Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Ruger No. 1 potential

Kind of in between on them.

1975 Ruger 1B in .25-06. It would consistently group 3 shots into 3/4" but also very consistently strung them from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock. Subsequent shots in a string would continue that pattern up and right but further out. But those first three were close together.

1982ish No. 3 in .223. Absolute best it would do is 1 1/2" groups and only with Sierra 52 grain match hollow points. Every other bullet tried would scatter into 2-3".

Mid 2000's .375 1S. Very accurate, could be counted on to put three or four shots sub-MOA with a couple of different bullets. Beat the snot out of me so about 20 shots in a day was all I could stand.

Late-mid 2000's 1A in 7x57. Gorgeous wood, shot raggedy hole groups. I took the forend off one day and after putting it back on it never shot that well again no matter how much I played with screw tension.

2018 No. 1S in .30-06. Meh. It would put 3-4 shots into maybe 1.25" or 1.5" but never under that. First one I got with a loose lever that rattled.

2018 No. 1A in .250 Savage. Another one with a loose lever. But accurate enough, it will shade MOA.


My bottom line, you don't buy a Ruger No. 1 for the ultimate in accuracy but for the panache. That said, they generally have adequate accuracy for hunting. Their best period was after Ruger started making their own barrels in the 90's up to maybe 2016, give or take a couple years, that's around when Ruger quality control starting going downhill across the board.



I never pass up an opportunity to show this off , but here's one example of what a 1A can be made into. This is the .250 Savage, it runs about 6 pounds and change as shown. Love this little rifle, rattley lever and all.