I have a Ruger No1, custom chambered in 338-06.
It has a medium weight Shilen match grade barrel that is 24 inches long, with a home made muzzle brake, because I'm recoil shy.
I really like this rifle, but it's going to be looking for a new home soon. I'm getting long in the tooth and my month long hunting trips for Northern Moose and Elk are now behind me.
I hunt around home now, 100 klik trips are about as far as I go on my own anymore.
This particular rifle has one issue that is COMMON to Ruger No1 rifles. It will shoot the first two bullets, touching each other at 100 yards, from a cold barrel. It will hold a moa right out to 400 yards, if I do my part.
Now, the third or follow up shot, is a whole different beast. I can guarantee it will impact an inch high at 100 yards and an inch and a half high at 200 and more at longer ranges. The fourth shot will stay in the same general area but where, is anyone's guess. It may be high, low or somewhere else, but still within a couple of moa of point of aim.
When I purchased that barrel, I paid extra for proper heat treatment, so this problem would be minimal.
The chamber is reamed with my personal reamer, ground to minimum specs, except for the neck. The throat is tight and only long enough to take a 225 grn Hornady spire point loaded with the base at the bottom of the neck. With a bore diameter of that size, a few extra grains isn't going to make any difference that will be noticeable in the field or at the range.
I've shot a lot of game with that rifle. Thankfully none of them required a third shot to put them down permanently.
I also have a No1 with a factory, heavy match bbl, chambered in 223 Rem. It has almost the same issue.
I have glass bedded the fore ends, added screws to the fore end tang to put upward pressure on the bbl. Cut away the wood on the fore end where it might touch the receiver and even added extra pressure to the fore end tip, as well as complete free floating, with the fore end only touching the mounting tang.
I have bedded the butt stock as they often loosen up to the point of cracking. Lightened trigger pull to around two pounds, soldered on the scope bases to the barrel etc.
Nothing worked. That's the nature of the beast.
I have a hunting acquaintance that has a No1 chambered in 6mm Remington. That rifle is 45 years old and shoots really tight ten shot groups at all ranges.
He was kind enough to lend it to me, so that I could check out why. It shouldn't have shot any better than my rifles but it did and still does, even after a couple of thousand rounds.
I even went so far as to take off the barrels and retorque them. Checked out the cases on an optical profiler for square and done chamber casts to make sure the chamber is cut square to the axis of the bore.
NADA.
They're still both very useful rifles for the purposes I use them. Heavy game and Coyotes, where I'm not shooting strings for grouping.
You certainly aren't the only person that's noticed Ruger No1 rifles can be inconsistent after the first 2-3 shots. Then again, that isn't what they were designed for.
Back in the day, when Ruger was getting inferior barrels from a cut rate supplier, a lot of their rifles had accuracy issues and the only fix, was to scrap the barrels and install an aftermarket barrel of good quality.
Ruger started out as "affordable" rifles for the masses. It took them a while to get their quality up to par with their competition. I can't really comment on their latest offerings, other than several folks I know really like them.
