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RugerRifle Special Edition

John Haviland

I t may be going out on a limb to saythe Ruger No. 1 is the best andmost popular single-shot centerfire

rifle in history, but the No. 1’s featuresmake it a sturdy limb, starting withthe simplicity of its firing mechanismand then its elegant, slim profile oflines flowing one to the next. The riflealso made a reactionary statementwhen introduced 44 years ago whenbolt actions certainly dominated thehunting and target rifle market, andautoloaders were gaining acceptance.That longing for traditional timesrings true even today.

No. 1

Left, the Ruger No. 1 has a high stock comb that allows keeping the head erect while shooting offhand.This No. 1A Light Sporter weights 8 pounds with a Leupold scope. Right, No. 1s have been made withand without iron sights.

it quick to reload. As the breechblock low-ers, the ejector moves slightly to the rear to

begin pulling a case from the chamber. As the blocklowers enough to clear a path for a case, a springgives the ejector a hard kick to boot the case out ofthe chamber. The ejector spring is positioned on thereceiver extension below the barrel. It can be discon-nected to allow the ejector to partially extract a caseout of the chamber, so it can be removed by hand.Mark Gurney, the director of product management

for Ruger in Newport, New Hampshire, said therehave been slight changes to the No. 1 since its incep-tion. Like many of Ruger’s firearms over the years, de-

signs have been altered slightly to tighten part tolerances. “Hand filing and fitting soundnice, but all that really means is you were incapable of correctly making parts,” hesaid. Gurney is especially proud of Ruger’shammer-forged barrels for their smooth-finish bore and good accuracy. He sees no problems in continuing to manufacturea 40-some-year-old product. “We’ve beenmaking them forever,” he said, “so we knowhow to do it.”Hand-checkering of No. 1 stocks was

converted to machine-cut checkeringyears ago. Gurney calls it “engravedcheckering,” and he said stock wood islike March weather in New England.“Some of it’s good, and some of it’s bad.We separate and sort through it [as]best we can.” Lately Ruger has beenpaying more for better wood.From the No. 1’s beginning, its major

parts have been produced by invest-ment casting at Ruger’s Pine TreeCastings in Newport, New Hamp-shire. The rifle’s receiver, breech-block, lever and lots of little bits andpieces are still investment cast.

Gurney said the late Stan Ter-hume started Pine Tree Casting in1963. “I consider Stan as Ruger’smost important employee, rightbehind founder Bill Ruger, be-cause long before there was e-mailand computers, Stan had PineTree Castings up and pouringsteel in nine months,” he said.Terhume’s ability to take a prod-uct from conception to productionwas an immense help in quicklybringing the No. 1 to market in 1967– and introducing Ruger firearmsone after the other during the 1970sand 1980s.Over the years Ruger catalogs

have listed the No. 1 in a vastarray of models. In the vicinity of45 cartridges have been cham-bered in those models, from the.204 Ruger up through the .300Weatherby Magnum and .458

2015

The No. 1 was called the “Victorian” during its de-velopment. Roger Barlow refers to the rifle by thatname in his article “Ruger’s Reactionary Rifle” in the1967 Gun Digest. From the public launch in 1967 andonward, though, the rifle has been called the “No. 1.”Every review of the Ruger No. 1 falling block since

it was introduced has commented on the attractive-ness of the rifle, using words such as “classic.” Therifle’s trim look originates with its breechblock heldin a compact receiver, because its mainspring is lo-cated forward of the receiver and out of sight underthe forearm. All its main components pivot on onepin. When the lever is pushed down, the breechblocktravels down with a slight rearward pitch to preventrubbing of the case head against the block face andrequires little leverage to open the action. On the up-swing of the lever, the block moves up and forwardto provide enough leverage to push a cartridge intothe chamber. Except for a small recess for the extrac-tor, a cartridge is fully surrounded by the barrel. Agood portion of the receiver frame supports the rearand sides of the breechblock. The No. 1 works forshooters of either hand, but it’s more of a right-handrifle as the right receiver wall is slightly lower thanthe left side, which makes it easier to insert a car-tridge from the right.The rifle is called a single shot, but its ejector makes

