I don't know that I would go that far. Rugers are not that bad. I mean they sell an awful lot of them for them to be crap after all. I would never tell someone "oh, don't buy that 10/22 it is a piece of junk and you can't hit anything with it!". That simply isn't true. However when someone asks which I prefer based on MY experiences I like the marlin if you are talking out of the box performance. Ruger always seems sort of hit miss on accuracy, the 17HMRs are the same way from what I read.

You make is sound like the ruger is the biggest POS ever made, and it simply is not the truth and pretty everyone knows that.

I honestly think you would be better served looking at decent bolt actions over any of the semi autos. You will get more gun for the money, you just won't be able to spit shells out as fast, which really serves no purpose. You can get a savage .22 with an accutrigger and bull barrel for a pretty decent price.

I also used to own a remington viper and it wasn't that bad. Not the best .22 I have owned, but I didn't hate it. It functioned as was fairly accurate.

One of the most accurate .22's I have owned out of the box was a Henry lever action, and it had a NASTY trigger on it. But it would shoot any shell I put in it and shoot most of them really well.

Paul