Ruger #1 as art!

[DMCI]

The Ruger #1 has always been a favorite of mine. Bill Ruger's creation certainly did him proud.

 

Perhaps these photos will give you some food for thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the real deal:

 

 

Bill Ruger knew that many of us coveted a Gibbs, but few could afford one. This example was owned by former officer of British Rifle Association.

 

Ruger's genius was that using modern manufacturing techniques he could produce them for the masses at a reasonable price.

 

In this case a few will always spend the neccesary effort to gild the lilly. Result is quite striking in my view. Price for work was approx US$16.000, almost the same as the auction price estimate for the Gibbs.

[spanner]

Stunning!!

[TonyH]

The woodgrain on that Ruger is attractive but frankly I find the engraving very ugly! In fact I think it's gun kitsch, very outdated, and completely OTT. A lot of critics over the years have mentioned the difficulties to be found in tuning a #1 for accuracy, and I personally wouldn't know about that but it seems to be a factor; at the same time it's an attractive, interesting rifle and I know a lot of users remain loyal to it. I like the idea of a single-shot in many ways, for varminting (I only ever load one round at a time** anyway, using bolt-action repeaters) and I've read lots of stuff in the past 20-30 years about heavy-barrel conversions of the Ruger, so clearly it can be done. I think the #3 was a smaller version - am I correct? - and this would make a particularly nice varminter for one of the smaller rounds such as .17 Fireball. I might get one someday. But it would look a lot more restrained than the #1 depicted, which in terms of styling has a lot in common with some of those heavily ornamented wheel-locks (etc) made for late medieval princes...

Tony

**Where can I get one of those single-round plates in anodised alloy that used to be available from e.g. Russ Haydon, to fit the action of popular bolt guns such as the Rem700?

ps That Gibbs is another matter entirely, serious piece of weaponry, great kit.

[17 Rem]

Tony, Norman Clark does the single shot converters you describe.

[andybrock]

I'm also of the opinion that the engraving is "bling like" and not for me.

 

I remember going to the game fair several years ago and someone there was exhibiting a double rifle that had a price tag of £75,000 which was also very heavily engraved with gold etc.

 

 

Andy

[TonyH]

Tony, Norman Clark does the single shot converters you describe.

Thanks for that - looked at their website, one of those sites hardly worth bothering with since it carries virtually no useful information such as a detailed stock listing... But I've emailed N.Clark, will see what happens.

Thanks again - Tony

[MalcW?]

 

 

 

Bill Ruger knew that many of us coveted a Gibbs, but few could afford one. This example was owned by former officer of British Rifle Association.

 

Ruger's genius was that using modern manufacturing techniques he could produce them for the masses at a reasonable price.

 

In this case a few will always spend the neccesary effort to gild the lilly. Result is quite striking in my view. Price for work was approx US$16.000, almost the same as the auction price estimate for the Gibbs.

 

I have long been a fan of the Ruger#1 And with a little bit of effort they can be made into very accurate and easy to shoot rifles.

 

There's always someone prepared to take the re-working a few steps to far though. As in the example in the photo's.

 

For $16K I'd rather have the Gibbs. In all its under stated refinement.

 

Holts had a fantastic English made custom falling block in their recent auction. That was seriously tempting. Unfortunately I cant get the picture to load