RugerNo. 1

Rifle Special Edition46 www.riflemagazine.com

Ruger No. 1A Light Sporter.243 Winchester Handloads

overall loaded

bullet powder charge length velocity group(grains) (grains) (inches) (fps) (inches)

55 Nosler Ballistic Tip IMR-4166 44.0 2.665 3,555 1.92 Big Game 47.0 3,423 1.07 Varget 45.0 3,564 1.2070 Sierra MatchKing Benchmark 35.0 2.625 3,052 2.52 A-4064 40.0 3,143 1.05 Big Game 42.0 3,032 1.7588 Berger Varmint MRP 45.0 2.710 2,733 1.92 H-4831 44.0 2,660 .83 Power Pro 4000-MR 44.5 2,863 .9295 Hornady SST Power Pro 4000-MR 44.0 2.700 3,000 1.08 Big Game 39.5 2,898 1.45 IMR-7977 48.5 2,914 .8685 Federal Premium Vital-Shok

Trophy Copper factory load 3,010 1.07Notes: All handloads were assembled with Remington cases and CCI 200 primers. Velocities wererecorded 10 feet from the muzzle of a Ruger No. 1A with a 22-inch barrel. Group size is the average ofthree shots at 100 yards. Temperature was 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

The No. 1 workswell for right-

and left-handedshooters, but the

lowered right receiver wall

makes it easier to insert a car-tridge with the

right hand.

Magnum. They are available onlythrough Ruger’s distributor, Lip -sey’s (www.lipseys.com). For theforeseeable future, the five No. 1models will each be chambered inone cartridge every year, but ex-clusive runs of the rifle will alsobe made from time to time. “TheNo. 1 is waning,” Gurney said. Onereason is a brisk market for usedNo. 1s. “People tend to take goodcare of their No. 1s,” he said.However, Ruger must keep a few

spare No. 1s in a back room. Forthis report the company loanedme a 1A Light Sporter .243 Win-chester. The rifle weighed right at8 pounds with a Leupold VX-3 2.5-8x 36mm scope on board in Rugersteel rings. The 1A’s 22-inch barrelfeatures a barrel band for a slingswivel. The front sight is also on abarrel band and presents a brass

bead for aiming. A quarter-ribholds a fold-down leaf rear sight ina dovetail and bases for connect-ing Ruger scope rings. Quite a bitof figure ran the length of therifle’s walnut forearm and butt-stock, with contrasting blondeacross the buttstock grain. Thepanels of point-pattern checkeringon both sides of the forearm andgrip contain fairly well shaped di-amonds that provide a sure grip.I shot the rifle over several

weeks with numerous handloadsand one factory load. Horizontalspread of all groups shot at 100yards was less than an inch. How-ever, the rifle strung its shots ver-tically 2 inches or more with a fewloads. I thought that might havebeen caused by the receiver exten-sion providing irregular tension ofthe forearm against the barrel, orthat the forearm was too tightagainst the receiver and pushedagainst the barrel. Mostly, the reason was handloads that pro-duced wide swings in velocity. Forexample, Sierra 70-grain Match-Kings had an extreme velocityspread of 136 fps when fired withBenchmark powder and a result-

The safety is desiged to stop an ejectedcase for easy removal.

Lott. Special runs of rifles cham-bered in such cartridges as the .303British and .357 S&W Magnum havepushed the number even higher.Gurney said chambering the No. 1action for different cartridges isrelatively easy, because there is no worry about cartridges of dif-ferent shapes and lengths fitting in or feeding from a magazine. “Tochamber different cartridges, youjust need the right chamber reamer,”he said.Over the years many of these

cartridges have been chambered in different models with blued orstainless steel and walnut stocks,stainless steel and laminatedstocks, different recoil pads, etc.,and a collector of No. 1s will beforever destitute.In contrast, today few models

and cartridges are currently avail-able in the No. 1. The only optionsare the 1V (Varminter) .223 Rem-ington, 1RSI (International) 6.5x55,1B (Standard) .257 WeatherbyMagnum, 1S (Medium Sporter) .30-06 and 1H (Tropical) .375 H&H

Right, the gripangle into thereceiver and

operating levergive a flowing

symmetry to theNo. 1. Below,the Ruger No.

1A Light Sporterfeatures a slimforearm withcheckering tosecurely grasp

the rifle.

