Ruger

History

Started as ”’Sturm, Ruger & C0”’ in 1949 by ”’William (Bill) Ruger”’ and ”’Alexander Sturm”’ for a “meager $50,000″ Ruger Corporate History). Of course “meager” is relative. If you translate that $50,000 into 2005 dollars (via this [http://measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/ web site]) then you see that it’s something like $400K to $2.3 *million* depending on which comparison you want to make. I find it’s always good to convert numbers your unsure of (like 1949 dollars) to numbers you have a gut feel for (like 2005 dollars). Moving on…

Alexander Sturm passed away shortly after co-founding the company in 1951. Bill Ruger continued to build up the brand and company into the largest US firearms producer and passed away July 6th, 2002.

Books

Revolvers

Single Action:

• New Vaquero
• New Model Blackhawk
• New Model Super Blackhawk
• New Model Single Six
• New Bearcat
• Bisley

Double Action:

• SP101
• GP100
• Redhawk
• Super Redhawk

Black Powder:

• Old Army

Semi-automatic Pistols

Rimfire:

• Mark III is the current descendant of the “most popular .22 pistol” ever produced.
• 45 Mark III is a varient of the Mark III that has the handle and safety positioning of a standard 1911 pistol.

Centerfire:

• P Series (9mm, .45, and .40)

Rifles

Single shot:

• No. 1

Bolt action:

• M77 Hawkeye
• M77 Mark II
• 77/17
• 77/22

Lever action:

• 96/17
• 96/22
• 96/44

Semi-automatic:

• 10/22
• Mini-14 Target
• Mini-14
• Mini-30

Shotguns

Over and under:

• Red Label (also available in an engraved model)

Side by Side:

• Gold Label

External Links

• www.ruger-firearms.com