Ruger No1 .243

S

soup

Active member
Folks ,
Just wondering if anyone has hunted deer or coyotes with a .243 Win. No1
I've got a 1a with a 5HD 3.5X10 Leupold and it has made my blood pressure go up trying to find a load it liked with 90 or 95 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips . It's a 1/10 twist and I did try some 100 grain Hornady Inter locks , they shot ok .

So now I'm trying to decide if its only for 55 to 70 grain Varmint bullets or what . I'm running low on bullet heads to do 10 round test loads !! IMR 4895-4064-4350-4198-Varget-VV 150-VV 140 all on hand .

Thank you all for your time
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a great hunting season .
Semper Fi
Soup
 
I only do 3 shot test groups.

If it doesn't shoot well in 3 rounds, 5,6 or 10 will not improve the accuracy.

If it shoots well with 3, and I can duplicate the accuracy a 2nd time, I'm GTG.
 
Don't own a 243 but my 6mm Rem w/1/10 barrel loves 100 gr. Nos. partitions and they work very well on whitetails.

Regards,
hm
 
I'm a big fan of 243 and have always had one. Had a few No.1's as well and accuracy seems hit and miss. There are lots of tricks to get them to shoot if you have the time to mess with it. The ammo crunch isn't helping when trying to find a load. I had two good loads worked up for mine and now the bullets it liked are "out of stock". My rifle likes 100 grain Sierra Pro hunters and IMR 4831 powder. Lucky for me, I found this load quick and it shoots great. Bad part is I have 20 rounds loaded for deer season and none on the shelves when they are gone.

My friend has a Rem. 700 and his shoots 80 grain bullets really well. He's using H414. Lots of good powders for the 243, just need to find the right bullet.
 
No 1's for all their class can be some finicky son of a guns to get to shoot well. Any .243 Winchester that won't shoot a 95 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip well over a max charge of Hodgdon or IMR-4350 has issues.
 
A lot of the accuracy issues with no1’s has to do with forend pressure. A Hick’s accurizer will do you wonders. You can also shim the forend or float all but the pressure points on the forend. The Hicks is an easy and quick way to dial them in.
 
There is a ton of information out there about making a No.1 shoot. Your not alone with accuracy issues. Some say the Hicks works and some will say they noticed no difference. Most of the problems seems to be fore-end pressure.
 
My #1 liked 85gr factory Win loads so well that I didn't load much for it.. Of course now with the price of ammo I definitely would! My 243 mag just loves the 85gr Speer SPBT.. If going extra long range (beyond 400 yrds) I would opt for the 95-100gr Sierra.. Like mentioned above, testing in 3 shot intervals is a must..

Good luck & have a happy Thanksgiving..
 
Just my opinion.....With the Hicks, every different load will probably have to be tuned in. I can/could be wrong but it seems that way to me. Again JMO, is it worth the trouble? If the rifle shoots bad now, you have a 50/50 chance on ever making it shoot as good as you want it to. I'd sell/trade it and buy something that you know is going to shoot without all the stress. I love a pretty No.1 but they can sure be disappointing if you get a bad one and with ammo the way it is it can get costly working up a load. Again, JMO.
 
I have hunted quite a bit with No. 1's in .243 Winchester and .30-06 and a Browning B78 in 6 mm Remington.
 
I have hunted with many #1’s and still own several as well as 1885’s. I’ve had one or two that I just could not get to shoot well.
 

I have a #1-A in .243 that I have used for deer and groundhogs. For deer I used a 95 gr. Nosler Partition and a Sierra 100 gr. SP. I don't recall the bullet I used for the groundhog, but I think it was a 75 gr. HP.

I love #1's but have found them to be less accurate than a bolt rifle. Nevertheless, they are accurate enough for most hunting and are a well made rifle and fun to hunt with. As to firing a group, I agree with the mentioned 3-shots. No need for 10. Actually, 2 shots from a cold barrel tells me what I need to know. Rarely do I ever fire more than 2 consecutive rounds when hunting.

Below are some vintage photos.

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