Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Hicks Accurizer for #1's

I don't know if this has been discuss before , but I was wondering if any one has used one of these and what you though of it??

Got one. Plain and simple answer is it works. Tunes the barrel to the load.

Installed on on my .257 Roberts #1. Works as advertised. I glass bedded the final installation, which makes the forend really solid against the Hicks device.
Used a Dremel to inlet the forend to fit the Hicks- works great, just take your time.

I've had very good luck with the Hicks, but have only installed them on older rifles that were giving trouble. Haven't had any any major problem with newer No. 1's made since Ruger started hammer-forging their own barrels. So far all of those have been a even split between shooting well out of the box, and being easily "fixed" by epoxy-bedding the tip of the forend.

JB,are you bedding to create a pressure point? My 7x57 1A has had nothing done to it and is a little inconsistent. I keep intending to shoot a target with nothing but cold barrel shots but haven't gotten it done yet.

Oh, it's been discussed before I assure you.

Here's a non-Hicks solution that's a bit easier to DIY:

http://varminthuntinginternational.com/accurizingnoruger.html

I did this one last year with the forend bedding - definately helped and I recommend giving it a try.

Thank you to everyone for the information it's really helpful..

If the Hicks simply "tunes the barrel to the load" do you have to readjust it with each different load?

I drilled and tapped a set screw in the hanger to apply pressure against the barrel. That does about the same thing as the Hicks and costs less. I then glassed the forearm to the hanger for a solid fit and free floated the barrel. So, the only thing touching the barrel is the hanger set secrew. Works great.

DF

Anson,

It's not so much to make a pressure point as to stabilize the front of the forend on the barrel. Often the channel at the tip is a little wider than the barrel, and as a result the forend hops around slightly on the barrel. The bedding prevents that.

like this...

Exactly.

So, just install the forend as usual with the bedding material in place. Are you removing any wood from the forend tip first? I'll give it a shot. I tried putting a business card between the forend and the barrel and it didn't shoot as well. Thanks for the tip.

When did Ruger start making their own barrels?

I usually rough the area up slightly with some big-grit sandpaper, to help the bedding compound stick, but don't remove any wood. You might also check the rear of the forend while yu have it off, as sometimes they press too hard against the action. Any place they do looks darker, due to compressed wood, which can be removed with a fine file.

Ruger started making their own barrels in the early 1990's.

Just noted in the Brian Pearce Ruger No.1 article in the upcoming RIFLE magazine that states Ruger started making their own barrels in 1985. I personally do not know, but I also thought it was early '90's and agree with JB.
On the subject of the post, just picked up an old May-June 1977 copy of RIFLE with an article by Frank de Haas about Ruger No.1 forearm bedding. Very interesting. He extensively tested various forearm treatments. Most interesting was he noted a change in grouping and POI depending on if the forearm was rested near the receiver, the middle or near the forearm end. He did free floating, varying forearm tip to barrel pressures and a device he made something like the later Hicks.
Elmer Keith wrote in about 1970 that forearm tension/pressure affected No.1 accuracy.
Over the years, I have collected near all(?) of the early No.1 magazine articles from the 1966-to mid 70's. Starting to try to put together all of those in between then and now.

Ruger sure might have started making barrels in 1985, but I didn't seen the across-the-board consistency in quality until the early 1990's. Which leads me to suspect they had a bunchof barrels from other makers already in stock, or contracts with other makers, or couldn't produce enough barrels for their production needs until the 90's.

These days Ruger makes some of best factory barrels among American companies, in my experience.

This article on barrel making, by a Ruger employee, says they bought their barrels out before 1990.
http://www.vsms.org/Forum/Seite_34_forg ... ls/S34.htm
A bit technical, but this is how barrels are hammer forged at S, R & Co.

Link doesn't work for me.

As I noted, Ruger may very well have STARTED making barrels in the 80's, but a friend bought a Model 77 7x57 at the very end of the tang-safety era, which means late 80's or 1990, that had one of the worst barrels I've yet seen on a factory rifle. In my bore-scope it showed all the symptoms of a badly reamed button-rifled barrel, and when I slugged it the TIGHT spots were .287"--and there were several loose spots. That's just about impossible with a hammer-forged barrel. Which is why I'm guessing they phased-in their barrels, rather than changed all at once.

The first really fine Ruger-made barrel I encountered was on a 1B .300 Weatherby Magnum in 1994. After a few cleanings, it would average under an inch not just with handloads but three brands of factory loads. I probably wasn't buying a Ruger every year then (would have to look at my loading notes) but since then every Ruger barrel has been very good to excellent.

As Bighorn mentioned earlier in this thread, the Hicks does add substantial surface area to the front of the hanger, making it easier to solidly bed the forearm. My own experience with the Hicks is just a sample of one but that one worked out extremely well ... enough so that I bought another Hicks against the day another #1 comes my way. Simple, well though out and solid as a rock.

@ the mid-90s (?) Ruger also went to a low inventory on-hand production model and gradually emptied their shelves of accumulated old parts and even completed rifles.

In doing so, they also got rid of their stores of old barrels made in the 70s etc. that got buried under newer production and then got issued much later. The consistency of the final new products thus also improved greatly.

The hitch is that if you shoot out a barrel on a rifle with a caliber no longer being made, they cannot replace it with a factory item. As a collector of the nearly defunct 1Bs, this gives me pause.

1B