As many of the folks on the forum, I grew up as a youngster/teenager during the hunting, gun culture era of the late 50's and 60's. I wouldn't trade the memories and experience from those years for anything. We had a little general hardware store in our hometown in Minnesota that we purchased many of our family's firearms and ammo from back in the gun section of the store. Generally, there were a couple of dozen rifles and shotguns that were on the rack, and, of course, plenty of ammo. Never a shortage, ever, in those days. Back then, my dad and my two older brothers pretty much exclusively used shotguns and .22s.
The owner, who knew my dad and my brothers (and me) very well, would let us take a shotgun or .22 out in the field under my dad's guidance on a weekend to see if we liked it or not, and then we'd either purchase it, or maybe, try another one out. Of course, we always took good care of the loaner, and brought it back as clean as we got it (one reason why we had that privilege). He (the hardware store owner) just wanted us to be happy with our new (many times a used) firearm. Yup, those were the days, and that was quite a great little hardware store. But, this is a thread about Ruger firearms.
In the mid-60's, and along with some help from my dad, I walked out of that store with my brand new Ruger 10/22, and it cost $54.50. I still have the gun, and the walnut stock, though a bit dinged up here and there, still looks great (it has a 5 digit serial number). Though it has a pretty bad (horrible actually) trigger pull, nobody back then told me about such things. And so, many, many red-winged blackbirds, squirrels, rabbits and sputzies fell on my grandpa's farm at the report of the rifle's Federal Hi-Power .22 long rifle ammo (about a penny a round in those days, sometimes cheaper as I remember). Later on, I put a Weaver C6 rimfire scope on it, and it's still there. What a great .22 Bill Ruger made me.
Through the years I've owned a Single-Six convertible .22 (didn't care for that one much), a security six in .357 mag., which I wish I still had, and a Model 77 in .280 Rem. that I wish I still had too. I still have my model 77 in 6MM Rem. that I wouldn't sell or trade for anything and paid $179.00 for it back in '79, brand new. I've got a New Model Blackhawk in .41 mag. that I've had forever, and will keep that one for another forever. Bill Ruger was still around and working when all the arms in our safe were made with his name on them. What a great man.
One day last fall, I was picking up my Model 700 Rem. (love those too) from my gunsmith (new crown job), and we had good little confab. During the palaver, we got on Ruger stuff, and he told me that Bill Ruger pretty much believed that people shouldn't be allowed to have guns at all, but since the 2nd amendment allowed as how the folks have the right to have them, he thought that he'd just make and sell them to the citizenry. My lower jaw pretty much came close to hitting the floor on that one, and my Smithy told me again it was a true deal. Still can't hardly believe it myself, but has anyone on the forum ever heard this? It really doesn't matter to me all that much, as I'll always respect the name and use my Rugers no matter what Bill thought. It certainly was his right to build his great guns, especially my old 10/22. And may Ruger firearms keep building their great guns under Bill's name for many, many years to come.
reinert
P.S. My first shotgun was also from that hardware store mentioned, and it was a Model 37 Winchester break-open single barrel (as my grandpa called them). It was a 20 gauge, and I wish I still had that on too. I believe it cost around 40 bucks, brand new.
