Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American
firearm manufacturing company based in
Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in
Newport, New Hampshire;
Mayodan, North Carolina
Mayodan is a town in Rockingham County, North Carolina, in the United States. It is a manufacturing site for Sturm, Ruger & Co., Bridgestone Aircraft Tire, and General Tobacco (ceased operations 2010). Washington Mills Company, later Tultex, o ...
; and
Prescott, Arizona. The company was founded in 1949 by
Alexander McCormick Sturm and
William B. Ruger, and has been publicly traded since 1969.
Ruger produces
bolt-action,
semi-automatic, and
single-shot rifle
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many cent ...
s,
shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...
s,
semi-automatic pistol
A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actuall ...
s, and single- and double-action
revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
s. According to the
ATF
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preven ...
statistics for 2015, Ruger is currently America's largest firearm manufacturer, as well as the second largest pistol and revolver manufacturer (behind
Smith & Wesson) and rifle manufacturer (behind
Remington) in the United States.
History
Sturm, Ruger & Company was founded by
William B. Ruger and
Alexander McCormick Sturm in 1949 in a small rented machine shop in
Southport,
Connecticut.
Just prior to their partnership, Bill Ruger had successfully duplicated two Japanese
"baby" Nambu pistols in his garage, from a captured Nambu that he acquired from a returning
Marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
, at the close of
World War II. When it came to designing their first semi-auto
pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
, Ruger decided to incorporate the looks of the German
9mm Luger and the American
Colt Woodsman into their first commercially produced
.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm).
Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO.
.22 inch is also a popular ...
pistol (see
Ruger Standard), which became so successful that it launched the entire company.
Ruger is a dominant manufacturer in the
.22 LR
The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...
rimfire rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
market in the U.S., due primarily to the sales of its
Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic rifle.
The 10/22 is very popular due to its reputation for being relatively inexpensive and of high quality.
As a result, a wealth of after-market accessories and parts were made available for it, which has further increased its popularity.
The availability and variety of after-market parts makes it possible to build a 10/22 using only these parts; most of which are marketed to target shooters and hunters.
Ruger similarly dominates the .22 rimfire
semi-automatic pistol
A semi-automatic pistol is a type of repeating single-chamber handgun ( pistol) that automatically cycles its action to insert the subsequent cartridge into the chamber (self-loading), but requires manual actuation of the trigger to actuall ...
market with the
Ruger MK IV
The Ruger Standard Model is a rimfire semi-automatic pistol introduced in 1949 as the first product manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co., and was the founding member of a product line of .22 Long Rifle cartridge handguns, including its later ite ...
, a descendant of the Ruger Standard pistol. Like the 10/22, the Mark Series is supported with a wide variety of after-market accessories. The 22/45 is similar to the Ruger Standard family of pistols but features a different grip angle, that of the Colt 1911 (as opposed to that of a Luger utilized in the Ruger Standard).
Ruger is also renowned for the production of high-quality revolvers, such as the
GP100
The GP100 is a family/line of double action five-shot (.44 Special), six-shot (.357 Magnum, .38 Special, & 10mm Auto), seven-shot (.357 Magnum & .327 Federal Magnum), or ten-shot (.22 Long Rifle) revolvers made by Sturm, Ruger & Co., manufacture ...
and
Redhawk lines. They also have some presence in the semi-auto pistol market, with the
SR1911 and
SR lines of handguns.
From 1949 through 2004, Ruger manufactured over 20 million
firearm
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions).
The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
s. The company is headquartered in Southport, Connecticut, and maintains manufacturing facilities in
Newport, New Hampshire,
Prescott, Arizona, and
Mayodan, North Carolina
Mayodan is a town in Rockingham County, North Carolina, in the United States. It is a manufacturing site for Sturm, Ruger & Co., Bridgestone Aircraft Tire, and General Tobacco (ceased operations 2010). Washington Mills Company, later Tultex, o ...
. Ruger's subsidiaries are Ruger Precision Metals LLC in
Earth City, Missouri, Pine Tree Castings in Newport, New Hampshire, and Ruger Sportswear & Accessories in Mayodan, North Carolina. Ruger's Pine Tree Castings division makes ferrous,
ductile iron, and commercial
titanium castings. Ruger had a division known as Ruger Golf, making steel and titanium castings for
golf clubs made by a number of different brands.
Sturm, Ruger stock has been publicly traded since 1969 and became a
New York Stock Exchange company in 1990 (NYSE:RGR). After Alex Sturm's death in 1951, William B. Ruger continued to direct the company until his death in 2002.
In September 2020, the company bought the
Marlin Firearms company from bankrupt
Remington Outdoor Company
Remington Outdoor Company (ROC) was an American firearms manufacturer and holding company. The company had notable brands under its umbrella, such as Bushmaster, DPMS, Remington and Marlin.
History
On August 15, 2017, James Marcotuli announced ...
.
Statistics
Ruger was ranked the number one U.S.
firearms manufacturer from 2008 to 2011. In 2011, Ruger manufactured 1,114,687 firearms, as their promotion, the "Million Gun Challenge to Benefit the NRA", played a significant role in the company maintaining its top U.S. manufacturer status. The company has set a new goal of 2 million firearms produced per year. From 2009 to 2012, Ruger was the top-seller of
handgun
A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...
s.
Products
Ruger breaks down its products into nine categories:
*
bolt-action rifles
*
autoloading rifles
*
lever-action rifles
*
single-shot rifle
Single-shot firearms are firearms that hold only a single round of ammunition, and must be reloaded manually after every shot. The history of firearms began with single-shot designs, then multi-barreled designs appeared, and eventually many cent ...
s
*
shotgun
A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...
s
*
centerfire pistols
*
rimfire pistols
*
double-action revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
s
*
single-action revolver
A trigger is a mechanism (engineering), mechanism that actuates the function of a ranged weapon such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow, or speargun. The word may also be used to describe a switch that initiates the operation of other non-shooting ...
s
Rifles
Bolt-action rifles
*
Hawkeye M77
*
Gunsite Scout Rifle
*
Model 77/22
*
American Rifle
*
American Rimfire
*
Ruger Precision Rifle
*
Ruger Precision Rimfire
Autoloading rifles
*
Model 44 (discontinued)
*
10/22
The Ruger 10/22 is a series of semi-automatic rifles produced by American firearm manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co., chambered for the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge. It uses a patented 10-round rotary magazine, though higher capacity box ma ...
*
10/17 (discontinued)
*
SR-22
*
Mini-14
The Mini-14 is a lightweight semi-automatic rifle manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co. Introduced in 1973, it is based on the M14 rifle and is essentially a scaled-down version chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO.
It is made in a number of variants, inc ...
*
Mini Thirty
*
XGI (not produced: development halted)
*
Police Carbine (discontinued)
*
Ruger PC Carbine
The Ruger PC-9 Pistol Caliber Carbine is a blowback centerfire semi-automatic pistol-caliber carbine manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co., designed as a companion to certain Ruger Pistol-Series semi-automatic pistols, using the same 9 mm Pa ...
*
Deerfield Carbine (discontinued)
*
AR-556
*
SR-556 (discontinued)
*
SR-762 (discontinued)
Lever-action rifles
*
Model 96 (96/44, 96/22 and 96/17 discontinued)
Single-shot rifles
*
No. 1
*
No. 3
''No. 3'' () is a 1997 Koreans, South Korean Kkangpae, gangster comedy film starring Han Suk-kyu as the titular no. 3 man of a gang who's aspiring to rise up the ranks and become the leader of his own gang. It was writer-director Song Nung-han's ...
(discontinued)
Shotguns
*
Gold Label
Gold Typhoon Group is a Chinese entertainment company. Gold Label was founded in 2004 in Hong Kong, launched with the support of EMI, and acquired EMI Music Taiwan / EMI Music China (Typhoon Records) in 2008, reforming to Gold Typhoon. On 1 Jan ...
(discontinued)
*
Red Label (discontinued)
Submachine guns
*
MP9 (discontinued)
Handguns
Centerfire pistols
*
Hawkeye (discontinued)
*
P-Series (discontinued)
*
SR-Series (discontinued)
*
American Pistol
*
Security-9
*
Ruger MAX-9
Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and Presc ...
*
SR1911
*
LCP LCP may refer to:
Science, medicine and technology
*Large Combustion Plant, see Large Combustion Plant Directive
*Le Chatelier's principle, equilibrium law in chemistry
*Left Circular polarization, in radio communications
* Legg–Calvé–Perthes ...
*
LCP II
*
LCP Max
*
LC9
*
LC380
*
LC9s
*
Ruger-5.7
Rimfire pistols
*
Standard (MK I) (discontinued)
*
MK II (discontinued)
*
MK III /
22/45 (discontinued)
*
MK IV
*
SR22
*
22 Charger
Double-action revolvers
*
Security-Six/Service-Six/Speed-Six (discontinued)
*
SP101
*
GP100
The GP100 is a family/line of double action five-shot (.44 Special), six-shot (.357 Magnum, .38 Special, & 10mm Auto), seven-shot (.357 Magnum & .327 Federal Magnum), or ten-shot (.22 Long Rifle) revolvers made by Sturm, Ruger & Co., manufacture ...
*
Redhawk
*
Super Redhawk
The Super Redhawk is a line of double-action magnum revolvers made by Sturm, Ruger beginning in 1987, when Ruger started making weapons using larger, more powerful cartridges such as .44 Magnum, .454 Casull, and .480 Ruger.Taffin, John (2002) '' ...
*
Super Redhawk Alaskan
*
LCR
Single-action revolvers
*
Bearcat The bearcat, also known as the binturong, is a viverrine mammal from Southeast Asia.
Bearcat or bearkat may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Bearcats!'', a 1971 American TV series
* ''The Bearcat'', a 1922 film starring Hoot Gibson
* "Do the Bea ...
*
Single-Six
*
Blackhawk
*
Super Blackhawk
*
Vaquero
The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...
*
Wrangler
*
Old Army
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
(discontinued)
See also
*
List of modern armament manufacturers
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturm, Ruger and Co.
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies based in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Firearm manufacturers of the United States
Military in Connecticut
Manufacturing companies established in 1949