Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Hunting with the High Wall, B-78 and Ruger 1B

The Winchester 1885 High Wall, Browning B-78, and Ruger 1B are not small rifles, and they are not light.

Some of them have iron sights, some don't.
Many people own them for fun, or maybe black powder matches, but I was wondering how many of you hunt with your big single shots.
What kind of game?
Do you use iron sights or scope?
Do you use them for the fun of a retro rifle, because of their beauty, the challenge of a single shot, or to shoot heavy bullets with more velocity at long range?

I used to shoot prairie dogs with my B-78 in 22-250. Does that count ?

Sure, gopher shooting counts.
I used to have a B-78 in 6mm Remington.

I was wondering how many who do hunt with them just camp out at dog town, or watching a groundhog den, or a fixed blind or stand for deer, and how many carry the rifles, for spot and stalk bear, elk or sheep hunting.

I have carried my Ruger #1 for deer. It is a dedicated cast bullet rifle. I got a nice 4x4 whitetail with it too. Was hunting in the prairies of Wyoming up near the shoulders of the Bighorns.

Lee, my single shot 300 has been to Africa twice. I have killed 50-70 feral hogs with this rifle and maybe a half-dozen deer. Maybe 10 turkeys. I hunt exclusively with single shots except for dangerous African game.

I shot a B78 in 7mm mag when I was in high school. I shot a rem 700 in 30-338 for many years afterwards, but I cannot remember the last serious hunt that I was not carrying a single shot. Once you get used to it, there is no difference between it and a bolt.

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The funny thing about these rifles, in the era of the light rifle and the light bullet, is that they carry so well in the hand. Even the big Browning 1885s or Sharps is slim and balances well in the hands. The heavy barrel settles quickly on target and stays there.

I have killed hogs, deer and pronghorn with a B-78 in 25-06 and a No. 1 in 6mm Rem. Both rifles were scoped.
Never found the single shot to be a disadvantage. Although it has not been necessary, they can be reloaded quite quickly.
Due to the short action length, they offer a longer barrel in a handy overall package.

My B-78 in 6mm Remington had been cut down to 24 inches by its original owner, wore a Leupold 2.5-8x scope and shot bug hole groups. It was his biggest rifle, for deer. The rest of his stuff was more single shots, in .22 Hornet, .218, .219, .222...

Yes, I hunt with mine! You bet!

They do carry nicely, the Rugers.

GuyM, when I think of the Rugers, I like the No. 1-A, and have been writing them for years, trying to get them to make it with a 24-inch barrel in .303 Brit, 7x65R, .338-06, 9.3x74R (the have now), or make the 1-A in .30-30.

The funny thing is, the 1-B feels so heavy to me, but I know it is no heavier than a B-78 or 1885 High Wall in .30-06.

I don't recall ever seeing a 1-B with iron sights, either.
A Lyman globe front sight and an NECG peep sight would seem to make a nice combination for hunting, and keep the weight down and balance low in the hands.

GuyM - what caliber is your Ruger, and what velocity increases do you see over your same caliber 22-inch rifles?

Only have two, a 7mm Rem mag and a .375 H&H:




Just hunted black bear for a few days with the .375 as the 7mm is in the shop with extractor problems that I couldn't solve. The Ruger was a pleasure to carry. No shot at a bear while afield with it though. Have no other .375 to compare velocity. The 7mm with the 26" barrel is tracking right with other bolt action 7mm RM's w/24" and 26" barrels. Am right at 3050 fps with handloaded 160 gr Nosler Partitions.

The .375 is tossing 300 gr Hornady BTSP bullets at 2560 fps.

In the past I had a .25-06 #1V, and a .300 Win mag. Both were good rifles.

I've hunted both deer & black bear with all three - an 1885, a couple of different B78's, and several different #1's - in chamberings ranging from 6mm Rem & 7x57 through .30-06, to .338 Win Mag, and .45-70.

I've used open sights, peep sights, tang peep sights, and scopes on the various rifles - as I fancied at the time.

ALL were accurate, all took the game I was seeking, and all carried/handled to my satisfaction.

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I hunt small game (jackrabbits and ground squirrels down here) with a .22 Hornet Ruger 1A with a custom 20" barrel; it weighs about 8 pounds with the Burris 4X compact scope. I do use a sling much of the time.

I have also hunted deer with an original Win Hi-wall 1885 .38-40 which weighs about 9.5 pounds with the tang sight, and a reproduction Hi-wall .30-40 Krag that is about a pound heavier with a Redfield 2 3/4X. Those ARE heavy but shoot very accurately; you need to find a good spot and sit. The .38-40 I used in the woods in upstate NYS when I lived there; the .30-40 I use in CA for blacktails. I put a removable shotgun sling on these when I need to pack 'em for a ways.

Good looking wood on those Rugers, Guy.
A bear would almost like to be killed by one of those.

Moose with a #1 in 405 Winchester.

Most of my #1s are Bs and I still hunt and ground ambush deer with them all the time. I do so in the East where slow walking over a day is not very tiring. The Bs were my first and remain my favorite hunting tool. They carry, point, and hold on target w/o any grief for my style of hunting.

Esthetically, the foreeend holds no particular charms except that it is not the AH which I do not like. My custom #1s have slimmer profile foreends.

1B

Don't forget to tell us about the sights, cartridges and loads used.

I know someone who went bison hunting, and knew it would be too easy with a modern .300 Magnum and scope, so he made it challenging by stalking close enough to use the tang aperture ladder sight on his 1885 High Wall Hunter in .45-70. That was challenge enough to make his hunt take five days instead of one, so he got five times the enjoyment.

I hunt with mine. It's a .243. Only had it a couple of years but it's taken 1 deer and several coyotes. Here are a couple of pictures. The one was actually a true double. Shot one and while I was reloading I was howling with my voice and got the other to stop. Love the No 1.
BP

Mr. Lee24;
I hunt with a Ruger No. 1 in .300 WM with a Leupold 6X Compact on it that goes afield with me about half the time. This year it will be most of the time, as I ran out of time tuning a .270 in a 98 Mauser I was playing with.

It started out as my saddle gun for hunting mule deer off the horse and I kind of liked how it worked so I started to hunt with it more.

This year I�ll carry it after mule and whitetail deer, moose and elk.

In all probability, it will get fired once at each type of deer, but perhaps this will be my year to find another legal bull moose (immature bulls only here) or perhaps an elk with enough points will come in to my calls this year, who knows.

I hunt with it mostly because I like the simplicity of the action and I shoot this rifle acceptably well it seems. I�ve never really considered it more challenging to hunt with a single shot than a bolt action, but then I grew up shooting single shot .22�s and shotguns, so maybe that�s part of why I view it that way.

Hopefully that made some sense, good luck on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

Two Deer with a B78 in .25-06, two with a .270 #1B. The B78 is headed out this weekend.