Ruger Red Label

The Ruger Red Label is an over and under shotgun built by Sturm, Ruger & Co.. It came about when William B. Ruger wanted to introduce an American made over and under shotgun to the US shooting public.

History
The Red Label was introduced in 1977 in 20 Gauge with a 26" barrel. In 1979, Ruger being to offer the Red Label in 12 Gauge and eventually a scaled-down version in 28 Gauge. The design was born of William B. Ruger's desire to produce a quality US made over and under shotgun. In order to achieve this and put quality on par with European hand-made shotguns, Ruger invested in expensive machinery to do most of the work.

Design
The Red Label has a stainless steel receiver and two hammer forged barrels. The shooter can determine which barrel to fire by means of a selector mounted on the tang. The front sight is typically a brass bead. Most Red Labels are tapped to accept choke tubes for various purposes. The butt stock and forend are oil-finished American walnut with checkering on the grip and forend.

The Red Label is primarily used as a sporting shotgun for waterfowling, upland game hunting as well as in skeet and sporting clays.

Criticism
Critics of the Red Label mostly complain about the weight of the shotgun or the poor fitting of the metal to wood.