Its sad that Bill is gone. His tenure was the golden age of Ruger. Ruger today produces, at best, mediocre guns of moderate fit and finish and yet they ask ridiculous prices for them. An M77 costs the same as a Winchester M70 yet the M70 is miles ahead of a Hawkeye (the Hawkeye is just a MKII wannabe). For $1,200 give me an M70 everytime. And thats coming from a guy who owns a MKII, a hawkeye guide gun and have owned dozens of ruger rifles and pistols. Its sad, but it comes from hiring a bunch of unskilled laborers to run CNC machines and very few of them have a concept/understanding of what makes a rifle good or quality.
When Rigby starts making an AR, the days of classic gunmaking will be truly dead.