To me, it seemed to be the essential rugged-use rifle. An above-average synthetic stock, stainless steel metalwork and excellent build quality. A rifle that would last through Armageddon!
I bought my first new rifle in 30 years last year, and it was a Ruger Hawkeye, and your assessment is exactly like mine. I bought this one as the last 30-06 I'd ever need to buy. I've got a closet full of them, and I wanted to go out with a good one.
Although I would not be the one to say Ruger can't walk and chew gum at the same time, it looks like they want to capture a niche where things like the #1 and the stainless Hawkeye don't exist and the American does. There are unprecedented numbers of guns being sold and you either concentrate on what sells the highest volumes or you sit on the sidelines. Ruger wants as much of that market share as possible.
Solder is not guns, but I did work for a solder factory for 8 years. Just before the owners put the place up for sale, we went through a phase of introspection. There were 10,000 SKUs in our inventory, some with an 80-year supply sitting in our warehouse. The owners had been willing to make anything the customer wanted for 25 years. There were less than 2000 items that ever really sold and of those, the company had 200 that
generated 80% of the sales. Some, before you had the accountant massage the numbers, cost $11/lb to make and we were selling for $7/lb. I know this, because I was the guy who created the report. My point is, someone runs a similar report at Ruger, and folks make decisions based on that report.
