Ruger is shrinking its catalog, and the cuts reach deep into competitive shooters’ gun safes. In an Oct. 13 memo to distributors, the company said it had halted production of its LCR, SP101, GP100 and Bearcat revolver families, effective immediately, and canceled every open distributor order for them. Fifteen more product families will get final production runs through the rest of 2026.
That second group reads like a Ruger greatest-hits album: the Redhawk, Super Redhawk, Blackhawk, Super Blackhawk, Vaquero and Single-Series revolvers; the No. 1, Hawkeye and 77-Series rifles; the Ruger Precision Rifle; the SR1911 pistol; and the PC Carbine, PC Charger, LC Carbine and LC Charger. Those guns go on allocation while the last runs are completed, and any distributor orders still unfilled when production wraps will be canceled. When it’s over, the rimfire Wrangler and Super Wrangler will be the only revolvers left in Ruger’s lineup.
For the competition crowd, the list cuts across nearly every discipline Ruger touches. The Ruger Precision Rifle has spent most of the last decade as a go-to first rifle for shooters moving into PRS and NRL matches. Plenty of USPSA and Steel Challenge competitors got their start in Pistol Caliber Carbine behind a PC Carbine. Cowboy action shooters have long stocked their carts with Vaqueros and Blackhawks. The GP100, including its competition-minded Match Champion version, has been a familiar sight on revolver squads. (Note: it’s still unclear as to the status of the Match Champion, since it’s from the Ruger Custom Shop.) Single Stack shooters on a budget, meanwhile, lose the SR1911.
“This does not necessarily mean these product families are permanently discontinued,” Abbey Clary, Ruger’s director of media, advertising and public relations, told American Rifleman Executive Editor Evan Brune. She added that some of the names could return in new forms, though Ruger has nothing specific planned and no date for any comeback.
There’s precedent for that. Ruger’s memo points to earlier pauses of the 77-Series rifles, the 22 Charger and the SR1911, along with generational redesigns of the Red Label shotgun, Ruger American Rifle and Ruger Precision Rifle. Two of those once-paused lines, the 77-Series and SR1911, now find themselves back on the bench.
Ruger’s 2027 catalog won’t be thin. Handguns carrying over include the LCP family, RXM, MAX-9, Security-380, Security-9, Ruger 5.7, Mark IV and 22 Charger. On the long-gun side, the American Rifle and American Rimfire lines continue, along with the 10/22, Ruger Precision Rimfire, Harrier and Mini-14.
That leaves rimfire competitors largely untouched. The Mark IV remains a Steel Challenge staple. Rimfire Rifle shooters keep the 10/22, and NRL22 regulars hang on to the Ruger Precision Rimfire. Ruger’s Harrier AR-15s carry on as well—Team Ruger’s Randi Rogers and Gordon Carrell both ran Harriers at this summer’s NRA Faces of Freedom ARC Regional Championship in Rapid City, South Dakota.
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