Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats RJ Renner 1A "Ultra-Slender" English Stalking Rifle

A while back Roger Renner turned a Ruger 1S .30-06 into one of his English Stalking rifles for me. It came out great and I figured that was about the last No. 1 I'd ever buy. Well, until Lipsey's offered a 1A with 24" barrel in .250 Savage. The 24" 1A contour was what sold me, a light kicking old round like the .250 Savage was icing on the cake..

So, off it went to Roger with instructions to make it as slender as humanly possible, to copy the feel and style of the late 19th and early 20th Century British sporting rifles, and to make it look as antique as possible, right down to distressing the wood and adding some aging/darkening where one would expect it. He did just that and I am tickled pink at how it turned out. As most folks know, Ruger isn't exactly putting exhibition wood on their No. 1 rifles these days. I picked this one off of gunbroker since it had about the best wood I could see, it is "decent" compared to most of the new ones but still nothing to write home about. Anyway, we weren't worried about keeping the grain shining through, I told him to make is as dark as he dared. He was worried he went too far but IMO it turned out great.

I sent him pictures of old Farquharson and Alex Henry rifles to show off the older style of checkering so he went with an original No. 1 style which follows the grip, doesn't have that flair at the back and comes up almost meeting behind the tang.

As to "slender as humanly possible", Roger understands slender like no other custom smith I've ever worked with. He did his normal lowering of the comb, moving it back and rounding out the pistol grip, but he also cut down the forend to a wisp. He even went so far as to cut down the nut that attaches it so he could remove even more wood. On the invoice he calls it an "Ultra-Slender English Stalking Rifle. And the coolest part will be readily apparent in the first picture since he pulled a cheekpiece out of the factory stock. He just cut away everything on the right side that wasn't a cheekpiece, leaving this nice little petite pad which is very functional and again mimics the older turn of the century styles. It obviously left the stock very slender and the gravy here it that it has the effect of giving it cast-on for a left hander.

Getting to the pics soon but the thing they can't show is the handling, and it is superb. The rifle as pictured weighs 6 lbs. 12 ounces. It comes up to a perfect cheek weld with my eye looking exactly through the rear sight with the front sight centered. I've posted pictures of a Ruger 10/22 sporter that Roger did up for me and called it a wand - this is another "wand". The weight, the slenderness of the pistol grip and the forend and the balance really have to be felt to be understood.

So, on to the amateur pics. This rifle really deserves a better photographer than I am who can fill in shadows and show how rich and warm the color really is. Probably wouldn't hurt to have it paired with a pith helmet and old, worn leather luggage as well.


Right and left post pics. It's not readily apparent but one of the tricks of the trade Roger used to give a more slender profile was to raise the grip cap and give it a more rakish angle so its line intersects the stock further forward.

Some detail of the butt. This started off as a lightish brown. The area under the checkering was deliberately darkened even more to emulate wear.




Views of the checkering to show how it rises up over the pistol grip. This also shows the darkening of the wood in that area and the cleaned up inletting. Those side panels were very proud of the receiver, Roger brought them down flush and removed the drastic flair they had toward the rear.







Another view of the deliberate aging put into this, plus a better view of the forend inletting. There was a huge gap in front of the receiver flats and the bottom curve which was taken out.




A better view of the cheekpiece and the checkering pattern. Who knew that such a nice detail hides inside of every Ruger No. 1? And yes, that wood next to the recoil pad is deliberate. "Distressing" and "aging" was all part of the process.

Roger offers what he calls a "MorVue" sight that fits into the existing sight dovetail. I've worked with three Mojo sights like this on milsurps so was familiar with how useful they can be. So I figured what the heck and had him put one on this.




Nice detail of the color of the wood. I've always admired that reddish hue so many older rifles get. This came out just right and is a far cry from the original bland color.




More detail of the hue and especially note where that forend screw sits compared to a factory No. 1. There is a nut under that, Roger thinned that out to more of a washer to allow him to remove as much wood as possible.




Ending this with another shout out to Roger aka RJ Renner. He is always a pleasure to work with and really knows his stuff. All of the credit for this goes to him, I just supply the raw material and the germ of an idea and let him run with it.

So, like any good artist, Roger signed his work





Hope you liked the write up and pics!

This is clever and gorgeous.


Okie John

... and makes me drool!

wow...
He is an artist. How long did it take him to finish the work?

This one took a little over 5 weeks. He got the rifle on August 2nd and shipped it back to me on Sept. 10th. He also did some work on another rifle - nothing this extensive - and shipped them both back in the same box. He's done six rifles for me so far and it generally takes right around 4-6 weeks each.

Look great. I like the English style more than the German style he does.

Both seem to be quality work 5hough.

Applause to you both,

you for the idea Jim, and your smith for the nice execution of it.

Hip Hip, Jolly Good and all that rot!

Geno

Beautiful rifle.

Thanks. I've sent a letter to Lord Bigglesworth Foggingbotham III to ask if he'd allow me to take pictures of it in his trophy room but it seems he's away at his other country home until St. Crispin's Day...

that is awesome and very old school!!!

Wow man I really like that a lot looks fantastically thought out & executed!

Very nice indeed. I have a #1A in 275 Rigby that would be perfect like that.

Beautiful. More class in that rifle than my entire senior year.

Beautiful rifle and excellent craftsmanship! I wonder if you could have a lever made that would look more like one from a Farquharson?

The sky's the limit. We could have gone with an abbreviated lever, color case hardening or French gray finish on the steel parts, engraving, rebarreling, you name it. But this one is in my budget range and the improvement in feel and handling is really why I ask Roger to do these. The carving and recheckering is the main work effort but since the aging wasn't too much extra that was more of a "why the heck not?" decision.


Can't take any real credit for this although Roger says this "ultra-slender" rifle was the inspiration, but he is offering a very lighweight (for a No. 1) rifle with this super slender stock and a new Featherweight profile barrel. He removes the quarter rib and even the hangar under the barrel to get the rifle down under 6 pounds. That leaves it with extraction only capability, but he also has and is working up some rimmed wildcats made specifically for single shot rifles that fall in and fall out of the chamber. His .375 Renner is one that duplicates .375 Whelen performance and - hope I'm not letting the cat out of the bag here - he's working on a series based on a 445 Supermag case. Those will use cut down 6mm Remington dies, so it's basically a 445 Supermag with a 6mm Remington taper and shoulder. His idea is a very lightweight, light recoiling rifle that throws 80-95 grain bullets in the 2500-2600 fps range for very low recoil and with ballistics suitable for the 200 yard or under close stalking style of hunting his rifles are optimized for.

can he do a side leaver to replace the under leaver?

That would definitely be an interesting project but I have no idea if he could, you'd have to call and ask.

That would definitely be an interesting project but I have no idea if he could, you'd have to call and ask.