How much of an accuracy gamble is a new No.1 ? 50/50?

Bought a #1 S in 45-70 just over a year ago and it puts 5 rounds in one ping pong ball sized hole at 50 and 100 yards. That with factory Hornady FTX stuff.

No matter what style you buy, they are all gambles. Some more than others. Its good we have some tricks to improve on what comes out of the box.

In recent years I would say 50/50--and the incidence of really bad accuracy out of the box is much lower. I have also found the recent No. 1's much easier to fix.

I've owned six #1s I over the years. The oldest dates back to 1968, and the rest date mid 80's or newer. The latest I bought new less than a year ago - although I think it was sitting on a distributor's shelf for a while because the falling block is blued on top instead of stainless. The calibers ranged from a #1V in .223 through to a #1H in .375 H&H. In between was a 25/06, 7x57, 30/06 and .338 Win. Mag.

The worse shooting of the group will do 1 1/2" with most anything, but an inch or better with only a select few handloads. The other five will (or did) shoot an inch or better with 4 of 5 being real barn burners at times.

A sample of six is hardly grounds for an accuracy guarantee, but it's enough to remove any worry from my mind about buying a new #1 and getting it to shoot. Ordering blind, I would personally worry more about getting stuck with power pole looking walnut than a lemon shooter.

Like AZ, my sample group is pretty small, having owned/shot only five No.1's. All were/are of the blue/walnut/Henry forearm variety.

.22 Hornet was a sub minute rifle, and closer to 1/2MOA. Bought it used.

7x57 was bought used, but unfired. It was a dog....minute of hat. The factory re-barreled it for free, and it is now a fine 1-2MOA hunting rifle.

9.3x74R bought NIB. Shoots just about everything you stuff in it, into 1 to 1-1/2 MOA. One of my absolute favorite rifles of all time.

450-400 3" Also new. Only have about a hundred rounds through it, but oh it will shoot! Has already shot sub MOA groups during load workup.

.458 Win Mag(now a 450 #2 project) bought used. A 1 MOA rifle. Great shooter.

I can't count the 22 rimfire project, as I haven't fired it yet.

Their worth the gamble...to me.

Jeff

The worst one I have owned was a .375 H&H, which I think was more a matter of controlling recoil than anything. The last load I worked up for it, was about 1.25" at 100 yards, with 260 Noslers and Varget.

I have owned six over the years, 4 B's, the V .22-250 in my avatar, and the .375.

I'm hankering fer a .270 Weatherby, myself...

Now that the current No 1s don't have weird chambering issues like the long throats in the 7 x57 rifles, etc I'd say you will be fine. The lack of a magazine will allow you to seat bullets out do deal with the freebore in the Weahterby chambers if you must to get the groups tighter.

Barrels are barrels whether they are screw into a No 1 reciever or any bolt action. The barrels respond well to the SAME tuning and bedding techiques one would use on any bolt rifle .Due to the forarm hanger on the No 1 action you have the option of free floating the barrel ,unlike many 19th century Single shot designs.

I guess I have been really lucky with no 1 rifles. I bought my first Ruger No 1 31 years ago. I have owned them from every era of production. IMHO they have been no harder to get to shoot under MOA than an out of the box Winchester m70.


Merely by tuning the barrel bedding a bit and working up decent handloads,I have never had a big came cartridge Chambered No 1 I could not get to consistently put 3 shots into 1 moa. I have never had a varmint chambered no. 1.I could not get down to 1/2 for three shots..


Yes, some of them have been easier to get to shoot than others but all responded with no more than a half dozen load combos tried in them.


It's all pretty simple but folks all seem to be befuddled by the two piece stocks and swayed by the "Rugers are not accurate" BS..

A lot of it is between their ears.

I have 30 or so #1s from .204 Ruger to .375 H&H. (My darkest secret-- I have sold off 3 of them including ... A .243 B early 80s vintage that was a pig in terms of eating copper and spraying bullets. An RSI with nice wood that I sold -- twice -- finally when I just decided to stick with the longer guns. And a 223 B when a Campfire buddy wanted one and I realized I was never going to use mine.

