I’ll admit that I fell in love with the Ruger No. 1 rifle in high school. A hole-in-the-wall gun store on College Avenue in Berkeley had a beautiful No. 1 Tropical .458 Win Mag in a wooden rack on the counter. Every time I popped in to buy .177 pellets I drooled over that gun and dreamt of safaris; Cape buffalo, Elephant, Lion, etc.
Obviously a high school kid didn’t have the scratch to buy one, and as time has gone on the No. 1 certainly can’t be classified as a budget rifle so they’re spendy, but mainly it was other easier to attain wants that kept one on the back burner.
After all those years of desiring a No. 1, and seeing all of the THR members posting their awesome specimens on these pages, I finally found a 1-B in .223 in a nearly new condition. (If it was shot it doesn’t look like a scope was ever mounted so it easily has no more than a few boxes through it.) Best of all, it was obtained for a price that didn’t look like a mortgage payment.
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The only bummer is the (unopened) Ruger rings that came with the gun are 30mm rings, and none of my new scopes in boxes have 30mm tubes. I have a new 3x9x40 Weaver Classic sitting in a box, so I think I’ll start off with this scope first. (If I need more magnification I will look at a 4.5x16 or greater) Ruger didn’t have 1” gloss medium rings in stock, so I ordered a set from Midway (They offered free shipping today)
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Once I get the rings and the scope mounted I’ll head to the rifle range and see how it shoots. I have a good bit of Win 64 gr PowerPoint and Federal 69 gr BTHP match ammo on the shelves, so I should be able to shoot enough to get it where I want it.
Stay safe.