I think the gen 1 are good rifles for the money. I own a few and they’ve been good to me, but Ruger will never top the M-77 MKII line. That was their peak.
Right the gen 1 are great budget intro rifles… I think the newer Ruger version kinda is trying to play outta its league and not doing well… they did a couple changes and call them “custom jobs” nothing fancy except changes in production line lol