Fla. we seldom shoot more than 50 yards, that is more than acceptable.

It does stink that the barrels are not available. But the primary focus of the purchase was to get the action/wood for the rifled project.

I'll still keep looking though..........and leads appreciated.

And it will be most unique and fun to play with......and that is what we buy our toys for isn't it?
 
:mad: I get the same from Ruger on a firing pin for my 20G Red Label; also an early model. Ruger has been less than helpful and apparently have a very finite limit on 'lifetime' warranty. The pin is simple and I can make or have made. BBLs - I see used early Red Labels for $500-$600 and this may be a way to go for bbls. Some bbls require a lot of work to fit. Red Label 'sloppiness' may be a blessing here!
 
I, too, read the Red Label piece on 'Gunblast'. Guess the author has dealt with different Ruger personnel, or not had a problerm. Mine was trouble free for years. Only when a problem appeared did Ruger non-service surface. And, they have certainly changed the gun mechanically (I did read that they had not in the article). They openly say that they no longer support certain models - like the 400 prefix models. Do not get me wrong, I really like my Red Labels. The 20g I have is skt/skt (before the useless screw in chokes), a great shooter at clays and quail, beautiful wood as was usual in 1980 when I bought it ... second hand NIB. I want it to work!
By the way, the auto safety Ruger says they will disable for a small cost is a 10 minute job that only requires strock removal to access. And a Dremel.
 
I've owned 2 of the older Red Label's in 20ga. and I loved them. (I never needed customer service though!) The first one was skt/skt but I wanted to hunt with it. I checked into getting the briley (thin-wall) choke system installed. One person told me that it would work, the other said that the bbls were too thin.

Call Briley and see if you can send the bbls to them for evaluation. With any luck, they can cut off the mess and start over. If you have interchangeable tubes top and bottom, you won't really have a need for another set of bbls.

It turned out to be cheaper to sell the first gun and get another one with the chokes I wanted. The second gun was IC/mod and was an excellent upland-bird gun. I horse-trade too much and ended up trading it away. I can add that to the list of guns I wish I still had.
 
That’s a shame someone messed up the barrels that bad.
I just had a pretty good experience with Ruger service, I have one made in 86, SS but still with the fixed choke barrels.
This fall the bottom ejector stopped working so I sent it back to Ruger. I had to wait a while ( 3 months) but it came back fixed and basically brought back to new standards , almost all new internals, reblued barrels, refinished forearm ( where it had gotten a few marks over the years) new box and owners manual, plus a detailed description of the work completed. All at no charge. I was a little peeved at its breaking but for me the service made up for it, especially on a 20 year old gun .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top