Based upon the interest I've seen in the LH Stainless Laminated .375 Ruger Alaskan, I wonder if there is enough demand for a special configuration rifle determined by the market, rather that sales reps and market types. I have the right contacts to implement that if the demand is there. I have an FFL and accounts with many of the distributors who are known to have ordered Distributor Exclusive runs with Ruger. So far I've determined that it takes an order of 250 rifles of one configuration to place an order. That means that a committment of around $150K would be necessary. One way to do that is to sell subscriptions for the guns with delivery through you local FFL. If I were ordering a gun, it would be a left hand (naturally) Ruger Hawkeye short action rifle, in stainless steel, gray laminated stock, 20 inch barrel and iron sights as on the Alaskan models. Caliber would be either .300 Ruger Compact Magnum or 338 RCM. I'd like to hear your ideas and try to get an assessment of interest. Would you be willing to pony up about $600-$750 up front for one of these in about a year?

By configuration, are we talking all 250 have to be same chambering?

Might be tuff to get 250 lefties to agree on one cartridge.....

Sure hope no one says 270 or 30/06

Make mine a 416 Ruger please

I would like to see:

1) 338-06, 23" barrel, blue, wood, no sights

2) 9.3*62 in a standard rifle

3) 308 in a Predator rifle

I would guess anything that was not a standard rilfe would sell, left handers have few off the rack choices.

John

I like your thinkin'......... but, it'll likely be hard to reach a consensus.

Good chance of a CRF .473 SS SA being a good seller I'd imagine. I know I'd buy a couple.

Good Luck.

Holy smokes............wonder why my above post is there 3 times?

Yep, all 250 would have to be exactly the same. There are already 25-06, 270, 7 Mag 300, Mag and .30-06 as standard SKUs.

That's why I suggested one of the RCM calibers, stainless with sights and laminated wood.

quote:

Originally posted by cmfic1:
Holy smokes............wonder why my above post is there 3 times?

A little twitchy was we??



Vol717,

The rifle you suggested does sound like a dandy. I might have a hard time saying no to a 338RCM. Not sure....... the right combo would have me out with the wallet right off though.

Interesting possibilities.....

Wrongside.........I may very well be a little twitchy, work has me pretty well sleep deprived for the last 5 days or so.



717, I really like your idea, but not real optimistic in it working.

I wish us shooters didnt have to resolve to schemes like this.

I guess about the only thing we can hope for, is that as the older generation on LH'ers that shoot RH guns fade out, that the newer version of lefties will in fact buy a LH'er, maybe prove to the makers that there may in fact be more portsiders in the world than what they believe.

I wonder if Kimber would go for this idea?

I would be up to ordering a 416 Ruger but thats about it.

Oh ya!!!

So so far we have 5 different posters to this thread...............2 of 'em want a 416 Ruger, lets round up 248 more agree'ers, shouldnt be too hard

If you want a .416, just buy a lefty .375 and a RH .416 and switch barrels, then sell the RH .375.

quote:

Originally posted by Vol717:
If you want a .416, just buy a lefty .375 and a RH .416 and switch barrels, then sell the RH .375.

The extractor cut (if there is one on a Ruger) would be on opposite sides. That is why we cannot do this with RH M-70 takeoffs.

I cannot think of a pair of cartridges I'd be less likely to own than the .300 Ruger Compact Magnum or .338 RCM.

Put together a run involving either the .458 Lott or .416 Remington or Ruger, and I think it is far more likely to happen.

George

I'm more inclined to think along the same same lines of George,

Reason being, is if a guy looks around enough, a LH 338 can be found, so too can a ton of 300 Win Mags.............Same cannot be said of 375 & larger.

+1 on the Lott

416 Rigby would be good also

OK, so far it seems that the big bores have the upper hand. I assume that the Ruger long action used for the .375 Ruger would work for the 416 Ruger, 416 Rigby or the .458 Lott. With that in mind, my vote would be for the .416 Ruger for not other reason than Ruger might be more inclined to produce the gun in their own caliber. In this caliber this is a working gun, so stainless steel action and barrel would be desirable. How about the stock? My preference would be gray laminated wood. I hate Hogue stocks. They're too fat, the grip is too close and they change the balance of a rifle. Besides, I don't think they'e made in LH. You can always buy a factory Ruger synthetic stock from Brownells for $70. I don't think that the iron sights on the Alaskan or African rifles can be beat so I'd vote for standard fare there. How about barrel length? The Alaskans have 20" barrels and the Africans have 23 inchers. In .416 caliber, this would be more of an African gun, so the 23" barrel is probably best. Are we getting closer?

Much closer.

A 23"-barreled .416 with a laminated stock would be nice , although I'd prefer a brown laminate with 1/8" layers instead of the usual 1/16".
Of course, I'd need a 14.5" LOP, but that's me.

I don't know what the OEM sights are like, but they too can be replaced,

George

I'd take the African pretty much how just how it is. When I got it, it would be bedded & add a cross bolt or 2..........Done

The .375 LH guns that I've been selling have a large bead front sight and a really heavy shallow "V" rear sight and the literature says it is zeroed for 50 yards. It already has a cross bolt in the stock.

Regarding switching barrels between a .375 LH and .416 RH gun, the Ruger barrel doesn't have an extractor cut so the switch is feasible. I've kept an extra LH .375 gun with that in mind.

I'm pretty sure a regular M77 MK II will not work with anthing the length of a 375 H&H, 458 Lott or 416 Rigby, hence the RSM's and the design of the 375 and 416 Ruger to begin with. But a 416 Ruger or 458 Win sounds pretty decent to me!

When it comes down to it, if they did a run similar to the left hand "Alaskans" but simply punched out the barrel to 416, I bet they would sell like popsicles in hell....

They only produced about 100 of the left hand stainless .375 Alaskans and stopped production for yet unknown reasons. They distributed the guns without any publicity at all and it took about 6 months to sell them all. Is this a gauge of the popularity of a large caliber LH Ruger or a condemnation of Ruger's marketing savvy? I tend to agree with prairiegoat that a .416 stainless with laminated stock would be the way to go. Barrel length would not be that much of a concern to me. Whatever length they have made in .416 stainless in the past would be OK by me.

In my opinion it most certaintly is not a gauge of the popularity of the large caliber left hand Rugers.

I think making that batch of left hand stainless 375's and not advertising it was the dumbest thing I ever seen Ruger do. Once shooters became aware of them they were gobbled up immediately.

How can anyone expect to sell something they do not advertise?

If Ruger would offer some sort of semi custom order program I bet they would receive at least 100 orders for a lefty ss 416 within a blink of the eye even in this bad economy.

I'd be in for at least one .416 for sure. Maybe more depending on when you need the $$$'s!

I'd be in for a LH SS .416. I think the black/grey laminate looks best and the 23" barrel would be better than the 20. The price range of the first post would be OK...less is better!

If we're dreaming...how about a run of .480 SRH in 5 shot with a 5 or 6" barrel!

I think Ruger has been out of touch with the market several times...but, hey, they make a lot more $ than I do!

Don't hold your breath waiting on a LH .416. The distributors I've talked to say its too small a niche to sell. However, I have one distributor interested in ordering a LH stainless short action in .260 Remington. Possible options for a stock are walnut , gray laminate, brown laminate or green laminate. I think it won't have iron sights. What are your preferences for the stock, and would you be interested in pre-ordering? It may take a pre-order of a certain quantity to make them spring for an order of 250. That's good news that we wouldn't have to take the entire 250 order. If we could pony up the funds for a 50-unit pre order, it may be enough incentive for the distributor to order it Ruger to produce it.

I would be very tempted by a SS 260. Brown lam would be nice but the stock wouldn't be a critical thing for me.

I guess I'm no marketing wiz, but I have a feeling 250 left hand 416 Rugers would sell, if somebody bothered to advertise them. The left hand 375's went pretty fast once everybody realized Ruger had built them. I mean, I was in such a rush to buy one I overpayed by a couple hundred dollars!

When I suggested .260 to the representative he started gushing about sectional density of the 6.5mm long-for-caliber bullet and how it was the modern incarnation of the 6.5X55. I personally like 25s. I have three, .25-20, 250 Savage, and 257 Weatherby, but I have to agree that the .260 has finally come of age and would appeal to average Joes and gun enthusiasts as well.

I cant say I wouldnt want a 260, but I would prefer a 7-08.

Personally, I dont think any "Standard" chambering would interest me much in a Ruger. I have all my needs covered with a big hand full of LH'ers from 22-250 up to 338 WM.

What would interest me, is anything 375 & up. The reason being, is Savage, Rem, Tikka, etc. etc. already offer a bunch of these more normal sized cartridges.

And other than breaking the bank on a custom or semi custom, us Lefties are offered very little in the bigger stuff.......and for now, thats where alot of my interest lies.

It would be interestin gto see..... 2 different Ruger rifles, 250 of either, both with equal amounts of advertising, one in 260 Rem, the other 416 Ruger

Which rifles sells out faster?

I's certainly be interested in a left hand SS .260 Rem... stock wouldn't matter a bit although I'd prefer laminate of any color over walnut. I'd pony up for at least two.

Ruger now uses gray laminate exclusively for left hand guns. In the past they've used it special runs of 10-22s, but now only leftys. I like the gray better anyway. It'll match my lefty .375 Rugers.

quote:

Originally posted by Vol717:
Don't hold your breath waiting on a LH .416. The distributors I've talked to say its too small a niche to sell.

I'd part with some money for a 416. I've got LH rifles in 22 25 7mm and 30, so a 26 is of no interest to me.

Vol717,

sorry to wake up this post but was wondering where is your project i m on it for a 300 or 338 RCM stainless lam with open sight ???!!!

i ve seen on Lypseys that the RCM are coming in wood version any infos on that ?

see you

I'd rather have a 404 Ruger (.423 bore) but there's less than a snowball's chance in Hell of that happening.

I don't think it'll happen. I've been buying left hand and right hand guns and switching calibers to get what I need. right now I'm switching .375 Ruger and .416 Ruger to get lefty .416s and then sell off the .375 right hand guns. It would work for most calibers with the same barrel profiles.

why not make it really simple and do an announced run of the same left hand stainless 375 version????????

The way the prices have gone way up shows the interest in this model.......

250 or 300 more of them would sell with no problem, for non-inflated prices

I don't think that Ruger had enough parts for more of the initial run. That's one reason it was ended. I think the initial production is all we will ever see. They will undoubtedly keep going up as they are still a bargain compared to any custom rifle.

Well,


........404 Jeffery, period..........

.............However.................

Roger QSL

To make sure that the converted .416s functioned reliably, I bought dies and components to make up dummy rounds for my gunsmith. Since I had all of the components, I figured, why not fire the .416? I was pleasantly surprised. Like all big bores I have fired, the recoil was just a heavy shove instead of a quick jab you get with high velocity rifles. The iron sights are right on a 50 yards. I had to start charging friends who wanted to shoot it for the cost of the components as they couldn't get enough of the big bore. They are addicting.

I think the SS .260 would be a good idea. I'm lacking a 6-7mm and would definitely be interested in a .260.