Ruger NO.1 rifles

[eighteenninetytwo]

How accurate are these out of the box? anyone got experience with them?

[RugerNo1]

My No. 1 in 22-250 was the first centerfire rifle I ever bought. I has been a great gun and quite accurate enough for many squirrels from 20-500ish yards.

My poor rifle about needs a new barrel now and finding a gunsmith who really knows these rifles is getting harder every year.

[Fjold]

It took a while but my 270 Win shoots less than 1 MOA for three shot groups with the 130 grain TSX.

[as_rocketman]

My 1979-production .45-70 is capable of cloverleafs at 100 meters. Way more than I need. c. 1 MOA is typical in my experience.

[LONGRANGER777]

Mine will do three shot cloverleafs at 100 yards. If you can fire three !!!! 460 weatherby magnum BEAST.

[deadhawg]

My #1 in 22-250 was one of the most accurate rifles I've ever owned.

[russ69]

The forend hanger is a known trouble area for best accuracy. The ones I have shot were factory stock and shot decent but not exceptional.

[M1NM]

Mine will do three shot cloverleafs at 100 yards. If you can fire three !!!! 460 weatherby magnum BEAST.

Tooooo much I'll stick with mine in 458 Win Mag.
For some reason some owners of No1s complain they are not accurate. A lot of it has to do with pressure on the barrel caused by the forestock. If yours doesn't shoot well there is a Yahoo group for No1 and Clayton's book addresses some of the changes you can do. I've got 4 (3 red buttpad & 1 later RSI) and would like to find a 1V in .223. If you are looking at a used one check the area where the stocks meet the metal. If you see any corrosion run. Ruger had used some wood that had been dried using salt. For the last couple years Ruger only offered a very limited caliber selection in the different models of No1s. There was talk of them dropping production but their distributor Lipsey's stepped up and became the sole distributor. I don't think Ruger has shipped the guns to them yet. There might also be a source at Davidson's I heard they bought Rugers remaining stock of the pre Lipsey guns.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RUGER-1/photos/photostream/lightbox/404786262?orderBy=mtime&sortOrder=desc&photoFilter=ALL#zax/404786262

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RUGER-1/info

[ruggyh]

Have 3, 460S&W, 45-70, and 458 Lott.
The 45-70 and 460 S&W have shoot a number of 5 round touching groups at 100 off the bench.
I have not shoot the 458 Lott off the bench but have shoot a number of 3" groups standing unsupported group open sights.

[dfletcher]

My No3 shoots like #1, my No1s shoot like #2 ......

Well not quite. My No3 shoots well, very consistent. The only No1 I have now that I'd consider for accuracy work is a Varmint model in 220 Swift, my others are a 375 H & H and a 458 WM.

My No1 in 220 Swift wandered a bit. I got good groups but point of impact changed. I free floated the forend and now the rifle cosistently shoots at/under 1" @ 100 yds with no wandering.

Ruger has "economized" their rifles heavily, it seems to me. I had a 1968 made N01 with great wood, the wood today is fairly plain. Nice & dark, nothing wrong with it. Just no longer outstanding.

A few years back the No1 went from a truly adjustable trigger to one that adjusts for weight only. Trigger pull on the No1 isn't bad, but on their Varmint version I would like better.

If you get a No1 chances are it will shoot fine. My reservation about buying more is the aggravation of dealing with one that doesn't shoot well. I'm not exactly the world's greatest shot. I prefer dealing only with shooter error, scope problem and/or load problem and not have to throw "gun problem" into the mix. The Winchester 1885 and plain old T/C Encore are single shot rifles that have always worked well for me.

[Pardini]

The thing that you'll come across is that because of the rib being mounted to both the barrel and receiver the POI changes when the barrel heats up. I havent had that problem, but mine is a 218 Bee. The triggers aren't that great, I put the Keplinger in it and it's much better, but probably not worth the money. It also has the tuner in the forearm which did actually help shrink the group's.

The other one I have is 357 mag which I had reamed to 357 Max years ago, but never got around to doing anything with it yet. I'd go for it if you can find a used one a a good price, but I think a bolt gun is more accurate. The Browning falling blocks are more accurate rifles, but the triggers aren't much better.

[smittty]

My 30-06 No. 1A light sporter was horrible in the accuracy department, horrible! But it was one sexy gun! I kept it for 20 years before finally giving up.

All those positive comments above must be an anomaly because all the research I did over the last 20 years is that mine was more common than an accurate one. I do have a friend that had an extremely accurate one in 270 but it was stolen and he replaced it with a new no. 1 and it is are horrible as mine was. He's in the process of rebarreling it.

So, my experience has been....1 out of 3 are accurate and most have sexy walnut.