ORIGINAL: saladin
i've always had a gut feel that rugers problems lie with the barrels, rather than with particular models.
Exactly, especially with the earlier models that used used Wilson and Douglas barrels (up to '81 or '83) before Ruger started making their own. Some of them were fine....some terrible. I have to think that's where a lot of the very bad reports started. Not that a Ruger barrel will necessarily print clover leafs

but it's a better place to start.