Hi all,
Have a Ruger No 1 in 300WM and can't seem to get better than 1.5" groups at 100 yards. Have tried light (150GR Hornady sp) thru 200GR as others have suggested in a variety of handloads.
harmonics tuning is just not working.....

Considering a new barell of a much better grade. Would like to know if there is anything about the action that is inherently contributing to the poor performance.....any thoughts before i get this barell replaced?

Anyone out there that has had a barell replacement on a #1?
Thanks

I have replace a number of #1 barrels, usually with Shilen, Lilja or Krieger. A lot of the accuracy problems can be eliminated by glass bedding and floating the foren.

I replaced a #1 barrel with a Ron Smith gain twist 1n 6.5-270wsm.I had vertical stringing problems with the original 7mmRM and fixed it with a home made "Hicks Accurizer".When I changed barrels the 7mm was still a good shooter I just wanted a one of a kind wildcat.I am pretty sure it's the only #1 converted to that caliber.I added a Moyers Trigger at a later date.The rifle will shoot half minute out to 1000yds.

Did you revove the forend and shoot it for a group ?

removed thje fore-end and still shoots like a dog.

I wish i could shoot the rifle myself to see what might be the problem but as I can't, can only venture ideas and opinions. Don't expect any help from Ruger as their accuracy standard for the #1 in 2.0" at 100 yards. Fortunately, most do a hell of a lot better than that. I have five rifles chambered to the .300 Win. mag. and 4 of them are Ruger #1's. Two are 200th year Liberty "S" models that I recently acquired and I haven't shot them yet. The other two are a #1B and a #1S. Both will do .375 to .75" groups with loads that they like.
Witht hat said, I believe your living area probably has some rather strong changes in relative humidity over the course of a year. Is this correct? I brong this up because Ruger dddddoes IMHO, an extremely shitty job of sealing the wood on the inside of their stocks and those stocks soak up water like a sponge. Just ask me how I know on that little item.
So the first thing I would suggest is seal off that wood under the buttpad, andinside the hole for the bolt that holdds the stock in place and where the butt stock meets the receiver. Same thing with the forearm. before you seal the part of the forearm that meets the receiver, carefully sand away just enough wood so that any contact between the two is as even as possible. Take the foreamr screw and slip a tight "O" ring onto it and then replace the forearm.. It makes it easier to regulate the tightness of the screw which can help improve accuracy. Free floating and glass bedding can help sometimes, but sometimes it aggravates the problem. I have 22 Ruger #1 rifles and only two were bought brand new, all the others being second hand guns. Most, I think were sold because the owners couldn't get them to shoot really tight groups. I paid $300 a while back for a #1A in .270 Win. that the previous owner had done a radical free float of the forearm and about 3.5" was about the best the gun would do. I epoxied a small piece of credit card material at the tip of the forearm and groups are not 1.0 to 1.25" depending on the load.
I'm a bit more casual about grouping ability with Ruger #1 rifles. For me, they are hunting rifles and as long as I get 1.5" or less, then I'm a happy camper. Some of my #1s will shoot groups les than .25", the .22 Hornet and .223 Rem. as examples. But what difference would it make if the .404 Jeffery or .416 Rigby only shot 1.5" groups when you're shooting at something the size of a Sherman Tank at 50 yards?
Why not tack up a few 8" paper plates at 100,200 and 300 yards and see where those 1.5" loads do at the longer ranges. If you can keep your shots on that paper plate at 300 yards from a solid sitting position (not off the bench) then you've got a load that will do in any deer, elk or moose as long as you do your part. Minute of deer, elk or moose is what counts. MOA is only for bragging to your buddies.
Another thought is you can have a gunsmith drill and tap the forearm hanger for a screw that you tighten in increments to adjust barrel vibrations. I did that on my #1B in .300 Win. mag. and it helped that one a lot. Another thing is you can go to either Brownell's or EABCO and buy a Hicks Accurizer which does basically the same thing as the screw in the foream trick but is adjustable without removing the forearm which has to be done with the drilled hanger. I have a Hicks on a custom #1 in .223 Rem. that I picked up at a gun show that I had to not only put the Hicks on the thing but a whole new barrel. The old was was totally shot out as determined with a borescope.
I do love my Ruger #1's but they can be very much like women, temperamental as hell.
The powder I use in my .300 mags. is Winchester's discontinued WMR. If you can find some (good luck) 74.0 gr. with either the 180 gr. Nosler Partion or Sierra 180 gr. Pro-Hunter and the Speer 200 gr. Hot-Core with 69.0 gr. of WMR have been extremely accurate in the .300 Win. mag.s I've shot them in. I'm very lucky yo have what amounts to a lifetime supply, 30 something pounds all with the same lot number.
You might give Winchester's new 780 Supreme powder as they say it's what they use in their factory ammo. I haven't seen any data yet but it might be an option.
paul B.
Paul B.

Thanks Paulb,
Thank you for your observations, I thought it might be the fore arm too, so I pulled it and shot it off a lead sled and still got horrible groups.
Maybe you are right, that i am just trying to get too much out of a hunting rifle....I think I will change out the barell and see what that will do for me. I think if that fails to produce results, I will just sell off the piece.
thanks again.

Ruger #1's can be a tad persnickety, especially from the bench.
A couple of questions and maybe a suggestion or two as they pop into my mind, if I may.

