Everything old is new again
When I was in my early 20s (in the early 1990s) I moonlighted in a big box sporting goods store behind the gun counter, a practice I kept up for a few years. Some of the popular guns at the time– besides the $100 SKSs and $249 WASRs– included Ruger Single-Sixes (before they cost $600~) and classic 16-gauge shotguns, the latter of which were on their death knells.
Fast forward nearly 30 years and I feel like a proverbial kid again.
Ruger this week just coughed up a new .22LR single-action wheel gun, the Wrangler, which has an MSRP of $249 (and should translate to a sale price of $199). The price is kept low by ditching wood grips for plastic and blued/stainless finish for cerakote.
These exemplify a plinker 22, a cheap gun that you can just have some fun with
More in that after the jump in my column at Guns.com
Further, 16 seems to be making a comeback. Of note, the 16-gauge was the most popular chambering for shotguns in the U.S. for decades before 12 eclipsed it and currently Aguila, Federal, Fiocchi, Noble, Remington, Winchester, and others are now cranking out the shells in quantity.
To shoot all those hulls, Stevens has just announced a new Model 555 OAU (right?!) in the venerable bore for $700 to $879 depending on grade.
That’s a pretty good looking gun
And in “sweet” 16 of all things
Now If only I could still get into my size 34 Marithé et François Girbaud jeans, all would be right again.