Scope set up for a Ruger #1??

dgradinaru

dgradinaru

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I just bought a ruger #1 and im looking for a good life time set up, the rifle is in 9.3x74r which is harder kicking so I want a decent eye relief.

I want to get medium extended rings for the gun, does anyone know where to buy them?

As for scope I was thinking a Leupold , but what type?

Any recommendations and information is welcomed.
 
Can't help you with the rings/bases info but as far as a scope goes, i'd recommend either a VX2 in 2-7x33 or a VX3 in 1.5-5x20 or 2.5-8x36. These scopes are all clear, bright, lightweight and with plenty of eye relief. Good warranty as well.
 
I like the Leupold 1.5X5 on the #1 especially if its a hard kicker or if you can find one is the M8-3X Leupold.
Both are straight-tube scopes and have good eye relief so you might not need extended rings which I last bought from Epps.
 
My 9.3X74R has a Leupold M8-4X with their post and crosshair reticule, the stock fitted with a Pachmayr Decellerator to 13" LOP, and works great! Have a Leupold M8-3X for it as well, but the 4 stays aboard most of the time.

Both scopes have more than four inches of eye relief.
Ted
 
You my friend are a sucker for punishment. Especially with your build.

I had a Ruger #1 and a Martini in 9.3x74. Both were custom rifles and both shot very well.

They both had 26in barrel lengths and 1-16 twist rates. Recoil was brutal, even on the Martini with a wider than normal shotgun style butt. I even installed Sorbothane pads on both of them and still found the recoil uncomfortable to the point I was developing a flinch.

To me, this was unacceptable and I knew I was just scratching an itch rather than developing a love affair with the cartridge.

The Ruger was carrying a fixed 4X Leupold. On the ruger, it isn't an issue as much as it is on the Martini. The scope can be mounted where it is most comfortable for you.

If you have to hold your head back to avoid a scope kiss you will develop a flinch and feel the recoil even more. The Martini was a different beast. Any scope that would allow decent eye relief and was low enough to acquire the image easily would have the rear bell over the breech and make it slow/difficult to load. I soldered a base to the barrel where appropriate and mounted a long eye relief scope. A 2.5X Leupold.

A lot of people overlook the advantages of a LER scope. They are very quick to bring on target and useful to 300 yards on big game. With the trajectory of your cartridge, that would be about the longest practical range you will likely shoot anyway. Some might stretch that but the drop after 300 yds is very quick.
 
You are going to want as long of eye relief as you can get. No 1's have a nasty habit of making you have to creep the stock to get into the scope. Even with a Leupold VariX2 I had on mine with 4.1" of relief it was borderline. I currently have a different scope and am awaiting a set of extended rings so I can get the scope back a bit more. I would look at the Leupold's and try at least for a scope that gives you close to 4" of eye relief even plus the extended rings, that way you have room to adjust as needed to get the scope where you need it.
 
BigUglyMan said:
What did your #1 weigh all in bearhunter?
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It was built on the Tropical Rifle theme and all in with sling, scope/base slightly over 12 pounds if memory serves.

It wasn't a light rifle by any means.

The rifle is in South Africa the last I heard. At first glance, it looks like any other Ruger #1 Tropical other than it has a stainless barrel on a blued receiver. The bbl was the only one available at the time and in my price range. The slow twist rate stopped it from selling but it stabilized anything I wanted to shoot out of it.

If anyone bothered to measure the OD of the barrel they would find it was at least .050 thicker than the standard Ruger offerings.

It wasn't built to be a light rifle by any means. What it did do very well was allow for higher pressures in the old cartridge to be used.

That was a great rifle by anyone's standards that likes single shot rifles. The nose heavy balance allowed for a very steady off hand hold. If the rumor of the rifle being in South Africa is true, I hope the owner appreciates its capabilities.

Over the years I have become more and more recoil shy. I have a frozen shoulder and the pain can be extreme. I don't even shoot trap anymore because of it.

I still have two Ruger #1 rifles. One is in 30-06 and sports a Shepherd scope. The other is in 338-06 and needs a replacement butt stock. The 338-06 also wears a muzzle break to reduce the still substantial recoil. I have a very nice set of wood that came from Macon. I would recommend their products to anyone with the skills and patience to fit their offerings. The wood is bone dry, close grained and highly figured. It will make an outstanding looking rifle. I have allowed the progress of the project to languish because of the substantial felt recoil.

