Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Ruger #1 Stringing Shots

Has anyone else have this going on? I recently aquired a Ruger #1A, 7x57 my dream rifle. I went to the shop after mounting the Leupold VX-II, 2x7 to boresight and bench sight, the shop only had two rounds of Winchester 145 grs. the first round was two inches high at 100 yards, ok, round two 1/2" right, I'm happy. The past week I found 4 boxes of Remington 140 gr., I bought them all. I went out today and tried her out with the new ammo. The first two shots were at the same POI as the Winchester load from the week before but, round 3 went 1 1/2" higher, round 4 went 3" higher, then they were all either high or low but windage was perfect. I let the barrel cool for 1/2 hour and it went to the original position. I guessing it is from the light barrel weight or is it the ! in 8 1/2" twist with the 140 grain bullets? Thanks for your replies, Greg

Mr. Win71;
First off let me say welcome to the Campfire from southern BC.

Not to be intrusive, but is your No. 1 one of the more recent production or is it possibly an older model?

If it is older, say from the �80�s, what you describe could be an issue of fore end pressure or perhaps lack thereof.

I am given to understand that is less critical with the more recent vintage No. 1�s with the Ruger made hammer forged barrels that are reported to be more consistant in quality.

If it were mine, I think I might start by seeing what kind of contact there is now between the fore end and the barrel. It could be too much or perhaps not enough from the factory.

If it is used, perhaps a thorough cleaning is in order? It can�t generally harm anything to give the barrel a good scrub.

I am assuming your front bench rest and or bag and the technique you use has worked with other rifles with similar shaped fore ends?

Sometimes smaller fore ends such as the one on an 1A can be nettlesome to hold still off the bags. I shoot my No.1, which has a fairly small custom fore end, by resting my hand on a sand filled shot bag and gripping the fore end like I would when shooting in the field.

Hopefully that was some use to you and good luck with your new rifle.

Regards,
Dwayne

The rifle in question is a 2001 model, by checking the serial # against the list at the Ruger Web Page, I'll check out your suggestions before going to the range next time. Thank you.

Heat..barrel heat can be your enemy with the little barrel Rugers.How fast are you shooting between shots? Forearm pressure can be a problem as well.There are many threads on this subject by doing a search. I have 5 #1's and 2 more coming,not an expert,but I learned one thing,they are everyone different.What's works on 1 or 2 may not help another.
Welcome to the 'fire!!.........rifle

I think fore-end pressure is important on a No 1. It's a factor in most two-piece stocks. That's easy enough to try, at any rate. A bit of increase (or decrease) can make a difference. Barrel makers have a hanger for Encore type rifles, and there's a little aftermarket gizmo that you can get that tunes the upward pressure. You have to install it inside the fore-end screw hole and you can't really see it unless you look hard. I've got one on my .243 and it makes a difference, and allows you to tune in a different bullet weight.

Here's a link where it's explained better than I can.

http://longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/barrel-tuner-accurizer-15162/

The light 1A barrels behave a lot differently than the standard B barrels.

I can usually handle stringing in a B by free floating it.

The As are another story. Some guys have luck with inserting a flexible piece of credit card in the channel near the action to get more clearance. Others, full-length glass bed to contain and distribute the the whip more evenly.

Lots of my #1s have set screws installed in the hanger that stabilize the barrel to the hanger and are free floated. This greatly tames the erratic whips. See ms to work on a wide variety of calibers. My .22 Hornet and .45-70s have set screws and are tack drivers.

1B

up thru the years Ive had several Ruger 1s in a whole string of chamberings and barrel types and most every one of them has done this even the varmint barrel units and from what Ive read its all got to do with the forestock and the way it attaches to the barrel a few years back I read an article about a Moyer device you could purchase for about $80.00 that would make this problem go away........

Win71,
I have read about this for years but have never experienced it until recently. I thought it was time for a new barrel.
I checked the stock and it was touching on one side and not the other. I have owned this rifle for about 25 years.
Then after I relieved the pressure with a chisel and scraper I decided to try a small piece of rubber in back of the stock screw
to lift the barrel out of the stock a wee bit.
The next time I shot it at 200 yards I put three shots in 7/8".
I guess I don't need a barrel after all!
whelennut

I have a 7x57 #1 International (aka "RSI") with a light 20" barrel and if I allow the barrel to cool down until it is just very slightly "warm", it shoots very small 3-shot groups... the smallest being just .179 inches at 50 yards... and it averages 3-shot groups of less than a half-inch at 50 yards with the best "accuracy load" (the best one I've found so far) of 47.6 grains of H4350.