You say you shot the gun from a lead sled. Was the barrel rested on the front piece or the forearm hanger? If on the hanger, it should rest as close to the edge of the tip as possible and never on the barrel, but I'm sure you knew that.
A couple of other things you might try. One, shoot of sandgags with the front bag as close to the receiver as possible. On the other hand, you might place the bag under where the forearm scew is located or even at the tip of the forearm. Ruger #1s seem to be really fussy about the location of the forearm on the bags.
Another thing to try is rather than using a normal benchrest style of shooting, rest the forearm in your hand while it rests on the sandbag.
You might also consider having your gunsmith replace that idiotic pad that Ruger puts on the gun and replace it with a Pachmayr Decelerator pad. Ruger rifles in the harder kicking cartridges need a much better pad than that junk they got from some fire sale.
Some Rugers did come with lousy barrels, and I admit that I've been pretty darn lucky with most of mine being second hand guns. I've only had one that had to have the barrel replaced and Ruger did it without any argument. It did take seven months to get the gun back but it was not only fixed, but fixed right.
If you rifle is one of the newer one where Ruger is making the barrels, then I don't think the problem would be the barrel. If it's one of the older guns with a contract barrel and you're getting 1.5", that falls within Ruger's accuracy standards so you're out of luck there as well regarding having them fix it.
Come to think of it, all my Rugers are the old ones with those Wilson contract barrels.
I just bought another #1B about two weeks ago, and I've only done one load for that one so far. This one is in 7MM Rem. mag. and preliminary trials show 1.5" groups for the first set of groups. I consider that a pretty decent start that I'm pretty sure I can improve on with a bit of load tinkering.
They really are a neat rifle, but they do sometimes require a bit a patience from their owners.
Paul B.

PaulB,
your information is greatly appreciated. I did the sandbag shoot and I also experimented with a variety of forearm positioning attempts. I do see a great difference in the accuracy. some better, some worse.
I do have an older model Ruger and was able to verify by phone today, that for that year they were using contract barrels. I think I just have a lemon barrel.
I amgoing to get the barrel replacement and get the accurizer added and get a glass bed and stocl seal as others have also suggested. I will get back with the results....
I just love the gun....but gotta make it shoot. I usually am a paper puncher, but want to use this 300WM for an upcoming canadian shoot and I want to be dead on with my accuracy to assure a clean and efficinet shoot.
thanks again to all that posted. I learned alot

I keep thinking about your problem trying to figure if I missed some aspect. My #1B does one inch on average with 180 gr. bullets, but when I switch to 200 gr. bullets the groups tighten up even more. When I think about that, I remembered that my #1A in 7x57 also prefers the heavier bullets, 160, 170 and 175 grains to be exact.
My most accurate load uses the 200 gr. Speer Hot-core with Winchester's discontinued WMR powder for a velocity of 2930FPS. I've shot the load in three rifles chambered to the .300 WM and it's been dead nuts accurate in all three.
Winchester has brought out a new ball powder called I think Super 780 or something like that. What little data I've seen with it shows it's a bit faster than WMR but just might do the trick.
It's too bad we're so far apart, as I could have a better idea of what needs to be done if I could shoot the gun myself. That's a sad part of trying to diagnose a problem on the web, especially with a persnickety #1.
Paul B.

Great information! Thanks to all!! The most accurate modification I have made was to a Ruger Number 3 that I removed the barrel band and free-floated. The vertical stringing stopped and groups are in the 1.25 inch range.

quote:

Considering a new barell of a much better grade. Would like to know if there is anything about the action that is inherently contributing to the poor performance.....any thoughts before i get this barell replaced?

Absolutely NOTHING about the No. 1 that causes poor shooting! It is more of a challenge to get a rifle with a 2-piece stock to shoot under .5 MOA, but it can be done. Every Ruger single-shot rifle I have has been able to do an inch or less, (3-shots) right out of the box with handloaded ammo.

This includes a 1B in 7mm Rem. Mag. which shot 1" groups AT 200 YARDS brand-new, with nothing done except mounting a Leupold 2X-7X scope on it.....

Is it an early 80s, late 70s manuf.? Many of the older #1s had poor bbls plus long throats. I have a PacNor on one that shoots great. My other #1 is a factory bbl. 7remmag tht I had rechambered to 7mm Dakota. It shoots sub moa w/ many loads. If you have an older manuf. #1, a new bbl. should improve accuracy if installed properly.

There are several ways to tune Ruger barrels to shoot better. One I would recommend trying before rebarreling is this:

Take off the forend. Drill a hole about 1/8" or 5/32" diameter straight through the hanger for the forend, out almost at the very front end of the hanger. Thread the hole for whatever screw thread you like. Then get a longish set screw of that thread pitch and size, and screw it into the hole. (It will need to be a long enough screw to reach clear through the hanger and touch the barrel.)

Then try varying amounts of pressure against the barrel with the screw. Set the screw just touching rthe barrel, reassemble the forearm and fire a test group. If that doesn't improve grouping, remove the forearm again, turn the screw in a bit more (to increase pressure against the barrel), re-assemble forend, and do another test group.

After some testing, you should find what the rifle likes with THAT PARTICULAR AMMO. Write down what screw setting you used, so if you have to change the pressure for a different load some day you can always come back to what works if you also come back to this load.

This method has worked for numerous shooters and gunsmiths I know of. Might work for you and be cheaper than a new barrel.