I mentioned a couple posts ago that I have a Number 1 in .45-70 along with an older Marlin. I shot them a lot back in the 70's and early 80's. I still have them, but don't shoot them much any more. Frankly, I got tired of getting kicked out from under my hat with the heavy loads. Elmer Keith's old load of a 400 grain bullet and 53 grains of 3031 shot well. But damn, it kicked. No wonder the old boy used to write about getting a "gun headache." Just looked and I can't find my chrono records on that one but it was right around 1800 fps if I remember. Out of those light rifles it was like making love to a porupine -- satisfying but it hurt, especially out of the Marlin. Well, I figured that you really don't have a set of cajones until you get up to the 500 grain bullets. So I played around with 500 grain Hornadys and stiff loads of 3031 out of the 1-S. These ran over the screens at an honest 1800 fps. Talk about recoil!
After playing with those kind of loads for a few years, I pretty much gave up on the 400 and 500 grain bullets as being too much of a good thing and standardized on the 300 grain bullet -- Hornady, Remington, Sierra -- wtih 48 grains of IMR 4198. These clocked right at 1950 fps according to my notes and were a whole lot more pleasant to shoot. But I missed the heavy bullets, but I just didn't want to deal with the rcoil any longer. It's probably an age thing, but getting the crap kicked out of me, my hat knocked off and my shooting glasses dumped on the ground every time I pulled the trigger is not my idea of fun anymore.
At about that time I was in one of the local gun emporiums when I came across a really nice Number 1 in .458. It occurred to me that this might be the ultimate .45-70. I bought it. And while I have pushed a few heavy loads through it, I mainly shoot .45-70 level loads through it. Damn thing shoots clover leaf groups with about anything I push through it. It's a whole lot more fun to shoot than the .45-70s and does just the same thing. Not exactly the lively handling rifle the 1-S is, but for those of us who love the .45-70 it's proven to be a good solution to the recoil issues that keep the .45-70's in the back of the safe.
I agree with the previous posters that the Ruger 1S is a nice handling rifle. If anything, the Number 1 in .458 is ponderous and a bit much for hauling around for long treks in the steep hills. Not sure I would compare the 1-S to a quail gun though -- unless you shoot 3" magnum slugs out of yours.
