I'm getting too old to waste time on fussy rifles.
Problem is I have always liked single shots, Rugers in particular. As a kid, I lusted after some of Wilbur Hauck's rifles , and drooled over pictures of Winchester High Wall varmint rifles, all sadly unobtainable on a lawn mower's income. I was in college when Ruger came out with the Number 1, and I remember just staring at the first advertisement for them in the American Rifleman. Two years after graduation I had my first Number 1....a 1B in .22-250. By then I was a dedicated woodchuck hunter and budding benchrest shooter. With its 2" groups,that rifle was good for neither pursuit.I juggled loads and tinkered with the bedding...all to no avail. That was 45 years ago. I have owned several since then...but buying one has always been a bit of a crap shot.
From what I am reading here it looks like a red pad vs. black pad thing. I don't know at which point Ruger switched to the black pad and whether it was precisely contemporaneous with the switch to the in-house barrels. But I would be nervous buying one of the older red pad rifles. I suspect the new 7mm-08 may end up in the gunsafe by the end of the weekend.
