Ruger #1 STW Accuracy -- Attention Ross

[wunbe]

Ross, the presiding expert on this round, probably is my best potential resource, but, please, any others with experience chine in.

A pal of mine just bought my K1A 7mm STW and can't seem to get better than 2moa out of it. I never shot the rifle myself and he is new to #1s although he is an accomplished riflemen in his own right with 12 straight one shot kills in Africa.

I'm coaching him on techninique --- no toucha da lever with your shooting hand! keeping forward support close to the receiver,,, etc...

Thd rifle has a 3lb trrigger and Decelerator pad. He's using Winchester and Federal 150 gr factory fodder but also has a Redding 3 die set and lots of pristine rem brass.

Any tips to get him closer to MOA before going into "accurizing" the rifle?

Thanks in advance,
Wunbe

 

[Ruger # 1]

Wunbe,
If your friend is looking for high end accuracy one of the first things to do is "accurize" the brass and then try a few different bullets. This is a very important part of squeezing every bit of accuracy out of any rifle.

Having 12 straight one shot kills in Africa does not mean that he is an accomplished riflemen when it comes to shooting small groups for accuracy, only that he's for sure an "accomplished hunter", if he's now getting 2 moa that may be enough for what he's hunting.

If he has a nice 3 lb. trigger, moa or just under should not be hard to get out of a # 1 with the right loads, to get less than that will take a little tuning. Get him to read the articles that Ross and others have written in the Files section of the Ruger # 1 Group, most all of the secrets of how to get a # 1 to shoot small groups are in those articles.
Ross is busy right now moving to NM and will get back to us soon as possible.
Ruger # 1 Guy

 

[mcknight77]

The No.1 has a very slow lock-time (hammer fall time). Have him concentrate on holding the rifle steady through trigger pull and beginning recoil. In other words, followthrough. No.1s can be difficult to master if the rifleman has been shooting a fast lock-time bolt rifle.

 

[Boxhead]

When I was shooting #1's I always replaced the hammer spring with an extra power one from Wolff.

 

[wunbe]

I'd like to refresh tis as Ros has not een around for a while.

wunbe

 

[picketpin]

Wunbe: Made it home over the weekend.

I or other family members have owned a total of 11 #1s chambered in 7mm STW. Of those, 9 were rechambered #1 7mm Reminbgton Mags.
The other two, includng one of mine are "K" stainless factory rifles.

My experience is that they are AS SENSATIVE to barrel harmonics if not more so than most #1s. I think the grossly overbore STW might in fact be MORE sensative.

I have tried all or nearly all of the SLOW to SUPER SLOW powders from IMR7828, H1000, MRP and Rutumbo etc. We have pretty much settled on IMR 7828. Some others failed on accuracy and others wouldn't make the velocity or at least the case wouldn't hold enough to get the desired velocity.

Bullet also makes a major difference. Like all over bore cases the STW does best with heavier bullets. Below 150/160 it simply doesn't make sense to shoot 20 grains more powder to get 100 fps more.

After a lot of trial and error we settled on the 150/160s from various makers and constructions as the most reliable/uniform bullets that give acceptable accuracy, good velocity and killing power/preformance.

An interesting note, several do NOT shoot sub 1 inch groups at 100 yards. Mine is one of those. It does however shoot Sub MOA at 200 yards and on out to 500 yards. It's that stability/yawing thing.

They also don't seem to respond well to being loaded, down. Frankly if a guy has to do that to make it shoot you have just settled on a 7mm Rem Mag.

Our standard load, that seems to work in many/most of our rifles in 7mm STW is Layne Simpsons recomended load for 150s in the original 1998 Shooting Times article. I think it is perfectly safe in a #1 but is is 4 grains higher than is listed in any of the current crop of manuals.

My thoughts are that it's highly unlikely I'll ever shoot enough 150/160s out of either of my #1s in 7mm STW to cause any harm to anything other than my shoulder, in my life time.

I have NEVER recovered a 150 or 160 Partition regardless of manufacturer fired into elk, moose or bears. In fact the ONLY bullet recovered was a 150 Ballistic Tip that hit a mule deer in the neck at about 80 yards and blew 3 vertibae to powder and was recovered just under the skin on the off side of the neck. Never have figured that one out.

If a guy goes through all the basic #1 stuff he should be able to get acceptable hunting accuracy. I haven't found the 7mm STW in the #1 to be any more inheirently INACCURATE than any other high volume magnum case. Oh, Winchester Mag primers seem to work better/be more consistent than Federal or CCIs in the STW.

hope this helps.

Ross

 

[wunbe]

Ross,

You the man as they say in the Ghetto!

Thanks a lot. that fount of knowledge will go a long way towards getting him off on the right foot.

I owe you one.

Regards,
wunbe

 

[picketpin]

Wunde: e-mail at home and i"ll give you the load. It seems to work in a variaty of #1s As it's above the current published loads I won't put it out there for the world.

Of course if they have the original issue of Shooting Times they can just read it there.

An improvement since that was published is the introduction of IMR7828SC. It certainly meters better when you are dropping THAT much powder. Not quite 100 loaded rounds per pound of powder!!!! ;-)

It's a BOOMER.

the best

Ross

 

[wunbe]

Hope your recovery is on track.

I had no idea you were upping anchor and heading south. Good luck with that too.

you have a PM.

wunbe