Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Ruger No. 1 Accurizing Specialists...

Does anyone know a good reputable gunsmith who specializes in accurizing No. 1's? I'm not talking about rebarreling, that'll be a last resort. I'm talking about guys who specialize in doing all the little tricks to tune these things and get the most out of them.

Yes I know there are all sorts of things I can do myself including handloading. Just trying to find out if I can send mine to anyone who actually specializes in doing these things. Seems to me I heard of a couple that do but that was many years ago. If there are any close to southern NM that would be a bonus...

Thanks,

George

I don’t have any advice for you. My experience was not successful. I had four #1s . Three were heavy barrel varmints.
Two gunsmiths that are quite competent worked on them, not on the same rifle.
I was not successful in getting sub 1” accuracy..
I do reload and I spent a boat load trying to get them to shoot accurately.

I had a Varmint stainless in 22-250. The smith I used did great trigger work but everything else about him was smoke and mirror. Broadcreek I believe. I gave up since my rifle was never consistent. The scope position was a bitch and never liked the look of offset rings. Love the look but it just wasn't accurate enough for me.

I am betting that if you:

-relieve the fore end wood from touching the action and sides of the barrel
-remove a little wood at the fore end tip and add a dab of bedding material
-put a snug fitting piece of stiff plastic between the barrel and hanger
-and then do a little hand loading

You will get to 1 moa or less and will have a repeatable poi from session to session.
A trigger job after that would depend on last results and personal desires of performance.

Just my experience and opinions. BUT I am not a specialist. Just done a few for myself.
Tim

You left out one thing. The rib that the scope rings mount on can be a problem. Check the rib at the rear and see if there is some space between it and the receiver, If it makes contact with the receiver, as the barrel heats up and expands regardless of how slight, it can and will affect accuracy. Sometimes happens right after the first shot. It's a first class bitch removing it to remove a slight amount but sometimes it has to be done.
Paul B.

I'm surprised. I would've thought someone would know of a good smith out there who specializes on these things.

McGowen used to work on them, they still advertise Hi and Lo walls, rolling blocks, but not No. 1’s. After that you may check with the people over at assra.com or the Ruger forums.
Years back I had a smith install a hicks device, bed the forearm and float it. Even at that time it was tough to find a smith that wanted to work on them.
Good luck.

There are probably several reasons not many gunsmiths work on No. 1's:

1) Demand and hence production of No. 1's has dropped considerably.
2) The barrels and chambers on the No. 1's made since the early 1990's (when Ruger started hammer-forging their own barrels) are far more consistent, so "accurizing" often isn't necessary--and when it is, not much needs to be done.
3) Not many gunsmiths really understood them in the first place.

I have never tried to install a Hicks Device, but bedding a No. 1 is easy enough. Start by bedding the three points of contact between the hanger and forend. Then remove enough wood from the rear of the forend to allow it not to contact the receiver. Finally open up the barrel channel so that the forend does not contact the barrel. My No.1V in .22-250 was a consistent 5/8 inch shooter with five shot groups, even with a huge jump to the rifling. It was obviously one of the Wilson barrels. My No.3 in .223 was a consistent 3/4 inch shooter for five shots. I got the bedding and floating how to from a Jon Sundra article from the late '70s or early '80s.

"You left out one thing. The rib...."

I know that is the next step, but results have been acceptable to me without that.
I did however try to remove one once, but gave up before I wrecked it.

FWIW, those ribs will come off but you have to do so before mounting a scope, or a better way to say that is if you do mount a scope you can't crank down on the rear scope base.

The rearmost rib screw lies right between the rear scope mounting dovetails and if you crank down on the scope mounting screw it squeezes the rib around the screw, physically locking it in place. Plus, as far as I can tell those aren't super duper hardened screws so an allen wrench will strip out the head long before the rib releases the screw.

I found this out by removing the two rear screws to mount an XS sight, and with a quality allen wrench that fits well they came out fairly easily. Then I put them back in and mounted a scope, tightening down both bases as one would normally do. Then after some load development when I tried to remount the peep sight that rear screw wouldn't budge for love, money nor a plethora of cuss words, and the head stripped out with a ridiculously low amount of torque, I'd guess about 20 inch/pounds or so.

At least this was my experience with two recent No. 1's. From other reports over the years those screws have always been notoriously hard to remove so I was a bit surprised they came out readily enough on mine.

Thank you for all the advice guys. Like I said, I was already aware of most of this stuff but being inherently lazy and sorely lacking in skill, I was hoping there'd be someone whom I could just send it off to to get it done.

By the way Mule Deer (John Barsness) I've been reading your stuff for a very long time. Longer than I care to remember . It's a pleasure to see out here on these forums actually contributing. Thank you...

http://www.eabco.com/

I haven't used them but they appear to be worthy. They bought the Hicks Accurizer. I have one and it works on my 1980 257 Roberts #1.

A rubber washer between the forearm and barrel turned my #1 257 Roberts into a sub MOA rifle.

Good article on # 1
http://rvbprecision.com/shooting/accuracy-tips-for-the-ruger-1.html

Dryfly24,

Thanks for the kind words!

Except maybe "I've been reading your stuff for a very long time. Longer than I care to remember." Of course, I may have been writing stuff longer than I care to remember.... :-)

Lol, dang. Sorry John, that was my attempt at self-deprecating humor. Didn't think how it could cut both ways. . .

Try Steve Durren of Adrain, MI. He is a ACGG member and has helped me a lot on my Ruger No. 1 project.

I tried many of the "tricks", and would get good accuracy, but not consistent POI. So I settled on putting hicks devices on my all my #1's except an RSI that needed nothing to shoot sub moa and maintain POI. Takes a little dremel work to the forend, but has worked every time.

Yep, the Hicks will sure settle POI down--as will the trick of drilling and tapping the front end of the forend hanger for a small screw that does the same thing, putting a precise upward "pressure point" on the barrel.