The Gambler
When I was a young my father and I hunted a lot together. The hunting club we were members of had a gentleman that usually hunted with us by the name of Ellis. I remember Ellis pulling out a rifle some 25 years ago that caught my attention and never seemed to let go. I asked to see the rifle and of course, Ellis let me hold it. I remember it being a .280 Remington, which I knew nothing about, just that to my young mind it seemed to be about 10 numbers better than what my .270 was. It had a Zeiss scope, which I knew to be far beyond anything I could afford. The rifle had a red recoil pad and the wood was gorgeous to me. When he showed me how the action worked, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a falling block before. “How many rounds does it hold?”, I remember asking. “Just one”, Ellis said. I didn’t understand why you would want that, so I asked him “Why?” “Because I only need one,” he said. That response never quite left me. What I was looking at was a Ruger #1 and my desire to own one would stay with me for years to come.
It likes to be fed one round at a time.
I have owned many guns since that encounter roughly 25 years ago, but only one single-shot rifle. I thought I would be able to quench the desire for a Ruger #1 with a single shot bolt-action rifle and while that gun is a great gun and is still in the safe today, it never pulled at me like the No. 1 did. My reason for staying away from purchasing my first No. 1 for so long is simple, I like accurate rifles and the No. 1’s have proven to be an inconsistent performer. The lack of the free-floated barrel and the scope mounted directly to the barrel makes accuracy somewhat of a crapshoot and I just couldn’t imagine a rifle that depended on one single round being inconsistent. Additionally, Ruger No. 1’s have several other quirks. The receiver to stock height is better suited for irons and if you do decide to mount up a scope, the fixed location of the rings on the No. 1 makes for bad eye relief. The triggers are terrible from the factory and the balance of the heavier barreled versions is entirely too front heavy.
But the No. 1 has some wonderful attributes as well. The receiver is rock solid and able to take a ton of abuse and its short overall length means that you can run longer barrels on a No. 1 than you can a bolt action rifle and still keep the overall package compact. These No. 1’s are thin at the receiver and really lend themselves to hand carrying through the woods, even without a sling.
Two years ago, I decided I was finally going to buy my first No. 1 as I just couldn’t shake the rifle out of my head. I was surprised to find out that the gun I liked so much as a kid had been decontented and nearly discontinued. Don’t hold me to this, but I believe Ruger now only makes 6 models of No. 1’s a year and they all go through Lipsey’s. I believe Lipsey’s has some control over the configurations but from what I understand, if Lipsey’s wasn’t still requesting them, Ruger would likely stop building them. Turns out, not many people want a rifle that only shoots one round anymore.
To make matters worse, the No. 1 rifles they do still produce, no longer have the wonderful wood of yesteryear. The wood is of much lower quality, as is the fit and finish of the firearm itself…and they no longer come with that wonderful red recoil pad. I knew I still wanted a No. 1, but I also knew a few things about myself have changed over the years. I hardly ever shoot a rifle unsuppressed anymore, I am able to enjoy high quality optics and a good cheek weld and a good trigger are very important to me. I decided I was going to attempt to fix all those issues with the No. 1 and still attempt to keep it’s old, beautiful soul intact.
It took over a year to find the gun, as I wanted a modern cartridge and already being familiar with the 6.5 Creedmoor I had my heart set on this being the caliber. With 6.5’s all being newer No. 1’s, finding one with decent wood was going to be tough. I thought I would have to buy two No. 1’s, a new 6.5 and an older donor model with good wood and then swap out the barrelled actions. I also knew the 6.5 had to be a No. 1-B model designating the heavier barrel, because if I was going to thread the barrel, there would not be enough shoulder on the models with a lighter profile and taper.
Fortunately, while browsing Gun Broker one night I found a No. 1-B in 6.5 Creedmoor with gorgeous wood. I don’t know how or why this particular gun received wood this nice, but I emailed the seller to ask for a separate set of pictures just to make sure the lighting wasn’t playing with my eyes. The other images came over, and indeed, the wood looked just as good. I made an offer and he refused. Then I made another, and another. It was clear at this point, I was going to have to pay full price…something I can’t stand to do, but I knew how rare it was to find a new No. 1 with wood like this, in the caliber and configuration that I wanted. I swallowed my pride a bit, sent a check out, and shortly thereafter, I had the factory rifle in my hands.
