Just a few thoughts.
Much ado is being made about the Zinc Alloy grip frame. This is a non-stressed part that the only wear will be from the shooters hands unless you plan on using it as a hammer to pound nails when putting Wanted Posters up on the sides of buildings and on telephone poles.
What if the market changes, and people want to go back to tough quality guns at a affordable price. Will the new Image stick, will they be able to recover? Just asking.
Your argument is flawed because you are making the unproven assumption that the Wrangler is not going to be high quality enough to satisfy the consumer.
Rugers image does not appeared to suffered any with their line of lower priced semi-auto pistols.
I hate to break it to ya but Ruger WAS the budget leader for many years. Their whole focus was/is to build it better and less expensive. Starting with the Ruger Standard to the Maverick.
If a company doesn't adapt to the market they go out of business. If the consumer wants "budget" guns someone is going to build them.
Yep. Colt, Marlin, Remington all come to mind. Now it seems Ruger has decided it wants a piece of the pie that Heritage has had a monopoly on for so long.
I mean, how much quality can you put into a gun that will retail for around $200.00? The More quality put into the gun, the less profit. Is Ruger really going to make all the parts and invest in all kinds of machinery?
Actually quite a bit from what little I remember from sleeping through my economics classes in college. It is called ”economy of scale” which is a fancy way of saying the more of the same product you make the lower the unit cost.
How much new machinery do you think Ruger needs?
According to the comments I have read Ruger is using the same internal parts as the Single-Six series uses. They have being making these parts for how many decades now? So the machinery, production capacity, design, quality and skill to manufacture the parts is there. Actually the cost of making the parts will be lower if their manufacturing capacity was being underutilized.
Consider the cylinder. It is the same size as used on the Single-Six with the main difference being they have eliminated the flutes between the chambers thus lower production costs. Most likely the exact cylinder that comes down the line. Some get the flutes for the higher priced Single-Six and the others get used for the Wrangler. Same high quality parts. Just a less production steps.
The mold size for the grip frame is the same. Just different material being used. Again the production cost may be lower due to the alloy use and if there is unused production capacity.
Then there is the barrel which is the same only with different front sight,
This is the problem and it's one that fanboys are going to be slow to realize, if they ever do. Ruger today is not the Ruger of the 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s, the revolvers are not made as well as they once were and these Wranglers are going to be the cheapest revolvers Ruger has ever made. Also, sometimes it's not just the materials that make up the quality, but the workmanship of the workers and the production workers of today aren't as skilled as those 50 years ago.
So are Smith & Wesson revolvers the same as the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s? You must have been sleeping longer than Rip Van Wrinkle to miss the changes that has occurred.
What is wrong with Ruger entering the budget price revolver marker or to use your words the “cheapest revolvers Ruger has ever made”? You have been bashing Ruger very loudly. Is the Wrangler upsetting your retirement plan by investing in a lot of Heritage revolvers?
As for today's Ruger being different from the past, thank goodness for that. They could have followed Colt's model, and never changed or introduced new products.
Yep. Colt has done well sticking with making with Python haven’t they? They do still make the Python don’t they?
I agree. $200 isn't the end of the world if it turns out to be a stinker but why the big hurry to buy something that no one has seen, heard or felt?
If everyone sits on the sideline waiting to see how good of the gun it is before buying one there isn’t any reason for Ruger to make them is there?
And no one really knows the real reason why this item is being introduced to the market. Some here infer that it is because the Big R senses the opportunity to exterminate a competitor. Not really a competitor though because the Big R isn't already in that market.
Seems like you answered your own question.
But on the other hand why the big rush?
Because life is too short not to have fun and I have too many guns to shoot before I die.