Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The rifle market sucks…

John is on to something here…..

That happened at a time when inventories were full everywhere. Ruger announced they were discontinuing the Hawkeye and a couple of distributors took advantage of the announcement to liquidate their inventory in hopes of paying other bills. We retailers jumped on it and bought everything we could from whoever we could. Our shelves were full too, but it allowed us to cost average our Hawkeye inventory and compete. (At least that’s what I did) We were in a bad position because a certain online only retailer was advertising all their Hawkeye’s for a little over $200 less than we had in ours originally.

Bottom line - Ruger abandoned us, retailers and consumers. The explanation I received from Ruger was that the American was outselling the Hawkeye and Ruger was losing money on every stainless/synthetic Hawkeye being produced. The cost of their raw material increased, stainless was harder on the tooling, the finishing of the Hawkeye itself was more expensive and time consuming, etc, etc, etc. if everyone remembers correctly, that’s when they discontinued the stainless Ruger American’s too.

Now to defend Ruger…..
Ruger was right. The American was outselling the Hawkeye. It was new to the market and arguably more accurate than the Hawkeye. We were selling Americans for less than half the price of a Hawkeye. I fully believe they were upside down on the Hawkeye cost wise. It had a ton of stainless parts that no doubt required addition cost to fit and finish. They also had tons of competition in the Hawkeye’s price range. They were also answering to a Board of Directors that didn’t care about anyone or anything other than a bottom line.

Now to give Ruger some hell….
The Hawkeye’s itself was the primary reason sales diminished from the Ruger 77 line. The gun was exactly the same mechanically to the 77MKII (except for the LC6? trigger), but that gray finish was hated by many. It looked cheap, it marked and scratched easily, it didn’t “match” anything in the industry, rust spots easily developed and it never appealed to consumers. Why they tried to paint the finish on rather than a light bead blast is beyond me! That change was one of the main reasons for the demise of the Hawkeye. Customers hated it and they gave their money to competitors.

Ruger could have easily maintained two rifle lines at separate price points as long as the higher price point rifle truly appeared to be a premium offering. That gray painted stainless wasn’t going to get it. The heavy laminate stocks don’t appeal to the majority of shoppers wanting a stainless hunting rifle either. They needed a premium stainless synthetic hunting rifle and still do.

The walnut stock with the wrap around checkering on the high polished blue Hawkeye was the best feeling stock they ever produced.