If I could have a Ruger No. 1 in any chambering I wanted, it would be a .333 Jeffery Flanged, with 28-inch barrel, standing leaf express sights and stocked in nice Circassian.
Dream rifle No. 2 would be the same gun in .461 Gibbs, with Selous plates at the wrist.
Can daydream can't I?

Bill,

I like the .333 Jeff Fl. idea. That would be easy to accomplish. Just find you a nice 1-S with a great piece of wood, rebarrel and rechamber it, find some brass hopefully, and have one of those custom safeties but on it, and there you go. All for less than $2000. I'd like to see you make that happen and let us follow the project. That cartridge is awesome technically.

Mine goes the other end of the cartridge spectrum.
A 28 inch .257 Weatherby mag. heavy barrel
Leupold 3.5 x 10.
...tj3006

maybe a .450-400-3 1/4" with a 28" barrel.

Mine is in process on a Steve Earle replica Wesson #1 LR action. That's the one with the tapered octagon full rib barrel.

ISS, Duh!!!!!! The topic is Ruger #1. You seem to crawl into anywhere that you can brag...

Idaho Sharpshooter brag? Of his 17,795 posts he only bragged on about 17,790 of them. But if he ever mentioned pecker length, I missed that post so he doesn't brag.

I like the idea too.
I think this had been discussed and I think I would do the Jeffery cartridge with a .338 barrel to make bullet selection easier.
As for the 461, I like that idea too but again, I don't know how easy it would be to find a barrel to the original Metford .461" bore.
I am surprised we don't see more No.1s in classic BPE chamberings with nice long barrels.

If I had all of ISS's guns I would brag as well.

dave, dave, dave,

It's called a segue...

I case you are not familiar with the word, it's a musical term for the slight pause transitioning from one movement to the next.

I would enjoy owning another #1 if there were not so many other, more desirable single shot actions out there waiting for me to acquire.
My last #1 was a nice Schuetzen Rifle I got from Wayne Schwartz with double set triggers. I wish Bill Ruger had offered them from the factory.

I am curious though, are you stalking me here? Your AR life, aside from pimping your photographic skills; seems to center around following me around.

In case you're curious, my next single shot rifle, after the Wesson is complete; will be one of Steve's Fraser replicas.

regards,

Rich

Boomie, come up this fall and we'll go shoot my Ten Bore Paradox DR.

Bill- Those sound like classy rifles! I can just see them in my head. The Selous styled one, especialy. Here is my dream number one:

#1-S-C 45-70 with 26" "C" contour barrel. Ruger did a small run of these a few years ago, and I missed out. I am currently looking for one. I would like some light English scroll on the action and lever with Color case hardened action and lever by Doug Turnbull's shop. Slow rust blue of the barrel as well. The Lipsey's special run had Circassian Juglins Regia for stock wood. Most that I've seen were rather plain, but there are some semi-fancy stocked rifles out there. I've been looking everywhere for one, but no luck. The only one I've found is on G-broker for truly huge money and the seller won't work a layaway for me. Re-chambering to 450 BP express sounds cool, but I don't shoot black. With smokeless powders, the 45-70 can be loaded like a 45 Colt to four fifths of a 458 win. I've never felt the need to punish myself with my 45-70's. They just don't need speed.

Hi Bill!

A #1, chambered for the .333 Flanged? Nice idea!
I´m a great single shot rifle fan. Especial about the british rifle makers. ( I have only a Martini-Henry cadet rifle, others are not my "collar size") The most rifles I own, are single shots.
At the moment, I have a lot of problems with "my" dream #1 rifle-project. It´s a .30-40Krag. In Germany, not a usual round....
Befor a few years, I was thinking about a M98 rifle for the .333Rimless. With nearly the same problems, no reamers, no ammo, no brass..... And expensive relaoding dies.
The "next" single shot will come out of the box... I´m thinking about a Pedersoli officers model Trapdoor. But at the moment, I will save my money to finish the Krag-rifle.


Martin

Dave Wesbrook -I enjoy your pictures. Excellent photography. I'd buy a magazine that contained your work. I'd not buy a magazine that had articles written by Idaho Sharpshooter--who would want to spend money to read some boasting? If he can do otherwise, I missed it.

I like both Rich and Dave's posts, but I wish that they would take their negative comments about each other to private messaging. Let's just talk about our dream guns and compare wieners elsewhere.

