no suprises here Tom Rivers 303 Ruger 1a testing
- Thread starter WhelanLad
- Start date
nowarningshot
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Those rifles are notoriously finicky. Bedding, followed by Shiming, then a exorcism. If that doesn't work, hacksaw and bonfire. Some calibers, because they're so rare or oddball are reloader only calibers. Ruger #1 are reloader rifles. Like his channel, found it a few months ago. Watched most of his back catalog. Genuine, and laid back. You just have to get past the accent.
i know you know!!!
its no rifle to bet yer buddies a slab of beer for shootin a group with, but theres every chance you can bring home the biggest buck with them.
it is a bit of a spew that the 303 has its dramas, but i mean i would like to see someone else shoot a group with mine now days and see how it fairs for 3 shots...... but to be fair, just X2 shots is all one really needs to pull off from cold bore with them IMO.
its a awesome gun, cartridge an useful as all heck in the bush!!!! but its no instagram group photo gun
I have been shooting a pile of different #1's and #3's since 1980, some shot great right from the get go, others not so much.
There was only one I could not get to shoot ( my first one) and nobody else could either! LOL.
In my experience, it is generally not hard to get them to shoot really well .
However, concerning the .303, Ruger had some with varying bore diameters , which made for interesting results.
A buddy had one that would not shoot .312 jacketed bullets worth beans, but powder coated .314's really shot well.
Other guys I spoke with shot .312's well, so there is that .
not sure I would go at a rifle with an uncoated rod with no bore guide- in fact I wouldn't just on principal!
Cat
There was only one I could not get to shoot ( my first one) and nobody else could either! LOL.
In my experience, it is generally not hard to get them to shoot really well .
However, concerning the .303, Ruger had some with varying bore diameters , which made for interesting results.
A buddy had one that would not shoot .312 jacketed bullets worth beans, but powder coated .314's really shot well.
Other guys I spoke with shot .312's well, so there is that .
not sure I would go at a rifle with an uncoated rod with no bore guide- in fact I wouldn't just on principal!
Cat
Mine has a .314 bore and it shoots the .312's in 150 grain flavour pretty well.
I would prefer to shoot heavier with it, but it has spoken and it tells me it prefers lighter bullets.
I have paper patched some cast boolits, but I have nothing that pours lighter than 180 grains.
Accuracy wasn't great with the heavy boolits, but it shoots 150 grain factory fodder very well.
Haven't tried any handloads with the light bullets. Yet.
I would prefer to shoot heavier with it, but it has spoken and it tells me it prefers lighter bullets.
I have paper patched some cast boolits, but I have nothing that pours lighter than 180 grains.
Accuracy wasn't great with the heavy boolits, but it shoots 150 grain factory fodder very well.
Haven't tried any handloads with the light bullets. Yet.
I have a Ruger no 1 in 303 that shoots nice.I only use iron sights so I put one of the Ruger style express rear sights on it and a large ivory bead front sight which gives it a bit of old African style hunting rifle appeal
I agree with this. Of the four that I’ve had, ( .270, 7 MM Rem Mag, .338 Mag and 45-70, only the first one, the 7 R Mag was a problem child. It would easily copper foul the barrel leading to decreased accuracy after 10-15 rounds. A good light revealed horizontal tooling marks on the top of the lands from a sloppy bore job by the factory. Vigorous polishing and lots o shooting improved the bore enough to consistently provide 1 -1/2” five shot groups or better up to about 20-25 shots total before thoroughly cleaning the bore. It even won a 1000 yard match in the hands of my son, posting a 5 1/4” three shot group at this distance. The others were no problem, excellent hunting accuracy, the 45/70 could cut (large) 3 shot cloverleafs at 100 with a hot load of Re 7 behind the Hornady 350 if you had nerves of steel.
yeah interestingly i had reasonable accuracy with "highland 150gr" which is a PPU brand i believe.........
otherwise the longer SPEER hot core 180 an similiar shaped Woodleigh 174s, worked well with the long throat etc!?!
could you try speers hot cor 180gr? about 40gr Varget yeee haaa
Well, I am a TR match shooter, but if my hunting rifles shoot 1 1/2" scoped up with a hunting bullet, I am quite happy for sure!
I had one Ruger #1 that I just remembered about, a 7mm Mag. The fella I bought it from gave me his test targets and 5 different boxes of ammo with it - all with two shots out the box.
The biggest two shot group was 1 3/4" and the smallest IIRC was touching!
I couldn't handle the recoil at the time because of nerve damage in my neck, so I sold it to a friend.
That was a really nice looking rifle as well!
Cat
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Before I even took the rifle to the range, I would have made what modifications necessary to allow it to shoot it's best. He's close to the answer on barrel break in. All in all, despite the slow pace, I don't mind his video. No. 1's, like any rifle with slow lock time, really reward consistent hold and follow through. Ruger's decision to make oversized barrels is difficult to understand and falls right into the screw up category IMO. .311 barrels work fine and there is no reason not to go that size.
I started to like the single shot rifles, and this seems like my new passion. The 303 has always intrigued me, so now I hunt for a single shot 303.
I know they are a needle in a hay stack, but if one rolls around in the hay long enough they eventually find the needle!
I know they are a needle in a hay stack, but if one rolls around in the hay long enough they eventually find the needle!
Dorian Gray
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I found one this past summer. It was on consignment at Prophet River. Not cheap but I love it. I haven't put a tonne of ammo through it yet but I seem to be able to get 3 shot 1.5"-2" groups with Federal blue box 180's fairly regularly. Since this isn't a repeater, and I'll likely never get more than 2 shots off at any given animal I'm going to be shooting at, that seems to be more than acceptable in the accuracy department for me.
I've had 303's that shot well, but I don't think I've ever owned a No 1 that didn't require a lot of fiddling around to get good groups out of. Minute of deer? Sure. But MOA or smaller was always a job. - dan
