I still have on order and am waiting on them to arrive in the US, a Tikka T-3 Hunter in 260 and in 223 (1-8") from Alex at EuroOptics.

The models are wood stocks and were due in the US in August. I sure hope they make it. The models are shown on EuroPtics wew site.

I have handled probably half of the total production of these stainless LH .375s and I've never seen one without iron sights. I don't think they exist. Remember that there is a LH blued steel African version with 23" barrel and walnut stock. They have irons also. On the other hand, one of the first production runs of the LH RCMs in 300RCM had a few guns that had no irons, even though they were described on the Ruger website as having irons. I sent such a rifle back to Ruger for a customer and they rebarreled it with a barrel that had sights.

Another one on Gunbroker.

Not sure how he managed to get so many, but probably grabbed them when Davidson's had some in stock.

He's sold "the last one left" about 4 times now, hasn't he?

One thing I learned about Ruger, their Limited runs are usually not a "final" run. If they made it once they will usually make it again.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim in Idaho:
He's sold "the last one left" about 4 times now, hasn't he?

I've got no problem with him just listing one at a time, with a break in between, and even raising the price each time. But, to say it's the "last one" or "only one" when there is a pile on the shelf is a little shady. I bought mine from him, and the transactions was smooth as could be. Free shipping, free CC purchase, extremely fast. Only odd thing I found was the end label on the box was missing, and the serial number was written in pen on the box. I told him it's not a big deal to me, but to a collector it sure could have been. Maybe Ruger is trickling a few his way with odds and ends parts. My guess though is he bought a stack from Davidsons when they had the 17 that disappeared in hours.

The current one is up to $650 and rising.

He is a businessman, out to make every penny he can. I had a post here a moment ago casting veiled aspersions on him with no facts to back it up, but thought better of it. Instead I will relate my experience.

Before I purchased my rifle from him, I called him and asked what serial numbers he had, he read them off and I asked for a specific one which he held aside. I bought the rifle and sent a money order. So, plus one there.

The rifle arrived as fast as UPS ground delivers it and in the dimly lit shop where the transfer took place I did not notice the stock had a crack through the wrist, I only saw it a couple days later at home. The "well packed" in his ad means the rifle is in the ruger factory box which in turn is placed into a tight fitting outer cardboard box, no padding of any kind other than Ruger's factory box is used.

I filed a claim online with UPS and that's when I learned that "insured" does not mean "fully insured". It was insured for the basic $100 maximum value that UPS includes with every ground shipment. After a reasonable wait and not getting the claim paperwork I called UPS. Won't go into that mess but finally got someone from customer service. They had sent the claim paperwork to him. I asked why, since I paid for the insurace and shipping, and they said that it was done because he was the shipper. Anyway, they said he would have to sign over the claim to me.

I called him and asked him to sign over the claim to me and he would not. Instead, he offered to send me a new stock off of another of these rifles. The stocks are factory fitted so I asked him to just send me the claim, I'll take the $100 and use that money to cover the cost of sending the rifle with broken stock off to Ruger to fit a new one. I had already contacted them and they said, "no problem, we'll replace it as a warranty replacement".

His rationale was that he was going to send the broken stock back to Ruger and they would replace it for him. He said it would cost him a lot of money and time to send the stock back and that was why he was keeping the $100.

I paid $35 for shipping and "insurance", actual UPS ground shipping price was $18. He made $17 profit there (but a lot of gunbroker dealers do that).

I had to ship the old stock back to him - about $11 via priority mail IIRC, he would not reimburse me for that out of the $100 insurance claim. He sent the new stock to me, so there's $11 out of his $100. It fits, but not like a factory fitted stock would which I would have gotten from Ruger. Let's assume he sent the broken stock to Ruger, another $11 out of his $100. They would send a new one back to him without charge.

So now he's made $78 profit on the insurance which I paid for as part of the shipping. And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the $22 or so he did spend on shipping will be deducted as a business expense come next April.

I guess some will say I'm just pissed because I would have been able to keep the extra insurance money, and that is somewhat valid, but I paid for the insurance in the first place, not him.

So - yes, he did send me a new stock, but not fitted as Ruger would have done. He kept the insurance money I paid for.

Further, someone got or is getting a rifle from him with a replacement stock from Ruger that was not factory fitted as well.

I'll leave it to the reader to judge the situation, I am only presenting my experience with DCR.

I guess if it were me, I probably would have dealt directly with Ruger, then sent him the shipping bill, or eaten the cost of shipping, if they were willing to replace it.

With Ruger, I doubt there is much hand fitting at all on their standard production stuff. The machines are set up to inlet for a specific barrel/action combo, and when the do, they run a bunch. That is why they did the 375 Ruger left hand run in the first place. Someone programmed the machine wrong and ran a bunch of left hand laminates with a larger barrel contour.

First I must say that I bought two of the .308 rifles with laminated stocks from DCR. Not a hitch there. But he surely didn't handle the cracked stock well. First, it is the shipper's responsibility to initiate a claim with UPS. Second, if he didn't insure the gun sufficiently, then he should eat the loss. What I would have done is replaced the gun with another if I had one. I would have sent the broken stock gun back to Ruger for a replacement at any rate, and would have dealt with UPS in good time. But then I don't ship guns without sufficient insurance to cover a replacement. UPS always demands a receipt to show what the sale price of the gun is, so there is no value in inflating insurance. I always insure for my replacement cost, not the sale price, if it is a replacable gun. If not, I insure for the full sale price, usually rounded up to the nearest $50 to cover my incidental expenses. I have had three claims in the last several years with UPS. I caused one of them but UPS paid off in all cases. The key there is to pack well.

Offering once again, THE LAST ONE! Really.

"I only have this one left!!"

Not like those other four times where I said this is the last one, this is really, really, truly the last one left.

Honest.

Get'em while they're hot...

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti....aspx?Item=312092739

Damn, the price sure took off into the sky with willing buyers at that. Probably won't get his "buy it now", but the current bid is even high. I have yet to see one of these for sale by an individual on any site, so everyone must like them.

Maybe if we wait for 6 months or so, Ruger will have another run of these like the LH 375's.

quote:

Originally posted by Ken Cline:
Damn, the price sure took off into the sky with willing buyers at that. Probably won't get his "buy it now", but the current bid is even high. I have yet to see one of these for sale by an individual on any site, so everyone must like them.

Yep, I'm waiting for the prices to top $1,000, then I'll offer up my NIB one.

Just have to wait until the guy on gunbroker truly runs out of them, which might be a while.

Also gotta time it right. I notice a couple of those LH SS Alaskans from the first run that had starting bids of up to $1500 on gunbroker are now being offered at half that.

I'll give you $1000 trade credit for it towards the left hand 330 Dakota I have on Gunsamerica