Ruger Red Label II Over/Under

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bricz75

New member
A few years ago Ruger came out with the above shotgun. Then, it was discontinued. I remember reading something along the lines of Ruger not being able to build them to the price point they wanted. In '14, the MSRP was $1399, with discounted retail price being lower.

I think they should have raised the price to absorb the cost related to building them. Any knowledge or speculation why they didn't do that?
 
Yep; Ruger fanboys are disappointed, but their shotguns just suck. I bet, however, if they built a pump, those same folks would buy them sight unseen......
 
I had one when they first came out. Junk. They could come out with ten more iterations and I wouldn't touch any of them. Back when I bought the one I had I didn't know much about shotguns (for skeet...I wanted to try it). Thinking Ruger was a big name in guns I thought it would probably be a solid gun. Mistake! Ruger needs to stick with what they do best. They just can't compete with established O/U manufacturers at the price they make their guns. If they make them cheaper they'll suffer that was also.
 
And accolades like that are as valuable as the reviews in the basic gun rags where they never reviewed a gun with any issues...........
 
Chuck Hawks is THE leading authority on firearms PERIOD.

The man is a living legend and you owe him the utmost respect. He has his own website, has a bunch of reviews to this credit and is very opinionated and thinks highly of himself. You should too. In short, he is a firearms god.

;)
 
I had a sportingmclays model. The backboring was nice but the gun was tough and clunky. Also, there was no barrel regulation. One shot low and left, the other very low. I finally traded it off when my friend used it to bust some clays. I said "there you go" and he replied "i was aiming 3 feet above target" and it was a pretty close shot.

Also I asked a group of competive shooters about the Red. They all laughed at me. Get a citori at the very least, they told me.
 
Red

Interesting.

My daughter has been shooting her Red Label for more than 20 years and never expressed any dissatisfaction.

She shoots sporting clays, and especially loves shooting rabbits and teal on report.

I've never patterned the gun but I will ASAP.
 
Then consensus on the Red Label is that is was OK for light duty use and for most hunters. Many hunters and casual clay shooters are happy with them, but among the folks who shoot seriously they just don't hold up.

Probably 75% of the guys posting here are more knowledgeable about firearms than Chuck Hawks. He is usually at least partially right. But reading his stuff is always good for a few laughs.
 
The problem with Red Labels was not that Ruger never made some good ones because they did. The problem was they made way too many bad ones. And they could not figure out why this was occurring in their manufacturing process well enough to fix the issues within their cost envelope.
Ruger is very headstrong. They and Smith both do not pin the barrels of their revolvers any more. Ruger over torques their barrels to the point where over 75% of them in my opinion will benefit from some added freebore in the thread area. Smith does not have the problem. Ruger will just tell you it is within specs and not change one damn thing.
I think the shotgun problems are tied in with the investment casting of the major components. Moot point now because they are history.
 
I think the shotgun problems are tied in with the investment casting of the major components
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I do too. Mine was "supposed" to be one of the good ones - the 28 gauge. After three times back and forth, it went away..................
 
Virginian said:
The problem with Red Labels was not that Ruger never made some good ones because they did. The problem was they made way too many bad ones. And they could not figure out why this was occurring in their manufacturing process well enough to fix the issues within their cost envelope.

I think the shotgun problems are tied in with the investment casting of the major components. Moot point now because they are history.
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It's unfortunate they couldn't make it work this time around. It would be nice to see them compete well with the Europeans. During their first run, the company invested in "expensive machinery" to build the Red Label shotguns. MSRPs eventually got to around 2k, though.

Perhaps they would have succeeded this time around if the market was the way it was 15 or 20 years ago. Ruger claims their revenue expectations were not met on their second try.

I recently noticed their Gold Label shotguns. They were only around a few years.
 
Perhaps they would have succeeded this time around if the market was the way it was 15 or 20 years ago. Ruger claims their revenue expectations were not met on their second try.
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Doubtful - you can't ask Beretta/Browning prices when you're turning out Stoeger level products..............
 
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