I would be curious why Ruger took a inexpensive Budget Plinker and put a Cheriokote finish
Thanks for that Ratshooter, I doubt it will calmthe waters. Regardless, it is what most of us thought along. And IMO no big deal.And it actually makes sense. Probably adds a liitle more weight?
I would be interested to hear from Ruger why they choose a Cherakote finish for a inexpensive Budget Plinker. And since I do not know much about Cherokote, I wonder if there are different grades or quality?
Obvious Ruger is moving into the direction of Budget guns. When they went from the LC9S down to the LC9, they put on a cheap finish. No surprise, they are trying to save money and the bottom line. It would seem they would have put a finish on the Wrangler like the SR22? Which I think is rather nice. Ruger also phased out the well built SR9 series. Seems they are phasing out a lot of the great products for budget guns. Makes me wonder if they plan on phasing out the Single 6 as well especially since it will be called the Wrangler Single Six. Who knows. I never thought they would have discontinued the SR9 like the SR9C I own. Now there is nothing to replace one with,
I did go to my local Smith who has a guy that does Cherakoting and they were quick to point out that the finish will wear off eventually. I don't think it is something for me. I do want to send a gun up to Robar eventually and have a nice job done on one of my special carries.
I do not own a Single Six, so how well is the Bluing on that gun? I do own a Blackhawk which is fairly nice. Why didn't Ruger just do a good bluing job on he Wrangler rather than cherokote?
I'm no expert but there are different grades of Cerakote.
I was looking at the Cerakote website recently for someone else and noticed that some colors are available in some grades and not others.
That doesn't mean that Cerakote isn't making a special blend just for Ruger.
I've seen other companies offer cheaper finishes in order to reduce the price of their six guns.
USFA did that with their Rodeo model.
And Uberti did it with one of their cap & ball revolvers, that may have been their Cattleman but not positive.
What they did was to come out with a very rough, matte blue finish where the metal wasn't polished first.
It was more like a bead or sand blasted finish that they subsequently blued.
It created a rough textured blue job that resembled a painted look in photos, but wasn't painted at all.
It was only a cosmetic cost savings measure.
But that was before Cerakote was either invented or became so popular.
Just look at the price of a USFA Rodeo now.
They're certainly not a budget gun anymore.
I'm sure that Ruger knows that there's a surplus of .22lr ammo on store shelves with companies like CCI recently offering rebates on .22lr ammo.
There's a whole class of youth Cowboy action shooting named the Buckaroo class that they're trying to appeal to as well as the NSSF Rimfire Challenge Cowboy Division.
If Ruger can make some inroads then they can possibly help out the parents to join in those shooting sports to help revive them.
And appeal to the general public as well since sales have been rather flat for a lot of firearms in general.
They do have their stockholders to answer to and jobs to protect.
Look at all of the 10/22 rifle business that Ruger has lost to S&W lately.
So raiding on the Heritage market share is fair game and part of a healthy competitive marketplace.
Ruger will mine profits wherever they can be found.