Ruger No. 1 with Leupold 2-7X scope
In December of 2008 I was shopping at one of my favorite sites, Gunbroker.com and found a Ruger No. 1 chambered in .357 Magnum. When I first became interested in the .357 Maximum rifle this was the platform I desired, but availability and high cost of the not so common Ruger, led me to the T/C Encore. After contacting the seller, we were able to come to terms on a mutually acceptable “buy-it-now” price. I made my Encore available to my “family and friends” network of hunters. Within a half hour of sending the email, my brother Scott, replied that he would take it. It’s always nice to keep quality guns in the family. If for some reason my Ruger project went belly up, there would also be a possibility of begging my brother to sell the T/C back to me.
After receiving the Ruger, the first order of business was having the chamber opened to .357 Maximum and having the barreled action reblued to take care of the small rust spots on the front sight. I did my very best to convey what type of chamber I wanted to my gunsmith. In the end, I received something different. I have not made a chamber cast but I’m quite certain I received a pistol type arrangement with the forcing cone dimensions. I cannot seat a Hornady 180 gr. out far enough to make solid contact into the rifling. Since the metal cannot be put back, I decided, “it is what it is” and I’ll make the best of it.
I know it often takes a little work to get Ruger No. 1’s to shoot well, and this rifle was no exception. What I found was a vertical stringing issue to the tune of 2-3 inches at 100 yards with various loads. If I waited 5 minutes between shots, groups would tighten up considerably. I really would prefer to shoot multiple shots without stringing. I experimented with adding pressure between the hanger bar and barrel with temporary shims. I tried using inner tube material between the forend and barrel. I removed the forend completely. I tried free floating the barrel by sanding out the channel and removing the contact pad of wood that Ruger designs into their forend. I have to say that produced the worst groups of all. I believe this is due to a relatively large bore in a light weight barrel. When allowed to oscillate freely, who knows where the bore is pointing when the bullet actually leaves the barrel. In the end, I decided to bed the forend at three points to give the barreled action a rigid mounting surface to the forend. I used Devcon Plastic Steel Putty 10110 for bedding compound. The first bedding area was a very thin layer where the forend meets the receiver. The second point was around the lug where the forend screw attaches. The third point was near the tip of the forend between the barrel channel and the barrel. To create an adequate gap I used 7 layers of electrical tape around the barrel. For a release agent, all metal parts were coated with Kiwi neutral color shoe polish prior to applying bedding compound. When the bedding was completed I refinished the sanded forend channel with polyurethane to keep moisture out.
Bedding at point #1
Bedding at point #2
Bedding at point #3
This really seemed to take care of the vertical stringing issue. This setup combined with light forend screw pressure, yielded 5-shot 100 yard groups in the 1.00-1.50″ range. One evening I shot a 5-shot group at 200 yards at dusk when the wind dropped to zero that measured 3.40″. For a light carbine with a straight wall pistol case and a 2-7X scope, I thought this was very acceptable.
HORNADY 200 GR. FTX BULLET
Hornady came up with the idea of using pointed polymer tip bullets in their LEVERevolution line of cartridges, to use safely in tubular magazines while maintaining higher ballistic coefficients than can be achieved with flat nose bullets. When they made these bullets available to handloaders, I thought I better try them. Being a varmint shooter, I am familiar with this bullet design concept as I have shot a lot of Hornady V-Max bullets. Accuracy has always been good. I purchased a box of .358″ 200 gr. FTX bullet #35105 and proceeded to work up loads. This bullet has a ballistic coefficient of .300, which is very good when compared to other bullets for the Max.
The author’s final hunting load, as noted bullet is seated out
considerably to accommodate the Ruger’s rather long throat.
I started with 26.0 gr. of Accurate 1680 and worked up to 28.0 gr. in my first range session. Ignited with CCI 450 primers, the 28.0 gr. load averaged 1963 fps from the Ruger’s 22″ tube. Extreme spread for 10 shots was 63 fps. At 100 yards (2) 5-shot groups measured 1.24″ and 1.32″ with each group having tight 4-shot clusters measuring .655″ and .725″ respectively. Because of my Ruger’s long throat I have to seat the bullet out to an overall length of 2.50″. This puts the crimping cannelure .300″ outside the case and I am only capturing about .187″ of bullet in the case. It looks quite odd but it eliminates bullet jump and the extra case capacity should help keep pressures down. A second range session with the charge being increased to 29.0 grains of Accurate 1680 gave me the results I was looking for, with velocity averaging 2020 fps and extreme spread of 51 fps for 10 shots. A 1.20″ 100 yard 5-shot group gave me the confidence to use this load for my hunting load. A 135 yard zero puts this bullet 1.5″ high at 100 yards and 6.9″ low at 200 yards. At 200 yards, it still generates 1033 foot pounds of energy. What I really like about this zero point is that out to 150 yards the bullet is always within 1.5″ of the crosshairs and at 200 yards only slight elevation compensation is needed. This load showed no pressure signs in my Ruger. While it is safe in my rifle, it may not be safe in your rifle. Always refer to manuals, start low and work up cautiously.
2009 Opening Day
Opening day for the Indiana firearms season came in on November 14th this year. The weekend before, I took a decent 8 pt. with my bow. With Indiana’s one-buck rule still in force, I would be limited to taking does.
Author with 2009 8 point archery buck
The county I hunt in allows (4) antlerless bonus deer this year in efforts to curb the population. This was a challenging year for deer hunting. The opening weekend was warmer than usual and most of the corn was still standing. Around 9:00 a.m. a decent doe ran toward me through some set-aside ground. At 30 yards she stopped and started walking broadside and away from me. At 45 yards the doe passed through an opening presenting a quartering away shot. I placed the crosshairs behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. She ran about 20 yards, dropped and kicked for about 20 seconds. The shot entered behind the left shoulder and exited through the right shoulder. When field dressing, I found the heart was almost completely split into two halves.
The first success with the Ruger No. 1 .357 Maximum, Opening Day 2009
My next opportunity came on the day after Thanksgiving. I could hear deer running through the woods heading my direction. My stand was located on the edge of the woods near a ravine. The first deer exited the woods into a recently harvested cornfield. After the next two deer came out, I realized the first doe was the largest. At 60 yards, I took a shoulder shot on the fat doe. At the sound of the shot the doe hunched up, reversed directions and ran about 50 yards before piling up. The shot entered just in front of the first shoulder and broke the second shoulder as it exited the opposite side.
Twenty minutes later another doe came sneaking through the woods behind myself and the ravine that was 25 yards from my stand. The buck I had shot in archery season was also standing near the edge of this very same ravine at a different stand inside the woods. When I arrowed him, he took 3 steps and went end over end coming to a rest at the bottom of the ravine. Even though my nephew, Michael, helped me drag the buck up the steep bank of the ravine, my back was still sore from the event. I did not want to repeat that experience with this doe. I decided to take a neck shot on the doe as it stood 15 yards away. When the Ruger sounded, the doe instantly hit the ground. She kicked for a minute then laid still. It was a relief that she did not run down into the steep ravine. The 200 grain FTX bullet entered high in the neck and exited a bit lower on the opposite side. There was quite a gash on the exit side, which indicated bullet upset.
The little Ruger carbine performed well with 3 shots and 3 deer. Even though I have a tendency to trade guns and try different things often, I can honestly say, I plan on keeping this one. For an Indiana deer rifle it is just right for me. It fits me very well, it is accurate, it has plenty of power for deer size game with relatively light recoil and in my opinion, it’s just a nice looking rifle. I am already looking forward to next year.