My experiences support MD's point strongly. I'd say that almost all my newer black pad #1s shoot acceptably to great out of the box. (They still all need trigger work IMO, the boomers need a serious recoil pad to boot, and on the wood syocked moels I seal the stocks to assure wood warp in local hunidity shifts doesn't move the POI around.)

The older guns are a crap shoot. But foreend free-floating and finding the right round usually makes them into solid performers.

1B

I'm no expert but here's my experience;

I have three Ruger #1's and was worried before I ever bought the first one 14 years ago because of all I have read about the accuracy problems. Maybe I just got lucky three times but I haven't had a problem with any of them.

Ruger #1B in .223 bought new in 1996 is still the most accurate rifle I have ever fired. I have a four shot group I fired at measured 200 yards that measured 3/8". No it doesn't do this everytime, as a matter of fact I was suprised I could do it even if the rifle could but it will consistently shoot 1/2-3/4" for five shots at 100. Many coyotes fell to this rifle in college.

Ruger #1 Tropical .375 H&H bough about 5 years ago used with red recoil pad if that matters to you. Shoots anything I put through it into 1.5" or better.

Ruger #1AH 25-06 Lipsey's Exclusive. Just got it used recently from DaveH on here. I actually haven't shot it yet and it's killing me but gotta get some brass soon. Dave told me that it shot real well when he shot it and he seems like a straight up guy so I'm sure it will shoot good too.

Just my .02 cents but I think like many things your read on forums or even in gun mags, the "experts" that say Ruger #1's aren't accurate have never shot one and are just rambling about something they heard someone else say. I'm sure there are inaccurate #1's out there as there are with anything but I personally don't think it's the norm. Maybe I'm just lucky.

On the other hand, everyone rants about how accurate Remington 700's are and the first one I bought is the most inaccurate big game rifle I have and I've done everything short of rebarreling it with no improvement. Just goes to show that you can get a lemon with anything.

Now I want a #1RSI....love em

mnimrod

Oh yeah, forgot to add that I haven't done anything to my rifles, no forearm mods or hanger screws. Just tighten and shoot.

mnimrod45

Maybe I am just lucky but I never ever had a #1 (1v 1b 1h etc) that did not shoot under 1 MOA

For me it is 3 good out of 4. A .338 was excellent, 45-70 is good, a .270 I-A is pretty good (1.25 to 1.5 inch with several loads) but the 30-06 I-A failed everything I tried, forend bedding and Hicks accurizer too. It finally went down the road. The number 1's are so appealing that I think they are worth the risk.

I've only had my first NO 1 for a couple weeks now and still am working on loads for it. Its a 22-250 Varminter and seems to like H-380.

[img:center][/img]


[img:center][/img]

[img:center][/img]

4 of those 5 are about as tight as I had w/two 700 VS 220 Swifts in the past, they would drill 1/2-5/8" 5shot groups w/boring monotony using 38.5 4064 and 55 Sierra's IIRC. A VSSF Swift did a .297 for me.....

Nothing wrong w/that 22-250. NUTHIN!

Agree w/you Jim, many who knock No. 1's have no/little experience.

I had a 270 B model, shot 1.5" after bedding the hanger and adjusting the trigger. Since, a 25-06 B, an 243 A model, and 243 RSI all shot sub moa out the box. The 1a desired a Pac-Nor 3 groove Poly 6BR bbl and one morning I shot a sub half inch group thanks in part to the Kepplinger trigger, and a crystal clear 4-16x40 4200....... at 330 yds. The 105s were like laser guided missiles Maybe I got lucky....or maybe all the components did their job well inc. the lowly No. 1 action!

I laugh at those who knock the No. 1's, as I have outshot full blow custom bolts when you look at groups. Indeed, having a group sub 1/2" at 330 yds put that #1 in the 1's that day, and all I could do was SMILE!

They can/do/will hold their own, unless you have a bedding issue IMHO. That 270 I might add was mfg. PRIOR to Ruger's now 'in-house' hammer forged bbl mfg. FWIW.

