The 77 "slash" rifles are gone - the .357 and .44. magnums, along with the hornets. I'm sure the tooling isn't in the dumpster but if the distributors have a few, and sales are poor, it can be mothballed until/if demand returns.
Ruger's business is to make money not guns. Guns are the product and they'll build what sells. Huge sales of economy products drive good margins, and when the numbers are there they'll build them. If sales drop they'll go back to the high price and high margin rifles and change their business model back. There doesn't seem to be a market for vanilla bolt guns at $800-900 a piece.
Everyone in that space is struggling while Savage, Ruger, and Tikka clean up.
Exactly. I just bought a M70 Featherweight. I wanted a wood stock.
For 1/2-3/4 the price, I could have had an XPR that is just as (if not more) accurate than my M70 will be. Based upon what is stocked in stores, I would bet Winchester sells 3-4x as many XPRs as M70 (any version).
How many wood stocked M70s do you think they sell per year?
