I owned a Ruger #1 Lyman Centennial, but it had the much longer 28" barrel. With the longer barrel it shot cast 405 gr. great, and very accurate. Not sure the short, light barrels ever got the same kind of accuracy the Lyman did.
I owned a Ruger #1 Lyman Centennial, but it had the much longer 28" barrel. With the longer barrel it shot cast 405 gr. great, and very accurate. Not sure the short, light barrels ever got the same kind of accuracy the Lyman did.
I have one too, complete in a walnut case with scope, reloading dies, etc. I haven't shot mine very much but do love the longer barrel. I do shot my .458 Win Mag some, however It's not easy to shoot from a bench rest. No problem off hand just a little harder for an old guy like me to hold steady enough for doing accuracy test Do like all of my Ruger #1 rifles.
45-70 is really impressive in a sturdy action! And a skinner peep would make it extra cool!
This re-newed thread got me to dig out my Ruger #1 .45-70 target folder.
Looking at the targets, I'm still amazed at the cast bullet accuracy with 340 to 405 gr bullets, hand cast or store bought, using Unique. Low recoil & clover-leaf groups.
When I decided to step things up a notch with 300 gr Rem JHP's I tried 2400, H4895, H322, Varget, 4198 & Re7. All these shot fantastic with the exception of Re7 & it wasn't too bad at 2.5"/100 yds. Once velocities passed 2,000 fps with the 300 Rem's my shoulder really started to feel it! 2400 shot excellent but 1,700 fps seemed to be the max on it. For the best hunting load of the bunch I finally settled on 4198. Seems that CCI 250 (Mag LR) work best in all loads, no matter what the load density. My #1 wears a Weaver K4.
A truly fantastic rifle & caliber for the cast bullet aficionado!
JIMHO
Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.
That exact rifle has long been very high on my want list, maybe in a few years.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |