Anyone have any experience with the Ruger No. 1 in 45/70? I would like it mainly for Black Bear hunting over bait, whitetails...ok a little overkill and just to blast lead through. Is the Ruger No. 1 accurate? Any problems with it?

I had one and did not have any problems with it. I used to load my 45-70 with the No. 1 with 405-grain Remington up to around 2100 fps. Accuracy was very good out of the box. You may need to do some work on the forearm, as the 45-70 come with a skinner barrel than the 458 Lott and the fitting is usually not that good. Replace that factory recoil right away, as that thing is as hard as a rock. Good luck.

I have a #1 stainless in 45/70 and I really like it. I shoot the 300 grain 45/70 Barnes X bullets. When I sighted it in, I got 2 shots almost touching at 100 yards without trying to shoot tight groups, so that is good enough for me. I got a very large whitetail doe this past year with it at 155 yards. You have to be familiar with the trajectory, because after about 100 yards the bullets really drop fast. I see no need to mess with the forend hanger on this caliber, the barrel is short and quite heavy. The smaller caliber #1's can be fussy about the forend pressure, but this one dosen't seem to be. I have thought about switching to a Decelerator pad, but the factory pad isn't bad when wearing hunting clothes.

JLBMI I have had a No1 in 45/70 for about 25 years. One of my best loads is the 350 Hornady RN with 56gr. of IMR 3031. The newer No1's have a shorter throat than my rifle does. You will have to seat the bullet deeper than I do. Start with about 52gr. and work up. My No1 is very accurate with 300 and 400gr bullets also. I have killed deer with all three, but like the 350gr. Hornady's best.

JLBMI, I have had a Ruger No.1 .45/70 for about 20 years. It is very accurate with several loads, but I have never been able to get it to shoot the 300 grain weight very well. One of my best loads is with a cast bullet, the Lyman 457122HP (Gould bullet from the 19th century, but moulds are once again available for this bullet.) I cast these from wheel weights, then harden the driving-band portion by heat treating the base end of the bullet, leaving the hollowpoint nose section soft so it will expand. Mine come out 342 grains. With an inverted gascheck over the powder (60 grains of RE7) this slug has a MV of 2364 FPS and with properly sorted bullets, will shoot very close to 1" @ 100 yards! This load has a lot of recoil, so for all-round use, I use Elmer Keith's load-53 grains of 3031 with a 400 grain bullet for 1750 FPS. The .45/70, properly loaded, is plenty gun for anything in North America and most things in Africa too, with the possible exception of rhino, Cape Buffalo, and elephant.

[ 02-27-2003, 19:52: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

Eldeguello,
How do you go about heat treating only the bottom half of the cast bullet? This would be a handy thing to know how to do.

Just got a No.1 in 45-70 last week haven't even shot it yet.I sure like the feel of it.I got 405gr.Rem JSP bullets on the way anybody got any pet loads for these bullets.Only wanting to shoot in the 1600-1800fps range.Open to suggestions!