Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Installing a Kepplinger trigger in Ruger No. 1

Anyone done it? Is it possible to do for an amateur gunsmith like me, or is it a professional gunsmithing job?

This is my own deer rifle, a .243 done years ago by the Indiana artist Jack Haugh. A few years ago I got tired of fighting with the Ruger trigger and ordered a Kepplinger. This gun is too precious to me to even try installing it myself. I had a pro do it and have very happy with the results.

+1

Like Dick Wright, I also had my gunsmith (a "pro") install the Kepplinger Single-Set Trigger on my #1 RSI and am very happy with it.

My gunsmith set the regular trigger let-off at slightly less than 3 lbs... and the "set" let-off at just a half ounce or so.

Accuracy definitely improved after the Kepplinger was installed and as long as I let the short, thin barrel cool down some between shots, the sweet little rifle in 7x57mm now shoots 3-shot groups into a bit less than a 1-inch at 100 yards with my hand-loads.

The Kepplinger set trigger is a "natural" with the Ruger #1 rifle.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

They are not "hard" to install, as such, if you follow the instructions and if you have worked on (i.e. removed) the Ruger triggers before,

BUT, that assumes the the pin at the rear of the action that holds the safety transfer bar and safety spring will come out. This pin must be removed in order for the Kepplinger to be installed. I've tired to remove this pin on several actions and it simply won't move; almost like it was cast in place.

On the #3 custom I finally installed my Kepplinger on, the pin came right out (as it should).

Drop Dirtfarmer a PM. He has experience with the Kepplinger trigger......

I have installed 3 so far. A good set of push pins and a non marring bench block help. It has been several years now and cannot remember names for all the internal Ruger parts but there is a bar on which the top bow of the Kepplinger trigger will bear on in a rotating motion. I found if you polish some of roughness off this contact area it improves the unset trigger pull.

It is a relatively easy job, just follow the instructions.

I read recently that Kepplinger no longer made these triggers. I don't know if it was here or over on Accurate Reloading.

Anyway, this is not true. I ordered one from Brownells a short while ago and just got an email that said my trigger had been shipped.

I found a No. 1 action for a very reasonable price this summer and have been collecting parts. After deer season I am going to make a nice little .222 varmint rifle, one light enough to carry. I really lucked out a couple of weeks ago and got a 8X Unertl at a gun show that is old, aproximately 1940's vintage with 100% bluing.

A year from now, after I get the stock done, I will have a nice little retro varmint rifle.

FWIW my new Kepplinger trigger arrived yesterday in the mail. Looks the same as the old one.

Rumors of the demise of these triggers are not true.

The installation instructions were mimeographed on a machine from Hitler's bunker. Several generations of copying later, it could not be read, until one day, Keplinger's dog peed on the instructions. Keplinger held the paper up to the light, and said, "Good enough for Brownells!"



Then I took this picture and included some text.



Then I took this pic.

Then in 2007 I lost the 223 rifle somewhere near Bonanza Oregon in a snowstorm.
Hitler's curse was back.

Then I bought .223 V..... it does not seem to need the Keplinger.

HAHAHAHAHA. Awesome!

Installation is simpler than the clutches in a four speed Hydro!
Actually, it's quite simple. I'm no gunsmith and I've done it. Try it. If you do you probably will succeed and congratulate yourself. Pull adjustment is simple too.

Jim

Resurrecting this post from several months ago.

Any of you fine gentlemen know where I can find a Keplinger trigger these days?

Dunno if still being made or Brownells had a stash.
My RSI could use some help.

I got mine from E A Brown co. Google EAB.

I had Jim Kobe install mine. The trigger was great. The #1 still did not shoot with a damn, so I sold it.

I had the half baked thought after installing a Kepplinger 9 years ago that one could make a much improved Ruger #1 trigger simply by drilling a hole in a piece of metal.

What got me thinking was the Kepplinger was so much better than before, even without using the "set" function.

Then I noticed how the stock #1 trigger had leverage going against it, and Kepplinger had leverage working for it, even without the "set" function.

Just an old half baked thought.... what the heck.

tag for later....