New 300 H&H Single Shot

[gandydancer]

I have heard of Ruger salt wood many years ago but never seen any. Browning YES on their little 22 carbine. the wood was beautiful the rifle was junk. sat in a box for many years, man dies lady tried to sell it to me.what she had was firewood and a boat anchor. I did not even want it for parts, what a shame.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive got more ruger firearms then all others combined and I kind of chuckle at some of the ruger fans who swear allegance to them. Some act like cult members there so adamant in there praise for ruger. Id say if ruger sold me a salt stocked gun it would not even make the top ten of them passing off defective things on me. I once had a vaquero that the top strap grove went from the right rear corner of the top strap to the front left corner. Ive also had guns that were brand new and would fire. I dont think anyone accused ruger of intentionaly passing off anything. Could they possibly have gotten some bad blanks and they found there way to customers. You bet.

[Ragnarok]

Personaly..I would say my Ruger No.1 is a fluke.

The rifle dates to like 1980 or 1981...should be well out of the saltwood timeframe.

Is it really a saltwood stock or bluing salts?...Hmmm..I'm going to have to say saltwood stock. Reason being the buttpad screws were rusty too....and the degree of the rust in a couple spots on the right side..extreme and deep pits left in these two places...

Watch the videos on saltwood in the gunsmith fellows site at the links listed on the first page here. The little 28ga O/U shotgun he's using as a 'saltwood' demonstrater very closely parallels my Ruger.

I'll get some pics this week if I can get my kid to do it..I ain't real good at online pic-posting!

Another thing...I am not claiming that Ruger is foisting inferior products off on an unsuspecting public!!..Don't know where Mr Humble gets that!

I'm claiming Ruger got a bad piece of wood...and after my experience with my Ruger No1...I would check any other older Ruger for a similiar condition....that's all I ever tried to state.

Mr humble must think I hate Rugers or whatever...no..not so. I just want to make people aware that saltwood ain't just a Browning issue...it could be nearly anybody's issue.

[Mr Humble]

No I don't think nor did I say that you hate Rugers. Conjuring up motives to discredit me and mask your apparent inability to offer any proof based on real science does not advance the discussion one iota. All I requested was some real evidence.
A rusty screw does not a saltwood stock make. I have owned quite a few 99s, 94s, 86s, M54s & M70s that were hunted in the snow and rain. They (and most other rifles) never sealed the wood where it met the buttplate. You can find lots of guns hunted in rain and snow, leaned up against trees in 6" of snow and so on. Many have rusty buttplates, screws and even wood discoloration from "rising damp" being sucked up into the stock. When you get the wood tested by chemical analysis and can get Ruger to verify that it is in fact a Ruger stock then I'll be convinced. Until then, it's just a best guess. If you ever saw a Midas Grade Browning O/U or an Olympian Grade Safari with real saltwood issues you would see a real horror story. Way, Way past a rusty screw.

As for the other rant on Ruger revolvers, it's off topic and does not belong on this thread.

I do not worship at the grave of Bill Ruger, but the firm has produced some really fine guns.
The original 22 Semiauto pistol set the gunworld on its ear.
The No. 1 is without peer among single shots anywhere near it's price.
The 10-22 was and is a real breakthrough.
The 77 RSMs were Safari rilfes that could hold their head up anywhere
The first 77s (tang safe) were and are just wonderful rifles unlike most of the 77s that followed.
The single actions restarted a whole way of shooting and Colt has yet to catch up.
The new 380 w/laser sight or the 38 snubbie w/laser are both great guns and great values.
Most of the Ruger dumb stuff has had to do with silly "new" cartridges and jumping on the obsolete "scout rifle" bandwagon. (who would ever want to get into a fight with any bolt action rifle when ARs are available?)

I'll await the lab results on "saltwood Rugers".

[Haggway]

I have a few ruger single shots, and the only thing that I have had a problem with was some blueing salts under the front site band. That was a not a bad fix. Somthing like this can and will happen when you produce large quanities of items of any sort.

[Four Fingers of Death]

As Ragnarok said, "I will standby my assumption that Ruger put a saltwood stock on my rifle..and I'm sure it wasn't intentional on their part."

He felt that suppliers have slipped in dud stocks to get rid of them, sounds reasonable (not reasonable behaviour, but typical of a lot of 'dishonest if it suits me' businessmen.

[Mr Humble]

Been a long time since July and NO photos of the "saltwood Ruger" have been posted. IMHO that says a lot.
Having owned a saltwood FN actioned Weatherby 300 Weatherby magnum, I know all too well what it looks like and what it does to metal. Only a blind man could miss it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

until this thread I had never heard of saltwood stocks. Dumb luck I suppose.