The budget rifles are king as far as sales go. Those SKU's turn significantly faster than the higher priced counterparts.
Right now, the Hawkeye is in limbo. There isn't a stainless/synthetic model in production....the first time since the MKII stainless hit the shelves 25 years or so ago.
You might laugh, but I think the stainless finish on the current Hawkeye helped diminish sales. Now that I'm on the other side of the counter, I can't tell you how many times a week I hear someone complain about their current color/metal finish. That's something Ruger will never be able to quantify. Had they just taken the shiny stainless and gave it a nice bead blast, I think they would have been evaluating totally different sales data over the last few years.
