Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Ruger 1B vs Browning 1885 in 22 Hornet

Nice to see you post again! hope all is well.

Mine is a Winny low wall Hornet and it do shoot! I had a Lee Shaver trigger job ($35.00) and it made a whale of a difference. Win. have fair wood and wood finish compared to the Brow. but again it does shoot gophers by the bucketfull, recommend you DBC the barrel right away.-Muddy

I only have one Browning 1885, but I have (3) Ruger #1s.

The 1885 requires the hammer to be cocked.
The 1885 requires the case to be partially manually extracted.
A big scope eyepiece gets a little in the way of cocking the 1885.

That means that from a prone position with an ammo belt cheek rest, the Ruger #1 can be fired fast like a semi auto, and the Browning 1885 cannot.

Both are beautifully machined.
Both are more accurate than I expected.
Both are a joy to own.

Then there are fools like me that are waiting for my Lyman Ideal Sharps in 22 Hornet to arrive and hope that it was the right choice.

My only complaint of the Browning is like Clarkm said, the Browning partially extracts the empty case, on a scoped rifle it would be nice to have the empty tossed away from the chamber.
Browning claims the trigger can be turned from 3.5 to 5 pounds, there is a smaller range than that on mine starting at #5, I do have an article writing how easily the Browning trigger can be adjusted with a 7mm set screw

You guys are not being helpful. Now I'm looking at 1885's and #1's for a small caliber gun and we don't even have ground squirrels here in OK...

carry on, please.

I can hook you up with a Ruger in Hornet or 223

If my Browning 1885 is nicer than my Ruger #1V, it is splitting hairs at near perfection.

The 1885 with open hammer is not going to shoot as fast as the #1V, especially with the scope in the way of the thumb reaching for the hammer or the barely extracted case.

If there is little chance of ever needing a follow up shot, get the 1885, by a hair.

I've got the same. I need to take it to Lee, as he is local to me. Wood is definitely plain on mine. What bullets are you shooting in yours?

Cheesy, Glad to hear from ya. I shoot mostly tipped 40 gr. Varmageddon's or V-max/N. BT's and always 13 gr. LG and CCI 450's, MD's load. I go to MT every year around Memorial day for a week's goph. shooting (about a thousand rnds in the hornet + several in other guns). When my ship comes in I'll get it barreled to a 17-Hornet of some sort for more speed and less recoil. I doubt that it would shoot much better though. Again get Lee's trigger job and DBC the barrel!-Muddy