I know people that collect them.
Funny, all the commemoratives Winchester built t in the 1980's. Most are ignored.
Too many practical people, I guess, and not enough people willing to pay a premium for 'collector' rifles. My rifles are work rifles, no safe queens allowed. Big Brother has an unfired .308 Galil because shooting it would ruin the 'collector' status. If I had it, it would be fired many times over or hit the road.
Take a useless thing that no one wants (Ruger Hawkeye) or so fugly that they don't sell (skeleton Ruger),
and they become collectors items.
There are a lot of sensible people that appreciate the Ruger rifles for what they are, whether M77, MKII or Hawkeye. I have multiples of each and like them all but prefer the Hawkeye.
Same with the 'skeleton' stocks. They may not be works of beauty to some but they are highly utilitarian - and therein is why they are highly valued by some.
Also, notice the two loser examples are Rugers.
And folks say about their ability to hit overlooked markets,
guess sometimes they just flat miss the market.
Actually, you had a third example - Winchester collector rifles that according to you are 'ignored'. I could name product failures by Remington, Browning and almost every other major firearm manufacturer.
The fact is that Ruger's annual sales and net income are on an upward curve while Remington is losing money and laying people off. Other firearm companies are also struggling. Ruger must be doing something right.