The first order of business was taking care of the stock to receiver height discrepancy by having an adjustable comb cut in. I searched for a very long time to find someone that I thought could do the job and chose Mark Deprez out of New York. He works on trap and skeet guns and specializes in adjustable combs. I also decided to have the length of pull reduced 1” to get me to around 12.5”, something I try to attain on all my guns that allow adjustment, and would coincidently help with some of those No. 1 eye relief issues. At the same time, Mark fitted the old school Ruger red recoil pad that surprisingly, Ruger not only had in stock, but sent me for free. All I did was ask.
Stock work by Mark Deprez.
I sent the barrelled action off to Pac Nor in Oregon where they cut and threaded the barrel at 16.25” and cerakoted the barreled action in graphite black to my specified hardness ratio. I was trying to achieve something similar to the finish of the Dakota Model 10 falling block rifles and match my Dead Air Suppressors at the same time. I called BPI and got the exact mix used on the suppressors and Bergara Premier barrelled actions and kicked the info over to Pan Nor. I think I got pretty close to my desired effect. I love the way a matte barreled action looks against dark, grainy wood and Pac Nor did an outstanding job on both the threading and the Cerakote.
I ordered up a picatinny base from EGW. The purpose of this was two-fold: Be able to move a scope up and down the rail for proper eye relief and be able to use modern-day robust and sturdy rings. If you know anything about No. 1 rings, you know they all have a single top screw for mounting and are vertically split. It was important to me to keep with this design theme, so I ordered up the best vertically split rings that I have ever used, American Rifle Company M10 rings. They are absolutely awesome rings that are built to such high tolerances they can be tightened to a crushing 55 inch/lbs and not leave a single ring mark.
American Rifle Company M10 Rings
For the optic, I chose the Meopta Meostar R2 1.7-10x42. I wanted something light, with a 42mm objective that could be mounted as low as possible. The low 1.7x magnification allows for quick acquisition in the woods and a wide field of view. Optically Meopta glass is an outstanding value and at $1200 they rival scopes costing twice as much. The gun also has somewhat of a European feel and I felt the Meopta fit the theme well. Ten power on the top end is more than plenty for the 100-300 yard range this gun will mostly be used in. If I suspect the distances will extend further, I have other guns for that.
For the trigger, I went with Jard. I performed the installation myself but had an issue getting the sear to hold the hammer so I had Jard take a look at it. They ended up having to remove a screw on the trigger near the safety to allow enough room for the sear to catch. They shipped the rifle back to me inside of one week and the experience with those guys was pleasurable.
Finally, the suppressor is a Dead Air Nomad. I originally planned on using the Sandman Ti, but I preferred the shorter and beefier look of the Nomad once I tried them both on the rifle. It also saves a couple of ounces over the Sandman. I have searched and searched, and this may be the only suppressed Ruger #1 in the U.S. I certainly have not found another one. Amazingly enough, the rifle is several inches shorter and it is lighter than the factory gun with the full-length barrel. Because of this, the gun is better balanced, much closer to 50/50 and more maneuverable than the original…and you get to keep your hearing.
Accuracy testing proved to be a lot more simple than I expected. My goal for the gun was 1.5 MOA and right off the bat the gun proved that sub MOA accuracy was going to attainable in various factory loads. I had some spare 120 ELD-M that I decided to use to zero the gun and during zeroing it was clear that touching rounds was not going to be a problem. Once close, I swapped over to the 143 ELD-X for final zeroing and testing. The gun spit out groups just over 1/2 MOA consistently with both loads.
Water, not coffee is best for accuracy testing.
After nearly two months of travel for work, I finally got a day where I could carry the No. 1 in the woods and see if it could complete the full circle by putting some meat in the freezer. My very first morning I passed on a clean, young 6 pointer and a couple of does he was accompanying. Shortly thereafter, a 3 legged doe came up, lagging behind the group. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to test out the gun. I made a front shoulder shot at about 40 yards and the deer went maybe 10. The bullet exited the opposite rib cage and tore the heart in half.
The gun will probably be polarizing to most people, but that is OK with me. There are plenty of unmolested No. 1’s in the marketplace waiting to be had. I suspect my next No. 1 will likely be a bone stock, old, red pad 25-06. In the end, I could not be happier with the result. I got the gun I always wanted from my childhood, updated to reflect the technology of today with a feature set that I know I will enjoy for years to come. The initial impressions from those that have seen it, even those that attempted to convince me not to build this gun in this manner, have been very positive. The gun seems to strike a chord across multiple generations which is exactly what the No. 1 did the first time I ever saw one.
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