doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ruger Gold label- $3500??????

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......I shot a red label for years when I was younger but I have obviously entered the upper end of the generation gap for I do not understand.

Me either. We waited, what? Three years while the same prototypes floated around the big shows... until the thing finally hit a few store shelves... and it was crap. They even admitted it was crap by 'temporarily' suspending production to rethink something about the barrels (like maybe how to make them shoot to point of hold). Looks like a dead project to me.

From what I recall from a SSM article when the Gold Labels were briefly in production, they tried a new method for joining the very light barrels, and couldn't easily correct POI problems. They were scrapping barrels rather than ship with regulation problems,which you can imagine is very costly. Maybe some guns were shipped with barrels that didn't shoot where they were supposed to, but I never heard of one. My main hunting buddy has a nice one I'd offer to buy from him if I didn't already have a knockabout light 12.

I have a new in box with straight grip. Pulled it out yesterday after the discussions started. It has a very nice feel to the wrist area. The finish on mine is pretty darn nice, both the wood and metal. The chokes are not obvious and done well. Maybe better than the RBL.

I don't know if this is a dead project or not; depends on where Ruger can get the best return on their investment dollars. Clearly, they were not happy with the barrels required for the GL - way too much hand labor to get them light enough for the handling per project plans.

I examined three or four in the past ranging in price from $1400 (used) to $2,000 new. For the price I could find nothing wrong with them. Why is proud wood on BSS or Model 23 ok, but not ok on RGL? If I was in position of control at Ruger I would concentrate on sending .375 Alaskans to Alaska and forget American double gun fans. If they want hand assembled and hand finished round action let them order one from Scotland. That's it, go find one for $2600 or whatever RGL MSRP was!

I figured there was trouble in Rugerland when they started selling Gold Label "seconds" with the Q designation in the serial number. If you're trying to market your new offering as a quality shotgun, do you sell your mistakes?

The Cabelas in Buda has one that is not listed on their website. I think they were asking $2400 for it.

I won't make any comments on the GL's that I have looked at or handled, and have never shot one. The only part that I don't understand, are the comments about the unavailability of these guns once they hit the market. I saw GL's for sale on plenty of dealer's tables, at many shows, for the original pricing, or less, along with all of the other cardboard boxed stuff, and never noticed anyone flocking to check them out. And the original question asked, "what?"... the Cabelas stores like to buy cheap and advertise to people interested in instant gratification... rather than those who shop around.

I kind of figured this would happen, and for those of you who remember, I caught heck for making statements that the gun wouldn't be much if they came out at all. I am surprised they did. If you are a collector, you might need to know that their crap, eh, trap guns were pretty awful too. But since there were only about 350 made, they are going for a premium now, too. Who was it on here who sent his GL back so many times that they finally just sent him a Red Label. He-He. They should have just stuck to handguns. They made some good ones.