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

AGREED ,at my 100 yard range with cement bench and good to excellent rifle rests and bags ,some people just can`t shoot very well and always have me sight their rifles in for them . i have seen some real poor shooters that i have tried to help ,sometimes that don`t even help , ladies and most youth are much easier to teach how to shoot better. yes i think most Ruger #1`s people claim don`t shoot > YES its the indian most of the time .

I'll share what i have learned about these rifles. I can"t stand to have a pretty rifle that will not shoot well, so i put a lot of work into the two i have. First about Ruger barrels. I have some 77's that will shoot & some that will not. I found that it is best to float everything well off the barrel & glassbed the forend & attach it to the forend hanger. Then tap a 6-32 set screw in the forend hanger & tighten it from 1/2 to 1 turn against the barrel. Take off the rib on the barrel & relieve it so it will not cause stress as the barrel heats up & not touching the receiver. I never got one of mine off as it was so tight. My first was a 1-B in 280 Rem, made in 1996, vert good barrel. It shoots those cheap Remington 150gr. bullets into about 1/2-3/4 groups @ 100 with %57.0gr.Rel.22 or58.0grAA3100 about 2900FPS.Nice load. My second #1 is a 1-S in 218 Bee,also made in 1996. Twist is 1-14. I mostly worked with cheap Win. 46gr.Hp. bullets in it. N-200, 16.0 gr.-2800FPS, about 3/4" groups. Hornady 50 gr.SX, H- 4227,14.0 gr. CCi400,2800 Fps, groups around 1/2". These loads are safe for me, use at your own discretion. It was very good for me to finally get these rifles shooting as good as they looked. Thanks for listening.

My #1's range in caliber from 250 Savage to 450/400 NE. All of them shoot very well even the big ones in 375, 405, 35 Whelan and the 450/400. Seeing as there are no buffalo or elephant in Michigan I load this down following MD's formula of reduced loads with H4895 and it makes for a dandy deer rifle.
I have a passion for tweaking them just a little bit as I like nice wood.
A 7MM-08
300 Savage [/url]

Somewhere in the magic box is a tweaked out #1 in 300 H&H. I need practice posting pics so as not to duplicate so I'll give this another try when I find the 300 H&H pics

Fairly old thread with some good info. I asked the same question a month ago. Been pretty happy with my rifle, but it has an aftermarket barrel. It seems to be a pretty consistent shooter. Some of these guys talking about the "Indian": I try to do my part. The reason I asked the same question as the OP is because I've always heard varying reports on accuracy with these #1's. I've actually seen poor shooting ones at the range, but can't say if it were the rifle, the ammo or the Indian behind the butt. Well, most were white guys. Maybe they just couldn't shoot for chidt?? Wouldn't be the first time, nor the 100th time that I've seen that.

I just traded for a Ruger #1 here on the Fire. It could get three shots out of five on the paper pretty regularly at 100 yards. Sometimes the first three shots were close to 2” apart, the next two were off the paper. I sent it into Ruger.
They sent it back and proudly showed that they got three shots 7/8” apart width wise. They didn’t show the elevation distances. Oh yeh, this was at 50 yards. The rifle was a bull barrel 6mm.

What a fine varmint rifle Ruger built. Good for prairie dogs clear to 30 or maybe 40 yards. But be prepared to miss 2 out of 5.

I asked Ruger why they sent that rifle back with the poor group and no explanation. No answer.

That sucks Bugger. Reports like this is why I drug my feet for so long before buying one myself. Sorry to hear yours shoots so poorly.. And Ruger didn't even want to fix it? Off the top of my head, it seems like there is about a 60/40 split on whether it will shoot well or not. If we started a survey on the subject, it may be slightly more positive, but it could be interesting.

in 1972 I bought a 1A in 30/06. Groups ran about 4 inches; all vertical. I relieved the forearm then bedded it to give about five pounds of pressure at the tip. Accuracy improved to around an inch and a quarter. Another guy wanted the 1A and traded me an unfired 1B with real nice wood for it, with a little boot. The 6mm was a great shooter. I even shot it at a BR match once and averaged about .670 for five-five-shot groups. I eventually burned it out and re-barreled it to 45x2 7/8. It was also an exceptional shooter. I started lightening the hammers on them in 1977, but doubt that I was the first. I have always felt the forearm fit to be the critical thing. Also, Number Ones reward a consistent hold and penalize sloppy technique. One of my favoured hunting rifles today is built on a Number One. It shoots just fine. I modified the lever to raise the breech block about 15 thou (the primer strike was that much low), and to eliminate the slop in the lever. Caliber is 303 Epps, but in a 30 caliber Douglas barrel. GD