June 13, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ruger is the largest gun manufacturer in the U.S., and it’s not by accident. Here to tell this story is Logan Metesh. Logan is a firearms historian and museum professional who runs High Caliber History LLC.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of Ruger, the great American arms manufacturer right here in
the United States. Let's continue with this great business story.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
There's a joke in the gun community that God came
to Bill Ruger in a dream and showed him the
design for the Ruger Standard Pistol, but unfortunately Bill woke
up before God could tell him how to put it
back together. Anyway, when the gun was first put into
production and they were working on things, they had a
(00:42):
total of eight barreled pistol receivers that they had made
as test guns for this new design, and serial number
three of these guns was actually the first one to
leave the factory. Serial numbers one and two were retained
internally for further study. February of nineteen fifty, Stern Ruger
and Company had a back order of an astounding five
(01:05):
thousand units and a production capacity of just nine hundred
guns a month. By summer of the same year, the
backlog had grown to nine thousand units and their production
capacity had picked up a little bit, but they were
still only able to make one thousand guns a month.
That backlog is a testament to that little gun's rugged design.
(01:27):
And its ease of use, and its affordability. Finally, finally,
there was a twenty two caliber pistol on the market
that anyone could afford to own, and that was easy
enough for anyone to learn how to shoot with this gun.
Within a year, that little startup company from Connecticut had
gained traction and continued to advance at a rapid pace.
(01:50):
But Alex Stern contracted viral hepatitis and died very unexpectedly
in November of nineteen fifty one. He was just twenty
eight years old. The company's heraldic eagle logo that today
is instantly recognizable as Ruger. That eagle was actually designed
(02:11):
by Alex Stern, and so, paying homage to his fallen
business partner, Bill Ruger, changed the color of the eagle
in the logo from red to black, and with the
exception of the one millionth Ruger standard pistol that they
produced in nineteen seventy nine, it wasn't until nineteen ninety nine,
(02:32):
with the celebration of their fiftieth anniversary, that the logo
would return to red on all of their guns. So,
even though they had the tremendous setback of Alex Stern,
passing away unexpectedly at a very young age. Bill Ruger
was a shrewd businessman, and he didn't want to rest
on their laurels and be seen as one trick pony,
(02:53):
so he knew that they were going to have to
diversify their offerings beyond that twenty two caliber pistol. Given
the popularity of Westerns and cowboys six guns in the
nineteen fifties, the Ruger Company introduced their first single action
revolver in nineteen fifty three. The revolver was an instant success,
(03:14):
and the company introduced the Single six, the Blackhawk, and
the Bearcat, all of which were single action revolvers all
by the end of that decade, and each one of
them was a hit. Next up rifles, so the deer Stalker,
the ten twenty two, the Number one, the Model seventy seven,
and so on. We're all added to the lineup in
(03:36):
the nineteen sixties, and due to the brand's success and popularity,
the company became publicly traded for the first time in
nineteen sixty nine. It would go on to be listed
on the New York Stock Exchange in nineteen ninety, but
today it remains the only American arms manufacturer that is
publicly traded as a standalone entity and not grouped into
(03:58):
a larger parent organization. So they're flying high. By the
end of nineteen sixty nine, they've been in business twenty
years and now it's time for a flop. But it
wasn't a gun. Bill Ruger collected high end antique automobiles,
and so in that vein he designed what was known
as the Ruger Sports Tourer, which was a car based
(04:22):
on the Bentley and it had an estimated retail price
of twelve to thirteen thousand dollars. Bill read the market
wrong with the car, and that was kind of a
rare occurrence for him. He usually was a keen eye
and knew what people wanted. But they did not want
this car, so they'd only made two of them when
they turned their focus back to making guns. Unfortunately, they'd
(04:45):
already spent eight years and four hundred thousand dollars developing
a car that never made it to production. Nonetheless, when
they turned their attention back to guns, they did well
in the seventies. By nineteen seventy nine, which was the
company's thirtieth anniversary, for the models they offered had already
sold a million units each, and they finished up their
(05:07):
thirtieth anniversary with sales totaling sixty eight point eight million
dollars and a profit of seven point nine million, which
was up like fourteen percent over the previous year alone.