Huvius, you put your finger on the problem -- finding a .461 Metford barrel. I believe Ron Snover used to make a Metford barrel but no more, or so I have heard. For that matter, tough to find a .461 barrel with any sort of rifling.
Also tough to find a.333 barrel, although I know Jens Poulsen has had a couple of them.
It's the details that keep these projects in the dream stage ...

quote:

Also tough to find a.333 barrel...

Lothar Walther made a .330" barrel for a .318WR rifle-project for my dad. It wasn´t listed. Your can ask the LW-guys....


Martin

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Huvius, you put your finger on the problem -- finding a .461 Metford barrel. I believe Ron Snover used to make a Metford barrel but no more, or so I have heard. For that matter, tough to find a .461 barrel with any sort of rifling.
Also tough to find a.333 barrel, although I know Jens Poulsen has had a couple of them.
It's the details that keep these projects in the dream stage ...

Yep, may be a challenge to go 100% correct in that regard.
One alternative for a 461ish barrel is to use a take off barrel from a Martini Henry.
Seems like they vary some in actual bore diameter but would be something in the ballpark and of course they aren't Metford rifled but certainly a period alternative.
My Henry rifled BPE rifles all shoot quite well so that may be a good way to go.
Another option is to use a 470NE or 500/465NE barrel which are .475" and .468" respectively IIRC. The original 461 Gibbs barrels had a groove diameter of around .470" but again, wrong type of rifling...
I have a Ron Snover Metford barrel (think it is a .458 groove) which I will be using for a very special build in the near future. Unfortunately that is as close to a correct Gibbs/Metford barrel as I can get right now.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
If I could have a Ruger No. 1 in any chambering I wanted, it would be a .333 Jeffery Flanged, with 28-inch barrel

Just a curious question to you guys - why a 28" barrel? Because of the British nostalgia or something else?

quote:

Just a curious question to you guys - why a 28" barrel? Because of the British nostalgia or something else?

I can only speak for myself, but the longer barrels (26-28" max) give a longer sight radius, which improves accuracy. Perhaps just as important to me is the sexy look of long barrels on British style falling blocks. I wish Ruger made all of their open sight #1's with a 26" barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
I wish Ruger made all of their open sight #1's with a 26" barrel.

I agree. I have a #1S in 7mm REm Mag with the long heavy 26" barrel. I really like how it handles with no scope. It also looks better. My 45-70 looks stumpy by comparison.

I passed on a 1S in 7mm Rem Mag a few years ago. Regretted it, not seen too much in Aus.

Bill a 333 Flanged sounds like a great dream.

The only No1 I have at present is a 450/400 with express rear sight (can't see well enough the factory sight) and recessed safety so it kicks the empties clear.

I like a 26" barrel on doubles and singles, though shorter has been handy too.

For a custom I would find an earlier No1, I think the actions were a bit tighter, but maybe that's just a fond recollection!

Good luck. Chris

One of my dream rifles is a #1 in 9.3x74R. Longish 28" barrel and a trim Zeiss scope othe lower power range in detachable rings. Toss it all is decently figured stock (I am admiditaly not a stock guy so I can care less about fancy wood) add a nice set of express sights and it becomes what I think of as a classic European stalking rifle.

My other dream #1 is basically the same gun chambered up in 338/74 Keith with the appropriate scope.

I already own enough funky hard to feed calibers so I have no desire to take on another one.

quote:

Mine goes the other end of the cartridge spectrum....A 28 inch .257 Weatherby mag. heavy barrel Leupold 3.5 x 10...

I built one fifteen years ago. 27" Jarrett barrel with that scope but in a B & C stock. Not that pretty, but I won't post the accuracy level - no one would believe it.



.

28" on a SS is about the same oal as a 24" on a bolt rifle. Despite what you read, longer barrels are good for velocity.

At what point of barrel length does "Barrel Whip" become an issue on accuracy? I can see the long barrel accuracy argument with irons because I could shoot pretty good with a fine blade front sight on what I think was a 28" barrel on a sweet as can be 450 NE (that gun is my dream single shot. A gorgeous Farky) I would not want longer than 28" barrels and perhaps 26".

Gotta ask…. Why 28" barrels? Velocity, hmmmm? Are you really reaching out that far? I enjoy reaching out from 700 - 1,200 yards with various bolt trash weapons but really can't imagine many people doing that with a Ruger #1. So, I''m pre-supposing a scoped rifle -vs- iron sights and would enjoy hearing the reasoning behind the fascination with 28" barrel on a Ruger #1?

I have several single shot rifles and all have longer barrels than 28" because I like UMM ! ain't that reason enough ??? I could ask why some like short barrels ? but it's their business ! not mine .

