I have a 20 year old Rugewr, shots pretty darn good groups with the right powder and 180 grain bullets. Howvwer, i am always looking for ideas on accuracy improvement and balistics. The good has never been worked on. I am woundering if there would be any value in converting it to 30-06m improved, for that matter I do not know if it can be down on a Rugewr No. 1 and realign the scope mount.

Welcome to the forum Steven,

What model #1 do you have?

If your rifle is accurate now then you must leave it alone.

I have had a 30/06 (mauser) rechambered to the improved version and it really did not make a significant differance. To do it the barrel must be set back as the improved reamer must remove enough of the shoulder area to re-establish headspace at the shoulder/neck junction. It's quite difficult to remove a #1 bbl. Either it must be held forward of the hangar or the hangar cut off.

It always makes a lot more sense to just buy another rifle chambered for a bigger cartridge if velocity is what you want. Within 300 yards the 30/06 is the best of the 30's.

Does your #1 stay sighted in? ie on the first shot from a clean cold barrel does it always have about the same point of impact? If it does, like mine do, then please don't touch it.

To do it right you need to set the barrel back one turn. This will cause problems remounting the rib. While it can be done I wouldn't do it for the small gain you could expect.

I agree in your particular case that the 30-06 AI doesn't really help you. If you want more velocity, without setting your barrel back, you have to rechamber to something that will clean up the entire old chamber. If your #1 has a 26" barrel, then any of the 30 mags will work great for you (300 Win mag, 30-338, 308 Norma, 300 Wby, 300 Dakota, 300 RUM, 300 Pegasus, 30-378 Wby, etc) If you have a 22" barrel, you're really better off staying with what you have or buying another rifle. Now, I'm not saying you won't gain velocity by going to one of the improved cartridges, because you will. It's just because of the unique system that the #1 usesn(the barrel hanger and the quarter rib, assuming you have one), re-chambering and setting back the barrel can be a pain. Can it be done? Certainly. Should it be done? Well, only you can decide. Velocity gains will vary from case to case, typically (I believe Bob Hagel did the research on this)a 10% increase in case capacity will net you a 5% increase in velocity. The Hawk/Scovill, Gibbs, Howell cases will get you a little more, but not much. Figure 100-200 fps depending on which version you want. Easier to go to a magnum case and get the velocities right up front. FWIW - Dan