So by nineteen eighty nine, and at this point in
American history, the idea of a so called assault weapons
ban was really picking up steam, and so Bill Ruger
(05:31):
wrote a letter to every member of Congress and he
told them that they should limit magazine capacity instead of
trying to ban these so called assault weapons. Taking it
a step further in a couple more years, he would
sit down with NBC in nineteen ninety two, and in
that interview he was quoted as saying that no honest
(05:53):
man needs more than ten rounds in any gun, and
backlash against Bill and the company was swift. Gun owners
as a whole have very long memories, and there are
still some people to this day that will not own
a Ruger firearm because of what Bill said. Fortunately for them,
(06:13):
you know, they make a good product, and there were
enough people who still rallied around the brand, and they
found themselves in nineteen ninety nine celebrating their fiftieth anniversary,
and by that point in time they had really cemented
their place both in firearms history and in American history.
You know, quite literally, tens of millions of gun owners
(06:34):
had Ruger firearms in the field, hunting, sitting in their
home gun safes, out on the range with their kids,
sitting in the gun rack, in their trucks. You know,
Ruger firearms were everywhere. And over the years, Bill Ruger
had the opportunity to buy a whole bunch of other companies.
Even if you don't know firearms, you still know names
(06:55):
like Colt Smith and Weston, Remington and Winchester. He had
the opportunity to buy all of those companies and didn't.
And it wasn't just gun companies. Beyond that, he had
the opportunity to buy both Maserati, the sports car company,
and Harley Davidson, the iconic motorcycle company. Instead, he chose
(07:15):
to focus on his guns. By two thousand, Bill was
eighty four years old and he decided it was finally
time to retire. Now, retirement was kind of an odd
thing for Bill. In nineteen ninety two, he did an
interview with Forbes magazine when he told him that he
could never retire because he'd never done a god day's
(07:37):
work in his life, So how can you retire if
you've never worked. Nonetheless, he did retire and his son
took over as chairman and CEO of the company. Bill
had also said around that same time that if you rest,
you rust, and so that's why he tried to keep
so active, and unfortunately retirement meant rest, and it meant rust.
(08:01):
So Bill Ruger died in two thousand and two, having
spent fifty three years involved in the operations of the
company that he helped found, and his son, Bill Ruger Junior,
passed away in twenty eighteen. After working for his father's
company for forty two years. He retired in two thousand
and six, and so even though there's been no direct
(08:23):
Ruger descendant running the company in more than a decade,
they are definitely one of the big players on the
block in terms of American firearms. The Ruger Standard pistol
that they initially created back in nineteen forty nine lives
on today in a variant known as the Mark four,
and like the previous three versions, it maintains all of
(08:45):
the classic appeal and lines of the standard, but it
just kind of updates the platform for today's market. Most importantly, however,
it solves the difficulty of takedown and reassembly. So now
that Bill is spending all of his time up above
with God, he was finally able to have God show
him how to put the pistol back together. And so
(09:07):
now that the Mark four has ironed out all the
kinks in the design, the gun can remain at the
forefront as an incredibly popular gun for people to learn
how to shoot on both young and old, beginner and
seasoned pros alike. The humble startup that consisted of just
a few guys in a red barn now has more
(09:28):
than eighteen hundred employees. They're still headquartered in Connecticut, but
now they've got five factories throughout the country. Alexander Sturm's
fifty thousand dollars investment really paid off. The company today
is worth nine hundred and forty million dollars. And given
their success, I think it's safe to say that mister
(09:49):
Sterm and mister Ruger would have big smiles on their
faces if they could see where their company is at today.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And a very special thanks to Logan Metish. Logan is
a firearms historian and museum professional who runs High Caliber
History LLC. And my goodness, what a story. Eighteen hundred
employees off a fifty thousand dollars loan. Two guys just well,
never working a minute in their lives, they probably felt.
And so many people who work for themselves, that's why
(10:17):
they do it, because they have something special they want
to do. And my goodness, anyone who owns weapons, who
loves firearms and responsible firearm ownership is a big deal.
