Ruger sent out an e-mail today to individuals who are on their registered e-mail list. The message they sent is pretty black-n-white. Ruger is going to discontinue their 77-Series of bolt-action rifles.

This may come as a surprise to many people, but Ruger has been slowly dwindling down their caliber offerings for this model over the years. The remaining calibers that could potentially be ordered or found at your local gun shop are:

• .17 HMR
• .17 WSM
• .17 Hornet
• .22 Long Rifle
• .22 WMR
• .22 Hornet
• .357 Magnum
• .44 Magnum

A lot of these caliber offerings are pretty niche when you look around the industry. Few companies are making Hornets or revolver calibers in bolt-action rifles anymore, and that is partly why the 77-Series is desirable to a lot of people.

The e-mail that you may or may have not seen was this:

I, for one, am a little disheartened seeing that these Mauser-action rifles will be going away. I would hope that some point in the future they either re-introduce them as a 2nd Generation or 2nd Series type of model or are replaced with an improved, comparable rifle. Their model No. 1 has dwindled over the years as well likely to the popularity and production ease of synthetic stock firearms.

Some of us out there, both young and old, still appreciate a rifle with a good, attractive-looking wood stock. We will see possibly this January if something has been planned all along or if this is just the end of the 77-Series rifle for Ruger.