No.1 International

[Sweet 6.5]

Do one of you guys own one of these? I want to know how
accurate they are? Looking for at 7x57, maybe the 9,3.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

Love to have one myself. Make mine a 757. Personaly i think there the prettiest rifle made at any price.

[PowPow]

I have one in 30-06.  
Accurate vs. good looking was my struggle on whether to buy one. Good looking won. I thought maybe the deer would just come closer to see my good looking rifle, and accuracy wouldn't matter. (I already had a 1-V, which was also good looking, and very accurate).

My first impression of it was how small it was; 36" OAL is a pretty small gun. Put a Leu VX-II 2-7x33 with LR reticle. Its size and low magn eye relief complements the RSI. Put a Montana sling on it. It just seems to go with the front ring.

I developed a load for a 180 gr SIE PH bullet over H4350 that put 3 in .4" at 100, and gets that first cold barrel first shot within a .25" of the bulleye on each trip to the range. So much for not accurate. Yesterday, I settled on a low recoil load for it using a 125 gr SIE PH over IMR SR-4759 that mimics the trajectory of the 180 gr for shorter ranges or shooting for fun. That one will be a +/- 1" at 100 yards.
I am happy with the accuracy of mine.

[Rangr44]

I own #1 RSI's in both 7x57 & .30-06 - The bone-stock -06 will stay under 3/4" @ 100yds with factory ammo, anytime I ask it; while the 7x57 has a hard time finding the side of the barn, comparatively.  

.

[Sweet 6.5]

while the 7x57 has a hard time finding the side of the barn, comparatively.  

  not what I wanted to hear....thanks for the replies.

[Ron T.]

I have a Ruger #1 International (aka "RSI") in 7x57 that shoots VERY accurately from a COLD or luke-warm barrel, but I have to wait after each shot for the barrel to cool back down before shooting the next shot if I want good groups.  Apparently, all that wood around the barrel makes for some inaccuracy as the barrel heats up.

My RSI loves H4350... the "sweet spot" or "accuracy load", using a 140 grain Sierra ProHunter, flat-based bullet, is 47.2 grains to 47.6 grains of H4350 yielding an average muzzle velocity of 2570 fps.  Sparked by standard Winchester large rifle primers in Remington cartridge cases, my little RSI puts 3 rounds into .176" (47.2 grains) to .179" (47.6 graisn) at 50 yards where I do most of my .22 rimfire and .50 caliber flintlock shooting... never tried it at 100 yards.

I put a fairly powerful scope on the little RSI... a 4-12x40mm Bushnell "Legend" scope with an adjustable objective turret so I can eliminate parallax.  The "Legend" is a mid-priced scope of good quality and gathers 91+% of the available light while yielding clear, sharp images.  I'm sure this scope helps in the "accuracy department".

The maximum load, using 50.0 grains of H4350, put 3 rounds into .404 inches at 50 yards.  However... recoil and the noise-level were both "up" considerably.  While I haven't chorongraphed the maximum load, I did chronograph most loads below the maximum load and am estiimating that the max load out of my RSI's short 20-inch barrel was in the area of 2785 fps with a 140 grain Sierra bullet... more than enough power for the biggest whitetail that ever lived.

The secret to accuracy with a RSI is allowing the barrel to cool down, but one must remember, the RSI is a HUNTING RIFLE, not a bench-rest rifle!!!  Other RSI owners I've talked to about "accuracy" agreed that their rifles shot best from a cold or at least no hotter than a luke-warm barrel and, of course, a "cold" barrel is what we have in most hunting situations, so how can that be "bad"?!?

Even from a hot barrel, the little RSI's will shoot at least a "minute-of-deer"!  


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

[ClarkB]

I've got one in 7x57 also.  For a factory rifle it has some excellent wood, not custom grade but far better than most.  That's something I haven't seen in other makes of rifles very often. Haven't had the opportunity to shoot it as much as I would like but my experience thus far is that the warmer the barrel the further from accurate it becomes.  Three shots at 50 yards were stacked on top of each other, with 1/2" in between each one!  

As Ron said, it's a hunting rifle (and a fine looking one at that) so get a load down for that first shot, figure out where it's hitting on a warm barrel and be done with it.

Clark

[Win71]

I have a #1A, in 7x57 that will group Remington 140 grain factory loads to an inch with a cold barrel but will vertically string about 6" x 2" from a warm to hot barrel at 100 yards. I found that 47.0 grains of H414 behind a Hornady 139 grain SST or  139 grain Interlock will group around 5/8" in the heated barrels without stringing. I'm neck sizing only to achieve this.

[Rangr44]

FWIW, during early 7x57 RSI production, somewhere shortly after SN prefix 130- started, Ruger switched to Wilson barrels, with attendant throat issues, because it was assumed that EVERYONE would be shooting only 175gr factory or military ammo through them.

.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive found that all #1s are best owned by handloaders that arent afraid to try a bunch of things. Most will shoot great but there a bit more finky to find that just right load.

while the 7x57 has a hard time finding the side of the barn, comparatively.  

  not what I wanted to hear....thanks for the replies.

[dan3]

I have the No.1A and No.1RSI - both in 7x57. Each one will shoot MOA or better... with each ones favorite load. It required the old "trail & error" to find the bullet weight and charge that each barrel likes - they don't like the same ones!