That he testified and went public on magazine capacity, My goodness,
that took a lot of courage to do, and he
did it. Ruger, the great American gun manufacturer. Their story
(10:40):
here on now American Stories
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of Ruger, the great American arms manufacturer right here in
the United States. Let's continue with this great business story.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
There's a joke in the gun community that God came
to Bill Ruger in a dream and showed him the
design for the Ruger Standard Pistol, but unfortunately Bill woke
up before God could tell him how to put it
back together. Anyway, when the gun was first put into
production and they were working on things, they had a
(00:42):
total of eight barreled pistol receivers that they had made
as test guns for this new design, and serial number
three of these guns was actually the first one to
leave the factory. Serial numbers one and two were retained
internally for further study. February of nineteen fifty, Stern Ruger
and Company had a back order of an astounding five
(01:05):
thousand units and a production capacity of just nine hundred
guns a month. By summer of the same year, the
backlog had grown to nine thousand units and their production
capacity had picked up a little bit, but they were
still only able to make one thousand guns a month.
That backlog is a testament to that little gun's rugged design.
(01:27):
And its ease of use, and its affordability. Finally, finally,
there was a twenty two caliber pistol on the market
that anyone could afford to own, and that was easy
enough for anyone to learn how to shoot with this gun.
Within a year, that little startup company from Connecticut had
gained traction and continued to advance at a rapid pace.
(01:50):
But Alex Stern contracted viral hepatitis and died very unexpectedly
in November of nineteen fifty one. He was just twenty
eight years old. The company's heraldic eagle logo that today
is instantly recognizable as Ruger. That eagle was actually designed
(02:11):
by Alex Stern, and so, paying homage to his fallen
business partner, Bill Ruger, changed the color of the eagle
in the logo from red to black, and with the
exception of the one millionth Ruger standard pistol that they
produced in nineteen seventy nine, it wasn't until nineteen ninety nine,
(02:32):
with the celebration of their fiftieth anniversary, that the logo
would return to red on all of their guns. So,
even though they had the tremendous setback of Alex Stern,
passing away unexpectedly at a very young age. Bill Ruger
was a shrewd businessman, and he didn't want to rest
on their laurels and be seen as one trick pony,
(02:53):
so he knew that they were going to have to
diversify their offerings beyond that twenty two caliber pistol. Given
the popularity of Westerns and cowboys six guns in the
nineteen fifties, the Ruger Company introduced their first single action
revolver in nineteen fifty three. The revolver was an instant success,
(03:14):
and the company introduced the Single six, the Blackhawk, and
the Bearcat, all of which were single action revolvers all
by the end of that decade, and each one of
them was a hit. Next up rifles, so the deer Stalker,
the ten twenty two, the Number one, the Model seventy seven,
and so on. We're all added to the lineup in
(03:36):
the nineteen sixties, and due to the brand's success and popularity,
the company became publicly traded for the first time in
nineteen sixty nine. It would go on to be listed
on the New York Stock Exchange in nineteen ninety, but
today it remains the only American arms manufacturer that is
publicly traded as a standalone entity and not grouped into
(03:58):
a larger parent organization. So they're flying high. By the
end of nineteen sixty nine, they've been in business twenty
years and now it's time for a flop. But it
wasn't a gun. Bill Ruger collected high end antique automobiles,
and so in that vein he designed what was known
as the Ruger Sports Tourer, which was a car based
(04:22):
on the Bentley and it had an estimated retail price
of twelve to thirteen thousand dollars. Bill read the market
wrong with the car, and that was kind of a
rare occurrence for him. He usually was a keen eye
and knew what people wanted. But they did not want
this car, so they'd only made two of them when
they turned their focus back to making guns. Unfortunately, they'd
(04:45):
already spent eight years and four hundred thousand dollars developing
a car that never made it to production. Nonetheless, when
they turned their attention back to guns, they did well
in the seventies. By nineteen seventy nine, which was the
company's thirtieth anniversary, for the models they offered had already
sold a million units each, and they finished up their
(05:07):
thirtieth anniversary with sales totaling sixty eight point eight million
dollars and a profit of seven point nine million, which
was up like fourteen percent over the previous year alone.
