Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Question - Ruger 1-A in .303 British

SakoAlberta would know that. I believe I heard Canada, USA and Australlia got the lion's share.

I sure do like mine.

The initial run was suppose to be relatively small.

It became a regularly cateloged item though... It will be anyones guess now.

http://www.ruger.com/products/no1LightSporter/models.html

Thanks for the info..

Also how many of the #1-S s were made in 9.3 x 74R ? It was catalogued for a couple years (?) and now it has been dropped ?

Thanks,
JMV375

From my understanding, Ruger does not release production numbers.

The special runs: lipsey, cabelas, daca, rmef, ect ect are the only one that you can get a relatively close production quantity. And what I mean by that, is there are several special runs that have had extras (over-runs) that are sold off to either the public through normal channels or are picked up by employees.

Given what is known about the production cycle model at Ruger -- new parts put in bins waiting to taken off the top for use in prodction runs; only receivers are marked with parts numbers; actual production of a given model and caliber are done in bursts over a year or more; and wide, sometimes multiple decades, disparities exist between entry into parts inventory, assembly, storeage, and actual shipment -- I doubt Ruger even knows with any preciaion how any of what were made, when. The only accurate recoverable date in such a system is the shipping date.

Even if you choose to concede that they MIGHT have kept this all straight for their own records, there is the phenomenon of the "one-ofs' including special rifles produced for Friends of Bill and by workers at the plant. Example -- I have a custom #3 with no irons made at the plant by the workers in 7mm BR with an english straigth stock and schnabel with no barrel band. The receiver serial # according to Ruger was for a 22 Hornet.

1B

303 Brit SAAMI cartridges are registered from .054" to .064".
303 Brit SAAMI chambers are registered from .064" to .071".

95% of the brass in the real world is .062" or less.

If I were to chamber a Ruger #1 in 303B, I would set the headpsace at .062".

I am really sick of the range of 303 Brit Enfield No. 4 Mark I chambers, bolt heads, and thin compressible bolt bodies with lug in the rear.

The Ruger #1 is the best action I come into contact with, and tight headspace would be nice.

The 303 Brit brass pushed to the threshold of long brass life and backed off a safety margin in a #1 action, should exceed the power of the weaker 308 cartridge pushed to the edge and backed off a safety margin.

174 Hornady rndnose 45 gr H414 at 2400

180 gr Speer 46gr H4350 at 2250

150 Barnes tsx 46gr H414 at 2500


I have not done much experimenting as these loads were good in my SMLE #4MkII and give me 1" - 1.25" in the #1
on a good day. I am sure the action would stand more pressure, but it is a 303Br and I am happy with that. I do notice there is less brass stretch in the #1.

The above loads can be found in Ken Water's "Pet Loads" but were worked up to in the #4MkII
Randy