SmallCaliberCentral

I must be living right. My ruger #1 .204 I traded for off of gunbroker arrived at my dealer on Friday, and all of my reloading supplies I ordered from Midway also arrived on Friday, and I just so happened to have the day off. So I was able to pick up my gun, reload some ammo Friday night and I headed to the range Saturady morning. I loaded 7 different loads, 5 each. When I got to the range, conditions were not really in my favor. It was a pretty day but he wind was blowing about 20mph. The only good thing was it was a 1/2 factor wind and not full factor.
Well I start shooting I'm not impressed. I love the gun, but the trigger will DEFINITELY need work. It has a bit of creap and alot of over travel. I'm only shooting about 1.25-1.5 groups. I finally get to one of my loads, and now I'm happy.

Congrats on getting your new rifle.

As mentioned earlier, I've dinked about with Ruger No.1's and No.3's for more than a few years. The initial issue you describe is quite typical for a No.1 fresh from the factory or an unworked gun. The rifle will never reach its full potential until work is done to both the lawyer trigger AND the forearm issue.

Here's a link to get you started. For the record, virtually every No.1 or 3 I've known has responded favorably to these mods. Without them, the rifle will always be regulated to "so-so" accuracy. With the mods, it will shoot right alongside a good bolt gun; mine does.

http://varminthuntinginternational.com/ ... ruger.html

If you are not mechanically inclined, or not familiar with working on rifles, give it to a good smith that specializes on these rifles, and there's quite a few that do. These guns are fully capable of shooting 1/4" and less at 100 yards, but not until the inherient factory flaws are corrected. Good luck, let us know how she shoots once the usual No.1 issues have been resolved.

Congrats Rooster.I have one just like it,and still tweaking.I did freefloat the barrel,and installed a Moyer trigger.to get the factory trigger down from 31/2lbs.Not bad,and it broke well without overtravel.I'm looking for 2lbs or thereabouts.I'll also experiment with the wedge between the barrel and hanger.Have fun.

I checked out the link Rick attached and I think that is a little more than I'm capable of handling on my own, so I guess I will start looking for someone local that is good with #1's. We have several good smiths around, I'm just not sure if they are experienced with the #1.

Nice find on a nice firearm! Keep us posted on the progress toward those one-hole groups.