Ruger No.1 forearm hanger flex

01 December 2013, 18:42

I read this statement some time ago. Varying the No.1's forearm pressure on the barrel will change the point of impact of the bullet. To fix this is to have a gunsmith drill and tap the forearm hanger near its end for a set screw, which is then adjusted to put a constant pressure against the underside of the barrel, eliminating the flex in the forearm hanger and keeping the forearm away from the barrel.
Has anyone had to do this?
Thanks

01 December 2013, 19:41

willieb

Yes, I did that and it worked very well. About a year after I had it done, Brownells started selling a device that does the same thing. Hicks I believe.

01 December 2013, 19:44

John303.

No doubt a stock touching a barrel at varying pressures can alter poi. I'm a believer in free floating, just one more variable eliminated.
I have 2 #1s, a .300 Weatherby & a 375 H&H, I removed the pressure bump in the forends (it can always be put back I suppose).
Before you do anything you can always shim the forend away from the barrel and see what happens - do any alterations after. FWIW --- John

01 December 2013, 20:41

Doubless

It has long been known that Ruger's design for attaching the forend on the #1 has the potential to impair the firearm's accuracy. A lot of riflemakers take square stock, silver solder it to the underside of the barrel and attach the forend from the bottom.

Makes a world of difference...

01 December 2013, 21:55

Smokin Joe

Here's one item from Brownell's. It has an adjustable tensioning screw.

http://www.brownells.com/rifle...rizer-prod16944.aspx

03 December 2013, 10:53

7MMNut

Interesting this came up. I was at the range yesterday and was getting vertical stringing with my No. 1. I'm working on load development and had three shots of each load. First shot was always about 1.5" below the next two.

I could only guess that as the barrel heated the non floated barrel was putting pressure on the barrel. I talked to my gunsmith today who has done good work on my bolt actions but I wasn't sure how much he's done on the No. 1's. He recommended glass bedding the hanger and floating the barrel.

Will this do the same thing as the Hick's device?

05 December 2013, 23:20

mgoodrich

No. What your gunsmith is doing is free floating the barrel.

What the hicks design does is place a constant/consitent presure point on the barrel off of the forearm hanger.

I use this (hicks design)on my 220 swift. It works well.

06 December 2013, 08:37

7MMNut

quote:
Originally posted by mgoodrich:
No. What your gunsmith is doing is free floating the barrel.

What the hicks design does is place a constant/consitent presure point on the barrel off of the forearm hanger.

I use this (hicks design)on my 220 swift. It works well.

So the purpose of the Hicks device would be to kind of tune the barrel for a particular load?

It wouldn't do anything for resolving the heat issue?

If this is the case, it would seem the best thing to do would be both floating/bedding and adding the Hicks device.

06 December 2013, 20:02

mgoodrich

Yes, it would tune your barrel for a particular load, that is what I did with my swift.

I'm not sure about the heating issue. I have a 240 weatherby mag that has a sporter barrel and it is free floated (bolt gun). It will tend to string vertically after 2 shots, so I tend to wait about 5 minutes between shots knowing that it does this, and limiting my groups to 3 shots. So, the hicks device might help, but don't know for sure. I'm assuming you are shooting a 7mm rem mag #1?

Well, you might want to see if free floating fixes the issue, and then add the hicks later if it didn't, but not sure if the hicks would help this. The load for my swift was developed in another bolt gun, and it shot ok in the #1, but it didn't group as well. The hicks device shrunk the group size down to about what the bolt was doing.

06 December 2013, 21:18

7MMNut

quote:
Originally posted by mgoodrich:
Yes, it would tune your barrel for a particular load, that is what I did with my swift.

I'm not sure about the heating issue. I have a 240 weatherby mag that has a sporter barrel and it is free floated (bolt gun). It will tend to string vertically after 2 shots, so I tend to wait about 5 minutes between shots knowing that it does this, and limiting my groups to 3 shots. So, the hicks device might help, but don't know for sure. I'm assuming you are shooting a 7mm rem mag #1?

Well, you might want to see if free floating fixes the issue, and then add the hicks later if it didn't, but not sure if the hicks would help this. The load for my swift was developed in another bolt gun, and it shot ok in the #1, but it didn't group as well. The hicks device shrunk the group size down to about what the bolt was doing.

Actually the gun is in .300H&H. I took that handle years ago when my 7mm was my primary rifle and the .270 I had was mostly backup. That's all I owned at the time.

Sounds like I'm headed for a floated barrel. Thanks for your input.

11 December 2013, 03:27

SIKA98K

I bought a No1V in 22/250 some(12) years ago. This had already been done to it.That is the hanger had been tapped for a set screw.

Apart from dropping in a Kepplinger trigger it is pretty standard. It shoots like a dream as long as I do my bit.

I use it for shooting foxes at night and occasional deer stalking. It must have over 3000 rounds down the barrel by now and still does the bizz.

11 December 2013, 12:01

Bill Brady

Hi all
I've used the Hicks accurizer on a #1B in 270w and 338wm worked very well on both.Easy to install and use.
Bill

14 December 2013, 19:22

Texas Killartist

Barsness had a really good article in either Rifle or Handloader on "Accurizing the # 1"

15 January 2014, 20:30

xs headspace

Wolf Publishing's Gunsmithing Tips and Projects book has an article on accurizing the #1. This is probably a reprint of a Rifle Mag article.

16 January 2014, 01:15

metalbeater

Another solution in search of a problem.

Having a stack of No. 1s and 3s, the only one that would not shoot sub moa as issued was a !a in 7x57 with that pinweight barrel. With factory Privis it would shoot a 5 shot group 5" high and 3/4" wide. Now what would yo do if you had a bolt action that did that ? Same thing. Fore end was freefloated touching only at where it met the action and a small area where the fore end screw attached to the barrel. Bingo, same rifle same ammo, 5 shot round 1" groups.

Those of old enough to remember the Remington 37 target rifle with its fancy barrel tuning system also remember that it didn't work and could never out shoot a Winchester 52.

KISS is always the first choice.

16 January 2014, 01:36

df06

I tried various accurizing methods on four different #1s, including drill and taping the hanger and installing a screw that would allow pressure adjustment.
None of my four shot acceptable accuracy at all. One 22PPC got to about one inch, but would not hold zero (I tried different scopes) so I have sold all of them.
Despite them being a very attractive gun, I can't afford to buy non shooters anymore.

I hope yours shoots well.

18 January 2014, 00:46

Akshooter

I wouldn't buy the hicks only because the job can be done with a 6/32 screw through the end of the hanger. I've done that with both my .300 WM and .375.
I had some accuracy problems before I did this but now the .300 shoots sometimes under 1/2".
The .375 didn't turn out that good but then it's a .375 and plenty good enough in the 1-1&1/2 range for the size of the targets it gets used on.

19 January 2014, 02:38

JDA-CO

Years ago, I had a #1 45-70 that would not shoot. I put a dab of epoxy in the BBL channel, let it set for a while and then put the fore-end back on the gun when the epoxy was nearly set. The upward pressure on the BBL turned it into a one inch gun.

It worked.