The OP, is a nice young fellow that really likes to experiment with just about any type of firearm he can get his mitts on. I only know him from talking to him at gun shows and through some dealings we have had. I met his father as well. Nice fellow. Anyway, he isn't a heavily constructed young man. He would be considered lighter than medium weight. He has a long neck as well. Recipe for disaster concerning recoil.

I likely should have opted for the 9.3x62 but I didn't have access to a reamer and the action had the proper extractor for the 9.3x74. Not only that but I had a couple of hundred cases in an old cardboard box that came out of the UK in the early seventies. The rifle cried to be chambered for the round.
 
That explains the recoil being so bad. My x62 is fairly lively off the bench but not what you'd call punishing. I would have thought the x74 would be similar. But with a bum shoulder all bets are off.
 
Rode said:
Nawww.... I looks good and it solves any mounting issues. If your No.1 is for hunting and not sitting in a glass cabinet on display you'll find that you now have 20MOA built in, you can use high end solid rings and you can mount a red dot if you wish.

I guess it's more practical... maybe it's ugly to some people but it works well for my needs, and that's hunting son.
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What in the world do you need 20MOA built in for?

Ted
 
As far as the 20moa goes, it is a bit out of place on that rifle but the 458 Lott cartridge, depending on which loads are being used starts to get some pretty substantial drop out to 400 yards. The bullets up to 500 grains are very capable killers at that range and farther if you can adjust your scope for it. It has been my experience that 99% of the time, any game animal more than a hundred and fifty yards off will give you plenty of time to get on target from a rest, without having to hurry.

Once you get out past 400yards, the trajectory takes the shape of a rainbow and 20moa just might come in handy for a fellow that is familiar enough with such a rifle as pictured. Mind you, the scope being used seems to be lacking for such long ranges.

As far as the scope base goes, I like it. I have never been a fan of the Ruger #1 quarter rib. I looks pretty but I would like it to be stronger. Also, getting special diameter rings for the Ruger base can be a challenge.

When the 338-06 I mentioned goes back together, it will be wearing a 3-10x IOR Valdada. I have IOR rings for the rifle which are steel and massive. They will fit onto any Weaver style base and as long as the base is rock solid, so are the scope/rifle and as such all adjustments are always repeatable, right out to maximum adjustment in horizontal or vertical.

One of my IOR scopes wasn't repeatable when major elevation changes were made. I sent it back through the dealer in Canada, who sent it on to a repair facility. It was found to be defective and they replaced all of the adjustment guts. No explanations as to what was wrong. They just agreed it wasn't right and fixed it. Total turn around time was 5 weeks. They paid for all of the shipping costs, including my costs and included a very nice lens cleaning kit for my troubles, along with an apology.

Can't ask for much more than that.

Anyway, I like the mount but I see it is for a barrel without a taper. Might be hard to fit to a custom barrel.

IMHO, the stiffer and stronger the base the better the mounting will be.
 
Rode said:
Ted, not sure if your acting like a troll or not... if you ask a question like that you maybe have very basic hunting rifle setups that are not capable and practicse traditional hunting. (Both are fine with me if that's what you like) I'm not about to get into 'who's #### is the longest' far shot with you but a No. 1 is very capable of long range shots. Infact if you reload you can load very heavy bullets and do some cool stuff Ted. Heavy bullets sometimes drop faster even if they have a better BC, but I might be getting ahead of myself. Ted all I'm saying is that not everyone hunts with a 30-06 out to 300 yards.

Love...
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Interesting...why would a person want +20 MOA with a 1x red dot and then obliquely claim that the platform is capable of long range shots? I'm curious what you're using a #1H in 458 Lott with a +20MOA base and a red dot for? Feel free to tell me to pound sand and keep your secret hunting style to yourself, but given your condescending response to one of our most respected board members I'm guessing there must be some sort of cryptic awesomeness the board would profit from hearing about. My #1H is only the measly 458 WM but but I'd sure love to hear about the "cool stuff" that it's capable of.
 
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