Ruger No. 1 .357 magnum

[mike454]

Bought this one a while back. 40 years old and new in the box. A California Highway Patrol commemorative gun was being sold by a gunshop with a number of other commemorative guns all NIB. Picked it up for a very good price with the plan to use it for deer this year (straightwall cartridge state).

Put a Leupold 1.5x4 scope and shooting a 158 xtp over a max charge of H110 gave a sub 1" group at 50 yards. Moving back to 100 increased the group size by a bit, but given the rumors of the finicky nature of No. 1s, a still very nice sub 1.5" group.

[Encore64]

Simply Excellent!!!

[tdbarton]

I gotta stop looking at the No 1s and 3s…

[silcott]

Nov 28, 2021 17:20:02 GMT -5 mike454 said:

Bought this one a while back. 40 years old and new in the box. A California Highway Patrol commemorative gun was being sold by a gunshop with a number of other commemorative guns all NIB. Picked it up for a very good price with the plan to use it for deer this year (straightwall cartridge state).

Put a Leupold 1.5x4 scope and shooting a 158 xtp over a max charge of H110 gave a sub 1" group at 50 yards. Moving back to 100 increased the group size by a bit, but given the rumors of the finicky nature of No. 1s, a still very nice sub 1.5" group.



50 yard 4 shot group:

Nice rifle. Try the 158 XTP FP. They seem to preform better than the standard XTP's out of my 77/357. I've shot a couple dozen Ohio WT with that bullet. 2400 has always been a little more accurate than H110 out of a 357 rifle for me to.

Justin

[mike454]

I'm actually using the FP. Tried both 2400 and H110. I think 2400 may have been just a touch more accurate, tough to tell at 100 yards with 4x though. Happened to be at the end of my 2400 supply and had a full can of H110 so went that route.

[gcf]

Really nice light sporter, adorned with some outstanding wood! Circassian?

[leftysixgun]

Really nice Mike! Those are great looking targets by the way too, 😜

[potatojudge]

Shooting a 1.5 inch group at 100 with a 4x scope is excellent work. I'd imagine more scope would shrink those groups better than additional load development. I've shot the 180 XTP in to a 1/2 inch group at 100 using a max carbine, but that was with a 20x scope.

[mike454]

Thanks guys! not sure what type of walnut the stock is. Don't think it's Circassian as I don't think Ruger was using that in the early 80's yet. The highest magnification scope I have is a 9x which I might put on there one of these days just to see what that does for group size. For hunting will just stick with this one as it just seems right for the gun cartridge combo.

[bigmuddy]

I think the scope is perfect for that “stalking rifle”. The gun is almost too pretty to use. At some point I’d try some 180’s just because. You wouldn’t be too far off of 35 Remington performance.

Congratulations on your new rifle.

Dan

[jeffh]

BEAUTIFUL rifle in an amazingly versatile cartridge!

This may be one of the ones our local friend coltnewservice45 worked on when he worked at the factory.

Haven't seen him here in over a year, but if he's watching, maybe he can share the story again about how they throated those to make them work.

I've been getting 1700 fps out of Ranch Dog 190 grain FPs from 18" barrels and Alliant 300 MP. Tested those in a Ruger 77/357 and no apparent strain on brass or gun. Gun went down t he road for other reasons and the mould went to a friend with a 35 Remington, so I shoot a NOE 180 WFN for heavies now - but haven't shot any in the current 357 Carbine - a Contender Carbine with a MGM 18" barrel.

Lots and lot of fun to be had with 158s and 4.5 to 6 grains of Unique or 5.2 to 5.5 HP-28/231.