So by nineteen eighty nine, and at this point in
American history, the idea of a so called assault weapons
ban was really picking up steam, and so Bill Ruger
(05:31):
wrote a letter to every member of Congress and he
told them that they should limit magazine capacity instead of
trying to ban these so called assault weapons. Taking it
a step further in a couple more years, he would
sit down with NBC in nineteen ninety two, and in
that interview he was quoted as saying that no honest
(05:53):
man needs more than ten rounds in any gun, and
backlash against Bill and the company was swift. Gun owners
as a whole have very long memories, and there are
still some people to this day that will not own
a Ruger firearm because of what Bill said. Fortunately for them,
(06:13):
you know, they make a good product, and there were
enough people who still rallied around the brand, and they
found themselves in nineteen ninety nine celebrating their fiftieth anniversary,
and by that point in time they had really cemented
their place both in firearms history and in American history.
You know, quite literally, tens of millions of gun owners
(06:34):
had Ruger firearms in the field, hunting, sitting in their
home gun safes, out on the range with their kids,
sitting in the gun rack, in their trucks. You know,
Ruger firearms were everywhere. And over the years, Bill Ruger
had the opportunity to buy a whole bunch of other companies.
Even if you don't know firearms, you still know names
(06:55):
like Colt Smith and Weston, Remington and Winchester. He had
the opportunity to buy all of those companies and didn't.
And it wasn't just gun companies. Beyond that, he had
the opportunity to buy both Maserati, the sports car company,
and Harley Davidson, the iconic motorcycle company. Instead, he chose
(07:15):
to focus on his guns. By two thousand, Bill was
eighty four years old and he decided it was finally
time to retire. Now, retirement was kind of an odd
thing for Bill. In nineteen ninety two, he did an
interview with Forbes magazine when he told him that he
could never retire because he'd never done a god day's
(07:37):
work in his life, So how can you retire if
you've never worked. Nonetheless, he did retire and his son
took over as chairman and CEO of the company. Bill
had also said around that same time that if you rest,
you rust, and so that's why he tried to keep
so active, and unfortunately retirement meant rest, and it meant rust.
(08:01):
So Bill Ruger died in two thousand and two, having
spent fifty three years involved in the operations of the
company that he helped found, and his son, Bill Ruger Junior,
passed away in twenty eighteen. After working for his father's
company for forty two years. He retired in two thousand
and six, and so even though there's been no direct
(08:23):
Ruger descendant running the company in more than a decade,
they are definitely one of the big players on the
block in terms of American firearms. The Ruger Standard pistol
that they initially created back in nineteen forty nine lives
on today in a variant known as the Mark four,
and like the previous three versions, it maintains all of
(08:45):
the classic appeal and lines of the standard, but it
just kind of updates the platform for today's market. Most importantly, however,
it solves the difficulty of takedown and reassembly. So now
that Bill is spending all of his time up above
with God, he was finally able to have God show
him how to put the pistol back together. And so
(09:07):
now that the Mark four has ironed out all the
kinks in the design, the gun can remain at the
forefront as an incredibly popular gun for people to learn
how to shoot on both young and old, beginner and
seasoned pros alike. The humble startup that consisted of just
a few guys in a red barn now has more
(09:28):
than eighteen hundred employees. They're still headquartered in Connecticut, but
now they've got five factories throughout the country. Alexander Sturm's
fifty thousand dollars investment really paid off. The company today
is worth nine hundred and forty million dollars. And given
their success, I think it's safe to say that mister
(09:49):
Sterm and mister Ruger would have big smiles on their
faces if they could see where their company is at today.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
And a very special thanks to Logan Metish. Logan is
a firearms historian and museum professional who runs High Caliber
History LLC. And my goodness, what a story. Eighteen hundred
employees off a fifty thousand dollars loan. Two guys just well,
never working a minute in their lives, they probably felt.
And so many people who work for themselves, that's why
(10:17):
they do it, because they have something special they want
to do. And my goodness, anyone who owns weapons, who
loves firearms and responsible firearm ownership is a big deal.
That he testified and went public on magazine capacity, My goodness,
that took a lot of courage to do, and he
did it. Ruger, the great American gun manufacturer. Their story
(10:40):
here on now American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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