I know it has been beat to death but I want to make sure before I make a mistake-older redfield 2-7 scopes work on these Rugers? And a fixed 6x36 or 4x33 Leupold? 2-7x33 Leupold?

Excluding extension rings what other options are out there?

Great question. I have a 1a coming and have both low and medium rings with no extension rings. Have Leupold 6x36, 6x42, and 2.5-8x36 scopes sitting here. Not sure which one is better on the 1a. On my AH, I have a 6x36 LRD reticle in lows, and it fits great and balances well with the rifle. In that rifle, there is no rear sight to remove so it fits perfect. Not sure yet how it will be with the 1a with a rear sight.

Alternatives? EGW makes a picatinny rail for the No.1 and Conetrol has a couple options. One is their Dap-tar (adapter) which lets you use their ring on the Ruger mount point. The other is a replacement for the factory rail that lets you use their rings. I have one of those. It’s a solid base. It cantilevers off the barrel some.

What is wrong with the factory rings ? I'm 6' and wear a 35" sleeve and have yet to be whacked.

Is your problem needing to go forward or back ?

Nothing wrong with factory rings-just making sure my scope choices will have enough eye relief. Holy crap you got some pretty guns!
What scope I’d that 2nd from the bottom?

Any fixed Leupold will work as well as most of their smaller variables

Top 2 are Leupod 6X.

That is a Unertl 4X Hawk from the 60s. I think I have about 3 now. 1 each CH, dot and post. Great scopes as are all Unertls.
Hawks are frequently for sale on Ebay. You have to sort thru to get a good one. Less frequently you see Falcon 2.5X. Condor 6X and Vultures 8x & 10X.

Here's a nice Hawk

https://www.ebay.com/itm/J-Unertl-Hawk-4x-Scope/332430415570?hash=item4d666596d2:g:mfsAAOSwySlZ9niB

A steel tube El Paso Weaver would also be that long and work fine as long as you avoid extremes in weather.

Yup I love No. 1s with good wood and will even swap wood. The 450-400 wears a stock off a hard used 1976 458 that was black with dirt. Wood swapped and restored and 458 sold at break even.

That 458 is currently at smith being made into 28" 5R rifled 6.5-300 Weatherby.

My favorite #1 scope has been a VX 2.5-8x36mm in low rings. If you turn the rear sight around you can get a little bit more rearward mounting if you find yourself cheek crawling the stock on higher power.

My next favorite is the M8 4x in low rings. Lots of tube length and eye relief to play with.

IME 6x36 or 1.5-5x20 Leupold in Ruger lows have worked wonderfully without needing offsets. 2-7x33 Leupold was good too. Favorite was an El Paso Weaver K6.

As War_Eagle said, I've reversed the rear sight to move the scope further to the rear.

I couldn't get a Leupold 2-7X new style to fit without two offset rings.
So slapped an old M8 4X on..........and still needed one offset ring at the back.
Wearing a thicker coat and trying to shoot to my right (right handed) I still had to crawl the stock.
5'11" and normal build (not fat or cursed with T rex arms).

The scope has been moved back a little bit more since pic was taken
Rings are mediums.

Glad you posted that pic. I read not long ago that the extension and regular rings (same size I assume) aren't the same height, so can't be mixed as you obviously did.

I had a set of reg slotted screw medium rings.
Ordered the extension ring in medium. It was a newer Torx type.
Worked fine, except that the ring was slightly wider at the ears.
So I ordered a new reg Torx medium for the front.
Same width now.

Being an RSI, I figured an offset ring at the back kept with the Eurotrash look

I have a very difficult time getting scopes mounted back far enough on Ruger No. 1's which makes a rear offset ring a must for me. It seems if I get the eye piece back so that it's right above the safety button and I have a full 4" of eye relief, I'm okay. I did have an older Leupold 2-7x32 on a 1A for a while and was able to make it work, but eventually went to straight tube 1-4x20's on all my No.1's. I like the longer tube of the Nikon so went that route on all of them, though I'm pretty sure I could make a Leupold fixed 4x or 6x work as well.

The older long tube leupold m8 scopes, and the leupold 1.5-5x20.

The nikon monarch african 1-4x20 works but looks big.

An informative thread with beautiful rifles. Thanks all!

Leupold FXll 3X Big Bore works well, I have a couple stashed away

wanna sell one?

I like fixed power scopes on my Number 1s to keep things as simple as possible. I have a Loopy 6x36 on my 7x57 and a Loopy 4x33 on my 9.3. I have to crawl the stock a smidgen with the 4x when at the range but in the bush when hunting I don't notice. I seem to throw the rifle up and the scope just seems to be in the right spot. I guess I lean that bit forward subconsciously so for me it's not a problem. The 6x36 fits fine.

The offset rings, if used at the rear, often need to be ground down a bit to clear the bulge in the scope tube where the erector adjustments are. Otherwise, they don’t actually let you move a scope any further rearward than the standard rings. I’ve had to do that with both of the last two I tried.

The No.1 is a beautiful rifle, but it does need mount points that are further back, and maybe possibly a bit further apart. The distance between is okay for many of today’s compact scopes, but they’re far too far forward. For long-tube scopes (my Bushnell LRHS comes to mind) you can often make the mount points work, but they’re then too close together according to my notions of how best to support a scope.

I've never had any problems with the Ruger offset rings (usually with a Leupold 1.5-5) on my #1's. The offset rings are essential for me to get the eye relief I need.

Ruger customer service has been great about exchanging the standard rings that come with the rifles for offset rings. No charge.

I've noticed that with some scopes as well. The Nikon seems to be an exception in that I can position it so that the back of the turret housing is almost contacting the front of the rear offset ring without interference. I guess that's why I like the Nikon 1-4 on No. 1's - here are three that show how far back it can go: