The butt stock and forend are oil-finished American walnut with machine cut checkering on the grip and forend. Early production models typically had fixed chokes but most Red Labels manufactured since the mid 1980s were tapped to accept screw in choke tubes for various purposes. The shooter could determine which barrel to fire by means of a selector mounted on the tang. Later models utilized a stainless steel receiver with hammer forged barrels. The Red Label originally featured a blued receiver. In order to achieve this and put quality on par with hand-made European shotguns, Ruger invested in expensive machinery to do most of the work. Ruger's desire to produce a quality US made over and under shotgun. In 1979, Ruger began to offer the Red Label in 12 Gauge and eventually a scaled-down version in 28 Gauge (1994). It remained in production for over three decades. The Red Label soon proved a hit with the American shooting public for its affordability, reliability, and handling. The Red Label was introduced in 1977 in 20 Gauge with a 26' barrel for a price of $480.00 (equal to $2,074.95 in 2018) At the time the Remington Model 3200 was the only other quality American Made over-under, and it cost nearly twice as much. By the 1970s the Belgian-made Browning Superposed, and other over and under shotguns imported from Europe had become so expensive that they were out of reach of most American shooters, and there were no domestically produced over and under shotguns that did not cost more. The Superposed became the first mass-produced Over/Under (O/U) shotgun. Unlike traditional side-by-side double barrel shotguns that have issues with aiming points and recoil, a shotgun with two barrels stacked one on top of the other offers a single sighting plane and lighter recoil. When the Browning Superposed was introduced in 1931, American sportsmen soon fell in love with the concept of a stacked barrel double gun.

Ruger red label manufacture date