Somebody told me that the pre-warning Rugers had Douglas barrels on them, but almighty Google is being very disappointing with any information regarding pre-warning Rugers, and I have a feeling that the guy who told me that was full of sh*t.

So, what's the deal with them? I know they were obviously made before the epidemics of lawsuits, but is there anything realy special about them?

The reason for my newfound curiosity is that I was looking over my old tang safety 30/06 and dreaming of calibers to rebarrel it to (.280 AI came to mind) and as I was looking at the barrel, I realized that it was a pre-warning gun.

quote:

Originally posted by Gran Cazador Blanco:
Somebody told me that the pre-warning Rugers had Douglas barrels on them, but almighty Google is being very disappointing with any information regarding pre-warning Rugers, and I have a feeling that the guy who told me that was full of sh*t.

So, what's the deal with them? I know they were obviously made before the epidemics of lawsuits, but is there anything realy special about them?

The reason for my newfound curiosity is that I was looking over my old tang safety 30/06 and dreaming of calibers to rebarrel it to (.280 AI came to mind) and as I was looking at the barrel, I realized that it was a pre-warning gun.

GCB,

Jeez, I was led to believe the old, and often
inaccurate, Ruger barrels were made and chambered by Wilson. The same crappy barrels used on the Kimber model 89 BGR?

You might want to rebarrel to a plain ole
280 Remington. I'm not sure the A.I. version is
really worth the effort? If you want a 7mm magnum, it's cheaper to just buy one?

However, the Ruger barrel is quite a bit heavier than I like. Try rebarreling with a
featherweight contour and fit it to a Bansner hi-tech stock? This would make for a dandy rig!
(trigger job?)
http://www.itdcustomgun.com

quote:

Originally posted by Gran Cazador Blanco:
Somebody told me that the pre-warning Rugers had Douglas barrels on them.

So, what's the deal with them? I know they were obviously made before the epidemics of lawsuits, but is there anything realy special about them?

Would that they did!

My understanding is that Ruger paid $6 or $8 per pound for barrels back in them "bad old days," and my 1976 .257 Roberts ("Made in the 200th year of American Liberty") shoots just like that, despite a LOT of $$ and effort to make it shoot nice!

A gunsmith told me long ago that all I needed to do to make it shoot good, was put on a new barrel!

I bought my Ruger M77 7mm RM in 1979.I had it bedded and the trigger done and still only got 2" groups. Then a couple of years ago I put a Shilen CM 25" on it. I can now report .60 groups at 200 yds both with 140 gr and 160 gr Accubonds.

I've also heard they were Wilson barrels up until Ruger started making their own.

the story I got was Crescent Arms barrels.

Rich

In Jim Charmichael's book, The Book of The Rifle, he stated that Douglas made barrels for the early Ruger No. 1 rifles. I don't recall that he said that about the Model 77 rifles. Some Wilson barrels were good but quality was spotty. I would try lapping it with JB first. Thanks...Bill.

Like most manufacturers who outsource, Ruger likely used a number of different barrels prior to bringing that process in-house. Low bidder is low bidder. It is entirely possible that an old Ruger barrel might have been made by Douglas or any number of other manufacturers.

I had one of the earliest flat-bolts in .22-250. It shot just fine, but that's the luck of the draw. Another flat bolt in 6.5 Remington Magnum (talk about a gun I should never have sold!) was also perfectly acceptable in the accuracy department.

quote:

Originally posted by C1PNR:

quote:

Originally posted by Gran Cazador Blanco:
Somebody told me that the pre-warning Rugers had Douglas barrels on them.

So, what's the deal with them? I know they were obviously made before the epidemics of lawsuits, but is there anything realy special about them?

Would that they did!

My understanding is that Ruger paid $6 or $8 per pound for barrels back in them "bad old days," and my 1976 .257 Roberts ("Made in the 200th year of American Liberty") shoots just like that, despite a LOT of $$ and effort to make it shoot nice!

A gunsmith told me long ago that all I needed to do to make it shoot good, was put on a new barrel!

Originally, Bill Ruger put Douglas Premium Grade barrels on the No.1's. I don't know for how many years this was true, but I bought one in 7mm Rem. Mag. that has a 6,XXX serial number in 1969. When I zeroed it the first time, I was using a range that only had one bench and the target was at 200 yards. After collimating the scope, I fired three shots at a 6'X6' target frame at 200 yards just to see if it would be on paper so I could finish adjusting the 2X-7X Leupold that was on it. Imagine my surprise to find that those first three 175-grain Sierras in front of 66 grains of N205 went into 1" @ 200 yards! "Fluke", says I!
But no! So did the next three, and three after that! It did the same with old Remington 175-grain PSPCL's with 66.5 grains of N205, MV 3020 FPS! Pretty accurate rifle!

In 1976, I bought two No.1's and a No. 3. All three were "Liberty" models. All were 1 MOA rifles right out of the box - a 1A 7X57mm, a 1V .25/'06, and the No. 3, a .30/40 Krag.

I still have the 7 Mag, the 7X57mm and the No. 3, and they still shoot as well as ever.








I have heard of inaccurate Rugers, but have never shot one of them!

Eld. I've had two inaccurate Ruger #1s. The first one is a #1B in 30-06, which was the first one I ever bought back in the mid 1970s. it's a strange rifle. The first shot is alway 6" high out of the group. After that it's a nice 1" group. Let the gun cool off and it's 6" high and then another nice group. I've decided the gun is to be a donor for my #1 in .35 Whelen.
The other was my 7x57 #1A. My gunsmith did a chamber cast on the gun and found that the throat was over 2" loang, way out of spec. I sent that one back to Ruger and it came back witha new barrel and totally refinished to look like new. Groups run in the 1 to 1.25" range depending on the load.
Paul B.