James, I prefer the look and feel of a longer barrel on the very compact Ruger No. 1 action. As Rich pointed out, a 28 on a No. 1 is no longer than a 24 on a bolt gun. It does confer a bit more velocity, but it also reflects the look and taste in the early single shots from the Golden Era of the late 1800s, when smokeless was new and hunters preferred barrel lengths they had become used to in the black powder era.

Sounds good. Thanks for the replies.

Bill: I think Krieger will provide a 333 barrel. I recently saw a Dakota in 318 WR that had a Krieger barrel.

I got my dream #1



http://forum.nosler.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=28086

I want a Ruger #.7 with a takedown/interchangeable barrel, in the #1A style.

There are so many interesting small cartridges out now. They need to be in a smaller, lighter single shot action.

Bruce

LJS, thanks for the heads-up on Krieger!

quote:

Originally posted by dave wesbrook:
ISS, Duh!!!!!! The topic is Ruger #1. You seem to crawl into anywhere that you can brag...

quote:

Originally posted by carpetman1:
Idaho Sharpshooter brag? Of his 17,795 posts he only bragged on about 17,790 of them. But if he ever mentioned pecker length, I missed that post so he doesn't brag.

Damn! …And I thought the political forum was a cesspool!

Idaho, welcome to the kangaroo court!

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
If I had all of ISS's guns I would brag as well.

Careful Boomer, you may get indicted as a co-defendant!

…………………………………………………………................................................ .

First I wish RUGER would come out with BIG BORES. I have a J D Jones .577 build and its cool; but it seems like Ruger is missing the Money Boat, starting with 500NE and going up to 600. Clearly these are "do-able" cartridges, since there have been enuf' custom guns done on the No1 actions, and I have to bet theyd sell more than enough to make the effort worthwhile. Then they could do the Special Magnum run of 4 and 8 bore guns...

On a more likely to be done note, octagonal barrels would be cool. I recently saw a custom No1 with an octagon barrel in 338WM, thats seriously making me re-think my distaste for 338s....

And dear Lord why dont they put real express sights on them? As if a set of 3 folding leafs would be sooooo hard or expensive.

quote:

EDELWEISS: I wish RUGER would come out with BIG BORES....theyd sell more than enough to make the effort worthwhile....octagonal barrels would be cool....why dont they put real express sights on them

Good ideas. They did the 450/400, which was a pretty big success. More English and other rimmed cartridges in limited runs seems feasible. Bet they could sell some 450, 470, 500, 577 nitros. Half oct/ half round barrels with folding express rear sights would be neat.

Also, longer barrels seem to be a trend. All the rage in double shotguns now, even the small bores. Used to be short fast handling barrels were preferable.

Quarter rib & rear sights I had made for a #1:

Fla3006: Whoever did the rib and sights for you was a smith of the highest order. Very, very nice!

maybe, but there's nobody left there who understands that one of the primary reasons for building a SS is putting a 26" barrel on it.

I always wanted a 30/40 on a Number One but when it came time to chamber the barrel, I chambered it for a 303 Epps with a thirty cal throat instead. I already had three 30/40's and I had a set of Epps dies.
Now, had I checked things out before hand, I might not have done it. The 303 Epps sizer appeared to be flawed in the shoulder area and the neck diameter was too big to hold a thirty cal bullet. The neck diameter was actually the same as any of my three sets of 308 dies but 303 brass is quite thin in the neck. I ended up having to make a die with a bushing to size the neck.
In the end, it works great and the 25 inch barrel, .580 at the muzzle, balances well. I added two pins to the lever to push the breech block all the way up and take the slop out of the lever. Now the firing pin hits center and the lever doesn't rattle. The plan is to shoot a sheep with it this fall. Of course, the plan is to shoot a sheep with something every fall and it never happens! Regards, Bill.

quote:

I always wanted a 30/40 on a Number One...

My .30-40 #1 rifle is in process. I hope, I will get the rifle in a few weeks. The only unknown "size" is the proof house. The .30-40 is indeed in the CIP table, but the proof houses have always problems with "exotic rounds"....
Last week, I let test the first loaded .30-40 rounds at the proof house. I used Rottweil propelant. Pressure is moderate, at 2200bar, and the 175grs BTHP would have 2200fps.
So, the only thing´s missing, is the finished rifle ...

Martin

I have 30/40 Krags in four different bolt actions (two of which are single shot target rifles) but it is well suited to a falling block. A Hi-wall in 30/40 would be very nice.
In the Ruger, one can load the 30/40 to exceed 308 Winchester performance with no issues. Regards, Bill