Yea or Nay?

I'm soul searching for a flat shooter to keep company with my 45 70. I hunt infrequently (my schedule sucks) but it could see deer season in the midwest soon.

I would anticipate replacing the trigger if it is as bad as I hear. Maybe.... do a new barrel later.

I don't have much experiece with Ruger #1 in large calibers. All I can say is if they are anything like the small calibers, then they are great guns. I love the fact that the gun is short because they have no action, but you still get the benifit of longer barrel lengths. I've messed with a couple of Ruger 1s in 22-250 and 223 and they are very good guns. A little on the finicky side when it comes to reloading. I had to shoot the 22-250 quite a bit to find a load that they really liked. After I found it tho, it was really a tack driver. It liked the COAL very short, so much in fact that you can visibly see space between the bullet and the case neck. I did the same thing to the 223 and found the load much more quickly. Weird looking load, but very accurate in the two guns I loaded for.

Anyways, I know I rambled but bottom line is I'm a fan of Ruger #1 rifles. At least in the small calibers.

I own a 1-B in 7mm Remington Magnum. My particular rifle was made in 1989 and has a very nice piece of wood. It came with a Leupold Vari XII 3x9 that I have replaced with an M8 6X. Mine had a good trigger that breaks cleanly. I haven't measured the weight but I won't adjust it anyway.

Overall I like the rifle very much. I have tried many factory loads and with the exception of Federal's 160 gr. Partition load every shot to less than 1.5 inches. My rifle really likes the 160 gr Accubonds and the cheapo 150 gr Remington Core-lokts. If I do my part I can get to slightly under an inch with both. I think that is pretty good with factory ammo. So far, I have not had any stringing problems or forearm issues and it has held it zero very well.

I had read about how "brutal" the recoil was with the number 1. I don't like recoil but wouldn't consider myself recoil sensitive. I was apprehesive the first time I shot it but was more than pleasantly surprised. To me the felt recoil is about like that of a 308 with stiff 180 grain loads, far less than what I expected.

Like I said, I really like my rifle.

Have not had one yet that didn't shoot very nicely. One came from the factory with a 3 1/2 lb trigger and the other came with a 4 1/2 lb. The 7 Remmag i had I never measured the trigger pull on it so I can't say

I appreciate the thoughts.