OH, btw, fwiw, my latest, a 6.5x55 K1-A put 3 130 ABs in 1.1" at 200 yds w/a 6x42 that had a #4 reticle....covered .7 at 100 if I remember the specs....but point is the latest Rugers are doing fine for hunting accuracy IME. As good and often better than I hold/squeeze. YMMV

6.5 BR et al...

Affer pondering it a bit.. I did not want to sound TOO dismissive of anyone who has atually had accuracy problems with the no.1 in the past.

Early no 1 barrels were sourced from Douglas and Wilson and the quality varied -mostly the Wilsons of the 1970s and 1980s.

Some no 1 rifles also had funky chambers with long throsts in some calibers like the 7x57.

The third thing was/is the quarter rib models sometimes had VERY tight tolerances between the recoil posts and mounting screws . When the barrel would get hot under long shot strings the barrel expansion would "pinch" the rib and it sometimes did weird things to accuracy.

Also, the pressure points in the No1 forend also created a lot of vertical stringing unless it was corrected. Many Ruger No 1 rifles are consistent "two shot groupers" right out of the box. They will poke the First to rounds in a VERY tight group, often touching and then the 3rd,4th and 5th shots are all over the place.

I think the pressure points in those forends are part of that, but other things like the rib consrtiction and other things may be to blame as well.

And finally , the Ruger buttstock , like ALL throughbolt two peice stocks, accentuates recoil. There is NO flex in the stocks at all. They are under compresion due to the through- bolt and very rigid. Along with the brick like factory recoil pads that means in larger calibers, they are not easy to shoot well for some due to the recoil. A good recoild pad helps a lot, though..


Like I said, most of those problems are no harder to correct than any average bolt gun, but it seems that many folks get bambozzled by the old wives tales about "innaccurate two peice stocks", or the "bad no 1 triggers" or the "Slow lock time" etc etc . Going in, they simply DO NOT have a postive mind set to allow the gun to shoot well by working through any tuning as they would with any bolt gun.

And that DOES matter. A lot of our shooting results on the target AND how we interpret them are much more controlled by our own concerns and prejudises than we would like to believe.

Jim62,

Nice post.

1B

Thank you 1B..

I have found my posts are generally "nicer" when I try to BE NICE...LOL

Doesn't everyone?

1B

Al but one!

Doc

I bought a #1 varmint model years ago....6mm Rem....absolutely beautiful rifle.

Best groups I could get was slightly under 3" at 100 yards.....So I packed up and shipped it back to Ruger.

Weeks later it came back to me and again it shot about 2 1/2" groups at the best.....Off again to Ruger and weeks later it again came back.....still shooting over 2" at best.....mind you, this was sold as a varmint rifle with heavy varmint barrel.

I was pissed but contained my self and got on the phone with Ruger....contained but insistant on information.....What ammo or loads was being shot to test the accuracy.....no one could tell me.... Well then what is their standard of accuracy that they repair to.....I stood firm on this and was eventually told that the gun was considered adequate if it shot 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards!

I'd had trouble with two M-77 rifles prior to this.....anyone wonder why there are no Ruger long guns in this house.....?

Well the gamble paid off. This 3 shot group is Federal Power-Shok 150 gr. in .300 Win Mag. I picked up a Stainless No.1 the other day. The second target is a Browning BLR in .308 Win shooting Federal Power-Shok 150 gr.


With some load development this might get even better!!!

Ruger No.1


Browning BLR

Big Woop is right on the money! I have too many #1's and some shoot bug holes and others take alot of work and effort to get them to shoot at all. But that said, once you get one that does shoot you are in big trouble cause the #1's have a way high cool factor.

Guys, cannot tell you how pleased I was when my OUT THE BOX 1A 243 shot a 3/8" group in the first few groups I shot after zeroing a 2.5-8 Leupy....

AND to top that off, do you know I immediately sent it to Chris at Pac-Nor to put on a 6BR bbl! Crazy, but, I HAD to have a BR and Chris did not disappoint, 3 groove Poly SM and boy did it shoot!

