Jason Rafeld asked: Sturm Ruger Firearms – General Info and History of Company
Sturm, Ruger and Company started out on the American East Coast, in Southport, Connecticut in1949, in the rented garage machine shop of Bill Ruger. At the time, Ruger was a firearms enthusiast, and had already taken an interest in inventing and tinkering. It was in that very garage where Ruger successfully duplicated two “Baby Nambu” pistols, after he had previously acquired a captured Japanese Nambu from a friend who was a U.S. Marine returning from the Pacific Theater after WWII ended in 1945. General Kijiro Nambu was a prolific arms designer, who was sometimes called, “the John Browning of Japan”. Ruger successfully copied, and slightly varied, Nambu’s design for the rear cocking device, as well as somewhat of the overall look and feel of the Nambu pistol. The result was one of the most popular .22 semi-automatic pistols ever to enter the US firearms market in 1949; the Ruger Standard Mark I. Later iterations included the Mark II and the Mark III. To this day, the Ruger Mark III is in the holsters and gun safes of more firearms enthusiasts and gun collectors than any other .22 pistol in existence.
Ruger is also a huge player in the .22 rimfire rifle market, with their enormously popular Ruger 10/22 carbine and 10/22 rifle. This gun is owned by the vast majority of hunters and outdoorsmen, as well as gun enthusiasts. It is on more gun racks, and in more gun safes that any other .22 rifle. Its wide appeal is because it is relatively inexpensive, well made, accurate, and it has an incredibly wide range of aftermarket accessories available for it.
Ruger is the country’s fourth largest firearms producer, and the only one to make all types of firearms: rifles, pistols, shotguns and revolvers. Ruger produces bolt-action, semi-automatic, full-automatic, and single shot rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, and single-action and double-action revolvers of all sizes. It is safe to say that Ruger has all types of firearms covered. The company even makes a submachine gun, the little known 9mm Ruger MP9, which has sometimes been called an “improved Uzi”.
Bill Ruger became embroiled in controversy when he publicly advocated the banning of magazines that can accommodate more than ten rounds. In what became known in gun circles as the infamous “Ruger letter” to the House and Senate on March 30, 1989, Bill Ruger supported “a simple, complete, and unequivocal ban on large capacity magazines”, which caused an understandable uproar among outdoorsmen and gun enthusiasts. Ruger made additional comments in an interview with NBC’s Tom Brokaw, saying, “no honest man needs more than 10 rounds in any gun”, and “I never meant for simple civilians to have my 20 and 30 round magazines…”. It has long been Ruger’s policy to limit the sale of those types of magazines to military and law enforcement, although aftermarket equivalents freely abound. For instance, one cannot go to a gun show without seeing hundreds of high-capacity, aftermarket Ruger 10/22 magazines for sale.
Regardless of the controversy caused by the “Ruger letter”, the firearms that the Ruger company produces are accurate, dependable, and 100% American made. They are carried and used by hunters, competitive shooters, plinkers, and law enforcement alike. They are known as guns that can be depended on to work reliably, shot after shot.
Ruger is also a huge player in the .22 rimfire rifle market, with their enormously popular Ruger 10/22 carbine and 10/22 rifle. This gun is owned by the vast majority of hunters and outdoorsmen, as well as gun enthusiasts. It is on more gun racks, and in more gun safes that any other .22 rifle.
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