My #1 "loves" H4350 and with a maximum load of it (50.0 grains), I get about 2785 fps (haven't chronographed that "hunting load" yet) and have shot 3-shot groups of .404 inches at 50 yards with that load.

Factory loads for 7x57 (aka "7mm Mauser" or ".275 Rigby") are vastly UNDER-POWERED... and to get any real performance out of a 7x57, you really should be reloading your own ammo. If handloaded to 50,000 CUP (a max load using 50.0 grains of H4350), the 7x57 Mauser out-performs the maximum loads in a 7mm-08 (averaging about 53,000 CUP) by a slight margin.

It sounds as if you're having the same trouble I have with my Mannlicher-stocked RSI... the thin barrel is heating up and touching the stock's wood thus changing the barrel's natural vibration as the bullet travels down and out the barrel.

Since any game you shoot a bullet at will be fired from a COLD barrel (the first shot or two, anyway)... I suggest you just be patient and give the rifle's barrel a little time to cool down between shots from the bench-rest since the coolish barrel is pretty representative of where the rifle will shoot from a "cold" barrel under hunting conditions.

I realize I could spend a lot of money, time and frustration on my little RSI, but in the final analysis, it wouldn't be any more accurate on the first shot or two than it is now... and so I've decided to just be patient.

To that end, I bought a little CZ453 "varmint" model (w/heavy barrel & no sights) with a factory-installed single set trigger to "match" the Kepplinger Single Set Trigger I had my gunsmith install in my RSI. And I simply shoot 3-5 five shot groups with the CZ between EACH ahot from the RSI... and things work out quite well since both rifles have duplicate 4-12x40mm A/O scopes on them and both rifles have single set triggers to aid in the simplicity of going back-and-forth between the two rifles when I go to the rifle range.

Normally, my goal is to shoot the smallest possible group while keeping ALL shots within the diameter of a bright orange target paster. So far, this has worked out quite well.

Jus' my 2� worth...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I appreciate everybody's input on this topic. My rifle is doing almost exactly as Ron T. is describing. Ron's post reminded me why I bought this #1A in the first place, to hunt with, and I will be not likely take more than one shot at game anyway. I agree patience is probably the key to this matter. I will experiment with some of everyone's suggestions that won't excessively alter the rifle as well as developing some handloads based on H414 or H4350 powders. I started out with the factory ammo just as a baseline and to acquire brass. Thanks again for everybody's help. Greg

I did a couple things that were suggested on this issue here before. Mostly suggestions from Muledeer.

I releived the wood a little where the back of the forearm was touching the metal, put a little bedding at the tip of the forearm and put a stiff plastic shim between the hanger and the barrel.
This it a 1A in 7x57 also. The above tweaks settled it down quite a bit.

Mine would shoot hunting acceptable groups (which grew as the barrel warmed up) before the above treatment, but the point of impact would change between shooting sessions --- which makes for the first shot or two (hunting scenario) leaving me less than comfortable.

Now it holds poi from session to session.

JMHO
Tim

Ok, now the rest of the story. I got rained out today and thought about trying some things out at the range. I loaded up 20 rounds of Hornady 139 gr. SST BT's for my #1 7x57 and took this load along with a box of Remington 140 gr. Ptd. Core-Lokt to the bench. The Remington's were fired first, the 5 shot group were on POA for the first 2, the remaining 3 went higher about 2 1/2" for a 3 1/2" group from the bench at 100 yds. no cooling between shots. I let the barrel cool about 15 minutes and fired a group of 5 of my handloads. This group printed great for windage but 5" higher than POA, BUT the group measured .70". I adjusted the elevation and shot another 5 rounds the results were all 5 went to POA in .75" without letting the barrel cool. The moral of the story is this rifle doesn't like the Remington load! Thank you all, for your suggestions, Greg

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... and another "BELIEVER" is made for handloading and finding the "right" load the individual rifle "likes"!

The "right load" = type of powder, amount of that powder, brand of cartridge case, brand of primer, brand/weight/shape of bullet & seating depth of bullet!

Well done, Greg (aka "Win71") !~!~!


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Congrats on the fix! Especially so as it did not require cooling the barrel tween shots. On a 1A that is an achievement wothry of note. my Bs will do it w/o cooling in 3 shot groups but after that it is anybody'd guess.

1B