Ruger No. 1 in .303 British

[lgm270]

Saw this special item on the web and wondered if anyone has any thoughts on or experience with this Ruger .303?

[S.E.Ak]

Believe they are a small run and probably half spoke for before they were built.I could see many going to Canada

[lgm270]

The Ruger No. 1 is the only commercial sporting rifle I've heard of that was chambered for  the .311" caliber.

The 7.62x39 uses .311 bullets, but I've read that ruger uses .308 barrels with long, tappered throats to gradually swage down the .311 bullet to .308.   

I've never hard of any other .31 caliber sporting round or commercial sporting rifle.  All were military surplus. Now Ruger chambers for the .311 303British.  I just wonder how much of a chore it is to make .311" barrels.  Seems like a lot of tooling up for a special run of limited numbers.


Does anyone else know about this?  Just curious.

[mrbumps]

I think they started as a special run, but now have become a regular catalog item.  I picked one up, but have not had a chance to shoot it yet.  Lipsey's currently has limited runs of .257 Roberts, .35 Whelen, and .30-30 Winchester also.

[mrbumps]

The Ruger No. 1 is the only commercial sporting rifle I've heard of that was chambered for  the .311" caliber.

The 7.62x39 uses .311 bullets, but I've read that ruger uses .308 barrels with long, tappered throats to gradually swage down the .311 bullet to .308.   

I've never hard of any other .31 caliber sporting round or commercial sporting rifle.  All were military surplus. Now Ruger chambers for the .311 303British.  I just wonder how much of a chore it is to make .311" barrels.  Seems like a lot of tooling up for a special run of limited numbers.


Does anyone else know about this?  Just curious.

It's my understanding that Ruger uses .311 barrels for their 7.63x39 Mini-30, and Hawkeye M77 rifles.  I can't remember when they changed over from using .308 bores, but it was a while a go. 


BTW, Ruger also made the No. 1 in 7.62x39 as part of a special run.  They are all stainless with a walnut stock.  I happen to have one!

[BlkHawk73]

  Was started by a Canadian distributor/shop then Lispeys said they'd take a bunch, then a campaign for some to go to Austrailia then Ruger said they'd be a regular production model.  I've thought hard about it but when the other Lipsey's ones all came at the same time...Dropping almost $4000 on a bundle of #1's...   Still undecided.  Might go for one of the Lispey's ones (.30-30 or .257) or may go for one of these .303's.  Not filling any niche in the #1's family here so who knows.

[lgm270]

The Ruger No. 1 is the only commercial sporting rifle I've heard of that was chambered for  the .311" caliber.

The 7.62x39 uses .311 bullets, but I've read that ruger uses .308 barrels with long, tappered throats to gradually swage down the .311 bullet to .308.   

I've never hard of any other .31 caliber sporting round or commercial sporting rifle.  All were military surplus. Now Ruger chambers for the .311 303British.  I just wonder how much of a chore it is to make .311" barrels.  Seems like a lot of tooling up for a special run of limited numbers.


Does anyone else know about this?  Just curious.

It's my understanding that Ruger uses .311 barrels for their 7.63x39 Mini-30, and Hawkeye M77 rifles.  I can't remember when they changed over from using .308 bores, but it was a while a go. 


BTW, Ruger also made the No. 1 in 7.62x39 as part of a special run.  They are all stainless with a walnut stock.  I happen to have one!

You "happen" to have one?   

Well....how does it shoot?  What do you use if for?  Handloads?  Accuracy? 

Please tell us about  your No. 1's in .30 Russian and in .303 British.   

[S.E.Ak]

The 303 gets so close to the 30-06 it just seems the 06 is the smarter way to go

[Cottage Hill Bill]

I collect British and Commonwealth military rifles, so when Ruger announced the No.1 in 303 British I thought I'd like to have one. Then I looked at the price and realized that much money would go a long way in filling one of the holes in my collection. Then I found this little jewel. It started life in 1881 as a Martini-Henry Cavalry carbine in 577/450. In 1898 it was converted to an artillery carbine in .303. In the 1930's a hunter in New Zealand had it sporterized as his light rifle for an African safari. The barrel was bobbed to 20" and the manlicher style stock built up from the forearm of a full length Martini-Henry rifle. After working up some loads it will do an honest 2" group at 100 yards with iron sights. With any luck it will head to the deer woods in a couple of weeks.

Think of it as a 130 year old Ruger No.1 in 303 British.



Let us know how the Ruger does.

[mcwoodduck]

The 303 is on the website under dealer exclusives.
If Ruger is using 308 barrels, that gives you a great choice of bullets to load into your cases.
other than that the 303 is very similar to 308 win in ballistics and with the large rim it makes sence in a single shot.
I thought it would be neat if Ruger would come out with a model No 2.  Short barrel of the No 3 with the pistol grip of the No1 and a plain finnish, no checkering, with flat finnish in calibers like 30-40K, 30-30, 303Brit, 7.62X54R, 348 Win and 45-70. and price them at and MSRP of $750.
Basicly what the man above has.

[BlkHawk73]

The 303 is on the website under dealer exclusives.

  Looks like it's under the "New Models" area:  http://ruger.com/search/group/?cat=new

  It's available to any distributor.  Notice the exclusives mention who it's exclusive to.

[mcwoodduck]

The 303 is on the website under dealer exclusives.

  Looks like it's under the "New Models" area:  http://ruger.com/search/group/?cat=new

  It's available to any distributor.  Notice the exclusives mention who it's exclusive to.

A few weeks ago it was a dealer exclusive.
I just saw that it is not a standard catalog item.

[billy_56081]

Well Cottage Hill Bill, you just shattered my dream of a Number one or number three in 303. I would trade 2 of them for a Martini Henry like yours.

[mrbumps]

Someone on the Ruger Forum just posted how inaccurate his No 1 was in .303 Britich with .311 bullets.  He called Ruger and they told him the bores are spec'd at .314 to .316 !  This makes no sense to me, but it looks like I had better get mine to the range sooner than later and try it out.  Other than cast, I am not sure you can get bullets in that diameter?

[lgm270]

Someone on the Ruger Forum just posted how inaccurate his No 1 was in .303 Britich with .311 bullets.  He called Ruger and they told him the bores are spec'd at .314 to .316 !  This makes no sense to me, but it looks like I had better get mine to the range sooner than later and try it out.  Other than cast, I am not sure you can get bullets in that diameter?

Wow. That's a bummer.  That's a lot of money to pay for a rifle bored for a caliber for which there are no commercially made bullets.

[mrbumps]

Someone on the Ruger Forum just posted how inaccurate his No 1 was in .303 Britich with .311 bullets.  He called Ruger and they told him the bores are spec'd at .314 to .316 !  This makes no sense to me, but it looks like I had better get mine to the range sooner than later and try it out.  Other than cast, I am not sure you can get bullets in that diameter?

Wow. That's a bummer.  That's a lot of money to pay for a rifle bored for a caliber for which there are no commercially made bullets.

Well, someone else in the same thread said they slugged the barrel and it came out .311, so ?  But they did say it had a long throat, which may be why the other individual was having accuracy problems.  But why would Ruger tell someone it was .314 - .316

[Cottage Hill Bill]

The little Martini I posted about will not shoot .311 bullets, it patterns rather than groups. Load it with Hornady .312 174gr round nose or 150 grain spitzers and it's a whole different story. I'm headed for the woods in about an hour with it. A lot of Lee-Enfields don't like boat tailed bullets either. My experience is that each .303 is different and you have to figure out the peculiarities of that individual rifle. When you do, however, you will frequently be rewarded with a very sweet shooting rifle. .311/.315-.316 should be correct for the minor/major dimensions for a .303, i.e. .311 for the lands, .315-.316 for the grooves.

[Fred M]

The groove diameter was confirmed by Ruger as .314-316.
This is about as bad as it could get. I had thought of buying one of those rifles. But that wont happening. The groove should be .311.

In this day of age there is no reason for making rifles with substandard barrels. Specially for a very expensive rifle, this is bad.

[billy_56081]

Ruger needs to recall these rifles and rebarrel them with in spec barrels.

[lgm270]

Ruger needs to recall these rifles and rebarrel them with in spec barrels.

How right you are!

How in the hell to they even make such an odd ball barrel?  How is that possible?   Where did they get the tooling for a heretofore non-existent caliber, i.e. the "314"?   

[mcwoodduck]

Ruger needs to recall these rifles and rebarrel them with in spec barrels.

How right you are!

How in the hell to they even make such an odd ball barrel?  How is that possible?   Where did they get the tooling for a heretofore non-existent caliber, i.e. the "314"?   

Does the 327 Ruger use a 314 Barrel? 
Years ago before we knew anything about the 204 ruger a friend of mine got a new Ruger 77/17 in 17HMR as a ground squirrel rifle that would not shoot.
He for giggles slugged the barrel to .20 and found out that Ruger stuck the wrong barrel on his rifle.  Making us wonder if Ruger was going to reintroduce the 5mm Rem rimfire, later to discover the 204 was what they planned with the .20 caliber barrels.
I wonder if Ruger is planning something on the .327 case and the barrel was stuck on a 303 Brit by mistake.

[lgm270]

Ruger needs to recall these rifles and rebarrel them with in spec barrels.

How right you are!

How in the hell to they even make such an odd ball barrel?  How is that possible?   Where did they get the tooling for a heretofore non-existent caliber, i.e. the "314"?   

Does the 327 Ruger use a 314 Barrel? 
Years ago before we knew anything about the 204 ruger a friend of mine got a new Ruger 77/17 in 17HMR as a ground squirrel rifle that would not shoot.
He for giggles slugged the barrel to .20 and found out that Ruger stuck the wrong barrel on his rifle.  Making us wonder if Ruger was going to reintroduce the 5mm Rem rimfire, later to discover the 204 was what they planned with the .20 caliber barrels.
I wonder if Ruger is planning something on the .327 case and the barrel was stuck on a 303 Brit by mistake.

You're way ahead of me!  I never heard of the .327 Ruger.  I guess that explains where they got the tooling for some odd ball caliber. 

[mcwoodduck]

327 Ruger is a longer 32H&R case  Making 32 H&R the 38 Special and 327 The 357 mag if you will.
It came out in a small revolver and in cases like the SP101 and the J frames you can have 6 instead of 5 and the horse power is similar to 38 Special +P+.
I now wonder if the 77/__ small frame bolt actions will have a 327 version?  Think of it as a 32-20 that will allow you to shoot everything from 32 S&W, 32 Long and 32H&R out of the same rifle.  But I do not want to speculate as to what Ruger has up their sleeves.  Someone may have mis-read the 311 an the last one looked like a 4 with a smear of chocolate donut and ordered barrels cut to the .314.
Would the .314 work better with lead slugs?