2015 47www.riflemagazine.com

ing group of 2.52 inches. The Sierrabullets fired with Accurate 4064,though, had a narrow spread of 40fps and a 1.05-inch group. FederalPremium Vital-Shok 85-grain Tro-phy Copper bullets produced a velocity spread of 32 fps and shota 1.07-inch group.It was easy to hit patches of

snow the size of a soup can at 100yards shooting the Light Sporteroffhand and sitting. A pronghornantelope at 300 yards would be

was required to work the lever toeject a case and chamber a freshcartridge. I turned the rifle side-

cinch shooting from prone withthe rifle over a backpack.A minimum amount of effort

ways while pushing the lever downto kick out a fired case. Cases ei-ther flew out of the chamber or hitthe safety tab and fell on theground. I used to think an ejectedcase that hit the safety button wasa flaw of the No. 1, but Gurneysaid the safety was designed tostick above the loading channel tostop an ejected case from hittingthe shooter in the face.It is enjoyable to work the No.

1’s lever to drop the breechblock,

Rifle Special Edition48 www.riflemagazine.com

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slide a cartridge into the chamberand close the block tightly on the cartridge. Gurney said the .300H&H Magnum is by far the mostfun, because the cartridge’s longtaper seems to guide itself into thechamber as if it were vacuum-seal-ing itself when fully chambered.There is also a fascination and

sentimentality to the No. 1. Gurneysaid he owns quite a few guns butfew models of the same gun. “ButI do own multiple No. 1s,” he said.When Gurney celebrated his 20thyear at Ruger, the company of-fered him his choice of any Rugerfirearm. He could have picked anSR-762 with a price tag of $2,200.Instead he chose a No. 1 .30-06.Gurney bought another No. 1

purely for sentiment. A few yearsago when sorting through Ruger’sNewport archives, he found a noteon a No. 1B .270 Winchester thatread “Stan – for One Shot Hunt.”He realized the rifle was intendedfor Stan Terhume to use on thefamed One Shot Antelope Hunt inWyoming that has been held for 75years. Several people asked Gur-ney why he’d bought such a plainrifle. “I bought the rifle,” he said,“because Stan hired me in 1994,and he was my idol, because hewas a gun guy and a casting guy.”The No. 1 also stands for stalk-

ing within sure distance of gameand finishing the hunt with a sin-gle shot. One October I guided afellow from Milwaukee huntingpronghorn antelope on the prairie.Jack was a cheerful guy and com-pletely laid back. It was really nosurprise when he pulled a No. 1.30-06 out of his gun case. Duringthe course of a hunting day, wewere in and out of the truck sev-eral times. Jack always droppedthe lever on his rifle to show therifle was empty before getting intothe truck. When we walked, I no-ticed he closed the lever but with-out a cartridge in the chamber.

2015 49www.riflemagazine.com

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Handloaded Berger 88-grain Varmintbullets and H-4831 shot well in theRuger No. 1A Light Sporter.

R

“You can load your rifle, youknow,” I said.“There’s plenty of time for that,”

he replied.On the third evening, we spotted

a real nice buck with thick hornsand tips with a deep hook. Westalked up on the buck in the min-utes before sundown, but a closelook with a binocular showed thebases of the buck’s horns weresomewhat short.“Why don’t you shoot the doe

next to the buck,” I said.“Right,” Jack replied.In two seconds Jack had cham-

bered a cartridge and lay pronebehind the rifle. The shot was easyacross a narrow coulee, and thedoe fell.The following day we spotted a

buck in the distance. Through aspotting scope it was clear thebuck’s horns were outstanding.The buck stayed in the middle ofwide open flats and several stalksfailed. In late afternoon, the buckand a band of does and smallerbucks lay in the middle of a basin.It was about a 500-yard shot, butJack said there would be no fun inthat.At sundown the antelope stood

and lined out for water. “Jack, thiswould be a good time to load your rifle,” I said. We stalked up acoulee below a stock water dam.Jack crawled to the crest. Thebuck stood at the far edge of thewater, and Jack shot it. We hurriedaround the pond to the buck, andits horns were everything Jackhad hoped. He ejected the ensur-ing cartridge from his No. 1. “Justlike I had it planned all along,” hesaid.