Yes, I realize and cringe when I hear of stories like Vapodog, just no excuse, nor explanation. Somewhere perhaps on another forum it was said when you do a custom re-bbl for a #1, odds are it may perhaps turn out to be a very good shooter, if that action had proven itself before. May or may not be truth in that I don't know, but I do have confidence in Ruger mfg. bbls that are now done in-house. Bedding and hanger tension issues perhaps come to play when those atypical problematic #1s show up. I also read there can be tension in the scope rib in some guns. I am not educated/experienced enough to say, but perhaps it is so. Agree that a good shooting #1 is sweet indeed.

Great start for the Ruger #1 ...how are your new Marlins shooting?

Doc

I have 10 or so Marlins most new and a few old. The worst is 1 1/4" 3 shot group at 100 yards. I am quite pleased!!!

I have owned around 60 #1's in the last 30 some odd years, Some were kept a while and some ended up being trade bait. One of the few that I'm actually sorry that I sold was the very 1st one... A 1-V in 7mm Mag.

Out of all the ones I've owned, I can documet all but two with the serial #'s.

The very worst one accuracy wise, was what I thought was a 1-AB in .270 Win. But actually turned out to be a 1-B with the bbl cut to 22". Best it would do was ~ 2" @ the proveribial 100 yd range. I hunted it one year (1992, IIRC) and it went down the road.

The one thing I have found is that there is no law about accuracy. Like any other rifle, you get what you get. If you want better, you have to work for it. Sometimes I'm willing and sometimes not. If the rifle in question is a favorite, (weight or handling...), I'm a lot more willing to work with it. If I'm ambivilent about it, it's lots more likely to take a hike at the 1st opportunity. Nowadays, I'm a lot more ambivilent about the 1-B models. For my tastes; they are too long and too heavy. I think I am down to 4 1-B's at the moment. and only two of them retain their 26" bbls...

The 218 Bee, and the "Bob" have been abbreviated to 23 5/8".

After I work with the 6.5x64 Brenneke a bit more, If I learn to like it, it will likely get the same treatment. (I don't even want to know what 1-B thinks of me after this treatment...)

I don't know how I'm going to manage it, but the elusive K-1A in .250 Sav seems to becoming a reality this year. I MUST have one! And the 1-A in .303 seems promising... Gotta have one of those as well...

And being a dyed-in-the-wool 6.5 looney... I NEED a .264 Win mag... I don't know how I'm going to facilitate the purchase of 3 new #1's in the next few months, but I'll figure something out.

But I don't think that the #1 is any more of a gamble accuracy wise that any other rifle. You just need to be willing to work for it!

Edw

It Tikka made a single shot, then you would have a rifle that was not a gamble. Too bad, but that is "the rest of the story".

Where'd you hear that? Any word on the timing of the release?

Three point bedding system on the forearm
trigger job
remove the ejector spring

Get a recent #1 in Stainless

Older guns that have tight and loose spots in the barrel are very hard to get to agg under 1 1/2".

Find a gunsmith that specializes in #1's.

I have 3 #1's and a #3. Not benchrest accuracy, but to be fair, I have not "tuned" them, either the loads, the triggers, or the bedding. I expect them to do a lot better when I do. I have pictures of groups shot with the 25-06 and 270's and can post them later. Both groups are first attempts. The 270 1-KB? SS was the first time out of the box recently purchased new. The 25-06 1-B BW I purchased in the mid 80's used. The #3 is a used Hornet, also of unknown history. The Hornet is a shooter, not great but good enough, again I have not tried to tune loads for it. I have not yet taken the 3rd #1 SS .243 out to the range so it is an unknown quantity. FWIW, IME I find the #1's accuracy to be on par with other manufacturers I have tried, and better than a few individual rifles from other manufacturers.

IMHO that depends on how stringent your accuracy demands are.

My first couple didn't do very well. One was a blued .375 H&H, probably early 1980s manufacture since I'd seen it on the gunshop shelf for a couple years and I bought it in 1987.

The next was a .300 Win Mag #1 V I bought used. The scope base block had been shimmed and it had a trigger shoe on it ... probably should have taken a clue and not bought it. Point of aim shifted roughly 8 MOA ... or maybe that was 12 MOA, but certainly not less than 8 MOA ... as the barrel heated. At any particular temperature, it shot very well indeed, it just moved a lot. If you shot 10 consecutive 10 shot groups starting with a cold barrel and shooting in the same cadence, all of the first shots made one nice group, all of the second shots made another nice group about 2 inches higher, all the third shots made a nice group 1.5 inches higher yet ... and so on. It was a little booger. I finally sold it. There weren't very many #1Vs in .300 win mag made, hopefully whoever bought it wanted it as a collector item and not a shooter.

I think my next one was a #1B in .25-'06. It didn't shoot very well. With varmint bullets it shot softball sized groups, would have been adequate for deer if those had been hunting bullets. With game bullets it was truly aweful, groups went a foot or more. I fought it for about a year.

Then I took a break from #1s.

The next after I came back was a #1V in .220 Swift. With a little load work, a tension screw between the forend and barrel, and messing with bedding, I got it down around MOA. One day after I'd had it a year or so and shot it quite a bit, I noticed a "jump" as I pushed a patch down the barrel. Repeated. Yep, a loose spot in the rifling. That was just the best it would do. Now I wish I'd rebarrelled it, but I didn't.

Then I got a stainless .375 #1 H. That was a good shooter. It started out stringing vertically but shooting a narrow group so I had my gunsmith install a forend hanger screw and after that it dropped down so it'd reliably shoot .75" or better for 3 shots hot, cold, or mixed. That was good.

So ... that last one was my success.

I only got rid of it 'cause one day at the range the toe of the stock got down in the crack by the base of my collar bone and when the shot went off, something crunched. I was DOWN, on the ground, crawling on all fours trying not to puke within a half second. Crushed a tendon I think. I couldn't shoulder any rifle, not even a .22, for a couple months. I sold it. Kinda wish I'd kept it and just upgraded the recoil pad, but done is done is gone is sold.

That was about 2 years after stainless appeared in the catalog. I haven't had one since. I like them but given my experiences I can't rationalize spending that much when I've had 4-5 bad ones and only 1 good one.

Tom

After reading this post I went and dragged my 1B in 22.250 out of the gun safe where it had sat for the past five years for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons was that when I got it I was using 55gn Win factory ammunition and it was giving 3" groups at 100m and at that time I didn't have the time or spare cash to find out what was wrong with it.
Anyway armed with a selection of various factory loads I headed up to the range last Sunday. Win factory loads still shot 3" groups, Highland ammunition shot 1.5" groups but Fed factory loads shot 1" groups. Happy days.
Next step will be working up handloads for it and I expect there will be highs and lows working out a good powder/projectile combination. It is good to know that if stuck I can grab a couple of boxes of Fed ammo to get me out of trouble if I get stuck.
I intend to use it as my spotlighting rig and will take it away with me next month and give it a good workout in the field.
I am glad that I hung onto the rifle and didn't sell it off a couple of years ago when I had the chance.
And when the barrel is shot out I can re-barrel it to a 9.3x62 and have a real classic calibre.

Wantok..

Well ,it looks like your rifle is just ammo sensitive..And perhaps you've got a crappy box of Win factory loads as well..LOL Good to hear it shoots well after giving it another chance.

If you want to investigate it's potential a bit further.
do this realativley easy experiment. Temporarily free float the barrel.

Take the forend off the gun and note the contact areas - three points along the forend hanger. Take a peice of plastic shim stock- (an old plastic credit/ bank card works well) and cut a few small shims to put on those spots. If you are carefull inserting the forend they should stay in place without any adhesive, but it they don't, either rubber contact cemment or tape will help.

Putt the forend back on and you should see the fooend is lifted a bit downward away for the barrel now. It should be pretty much free floated.

Go shoot some groups then to see if your gun likes that better.. It may not shoot marketly tighter groups, but most likely there will be less verticle string after the first few shots.

If it does, I would go back, bed the contact points on the forend with a little epoxy and once that is done carfeully sand out the bedding pad at the tip and add a little clearance all along the barrel.

Who knows? You might have a 1/2" rifle before when it's all over!

One thing is for sure, groups shooting aside, in any wood stocked rifle with a floated barrel is going to maintain it's POI more consistent over time all other things being equal...