Ruger Rifle - M77. 7mm Mag., 24 inch barrel, tang safety, red pad, made in 1985. Serial Number:78-74xxx. (Full Details) Price: $695.00: Ruger Rifle - ruger 10/22 LR serial number 202xxxxx 16.5' barrel Talo USA shooting team gun take down new in the box unfired with carr. (Full Details) Price: $575.00.

Estimates of Rarity of the Various Configurations and Calibers of the early

I bought my first No. 1, a very early 130-prefix 1B in 7mm Remington Magnum in November of 1972. Since that time, with only a couple of exceptions, I’ve used No. 1’s exclusively for what hunting opportunities I’ve had. Two of the best write-ups in existence on the No. 1 and single shot rifles in general are by John Wootters. The Foreword in Joe Clayton’s No. 1 Book and the May 1990 issue of Petersen’s Hunting. The Petersen’s Hunting article, titled “The One-Shot Mystique” has a few sentences I’d like to pass on. “A man who opens a case in hunting camp and lifts out a single-shot rifle makes a statement about himself. It may be quite unconscious, or it may be pure egotistical one-upmanship, but it does project the image of a superior marksman and a hunter of above- average skills.”

Grandpa passed away a few weeks ago and left some guns. Bearcat Blackhawk (.30) M-77 (6mm) Number 1 (6mm) All with the 2 digit serial number 93. Ruger does not produce firearms in serial number order. There are occasions when blocks of serial numbers have been manufactured out of sequence, sometimes years later. Also, within a model family the same serial number prefix may be used to produce a variety of different models, all in the same block of serial numbers.

Personally, I like the Ruger No. 1 Single Shot, for all those many good reasons written many times before. It is a beautiful and classic rifle! The first shot is the one that counts; the very few big game animals that I have managed to miss with the first shot- I didn’t hit them with any of the other shots either!

I have been a No. 1 collector since 1976, when I acquired my second No. 1. In March of 1977, I met Joe Clayton at the Dallas Arms Collectors show. A year later, I found my first two non-prefix rifles. They were a .243 with a 22″ barrel, AH forearm and no sights(with knockout wood) and a .22-250 1B with target scope blocks with a Unertl scope on it. At that early date, Joe said he had not seen one of the target scope block configurations. I was hooked!!- and still have these first two rifles in my collection today.

The Clayton Ruger No. 1 Book was published in 1983; it had a lot of good information and some beautiful color photographs. I realize that today it is quite hard to come by and usually quite expensive! In the nearly 25 years since it was published, more has been learned, many limited exclusive special runs have been made and the Internet has helped spread the information. As it relates to non-prefix rifles, the No. 1 Book provides the information that:

The first rifle “commercially shipped” was #935, 26″ barrel, beavertail forearm in .308 Winchester on September 15, 1966.*
The last non-prefix shipped was #5290 in January, 1975.
The highest number shipped was #8437 in May, 1972.

* Joe told me that the Factory had advised him that #935 was the first rifle shipped and that it was 1966. At one time, I owned #935, as new in the box. The box had the U.S. postage stamps and the Newport cancellation on September 15, 1967. There was a great effort to have the No. 1 announced and written up in all the major magazines for their October 1966 issue, but that is for another story. I believe the first No. 1’s were shipped in March of 1967. I would certainly like to hear from anyone who has a rifle with an earlier shipping date. Why did I ever sell it???

From this information, we know that approximately 7500 rifles were produced and shipped over a relatively long period of time-until 1975. Obviously, 130-prefix numbered rifles were manufactured and shipped simultaneously beginning in 1970. I believe the majority of the rarer configurations and calibers to have been assembled prior to 1970; after that time, the standard models and calibers are catalogued, with the information that “no specifications other than those listed will be offered” However, the General Megee rifle in .32 S&W Long is an exception.(Clayton Book page 37 and Shooting Times, April 1971 The General published an article in the American Rifleman, January 1970, which is probably what earned him the special consideration for a unique rifle. This article was very complimentary of the accuracy of No. 1 rifles in .270 Winchester and .222 Remington.

Calibers

Calibers that were published as being available or that are known to me in the non pre-fix rifle are: .222 Remington, .22-250 Remington, .243 Winchester, 6mm Remington, .25-06 Remington, .264 Winchester Magnum, 6.5 mm Remington Magnum, .270 Winchester, .280 Remington, 7×57, 7mm Remington Magnum, .308 Winchester, .30-06, .300 Winchester Magnum, .300 H&H Magnum, .338 Winchester Magnum, .375 H&H Magnum, .45-70, .458 Winchester Magnum. Those published as being available, but not known to me are the .264 Win. Mag., 6.5mm Rem. Mag., .300 H&H Mag., and .338 Win. Mag. The .25-06 was listed available as a 1V in in 1971 and as a 1B in 1973. The 7mm Rem. Mag. and .300 Win. Mag. were listed as available in the 1V in 1973. The.45-70 was listed as available in S24H in 1969 and as a 1S in 1970(with 22″ medium weight barrel). The .45-70 in 1H is only known in the prefix series and is a rare rifle.

Rarity Points

Many collectors have had difficulty understanding or interpreting the Ruger No. 1 Evaluation Table in the Clayton No. 1 book, especially as it relates to the non- prefix serial number configurations and calibers. I believe much of the problem lies with using these “Rarity Points” as an absolute, rather than a relative indicator. Also, at the rare end of the scale, my observations and experience are somewhat different; we all have the benefit of another 25 years collecting experience. In summary, the Rarity Points are based on Configuration, Caliber and Digits in the serial#; this applies to the non-prefix rifles.

Caliber points are:

.22-250 Remington & .308 Winchester-3
.243 Winchester, 6mm Remington & .30-06-4
.270 Winchester, .375 H&H Magnum, .45-70 & .458 Winchester Magnum-5
.222 Remington, 7mm Remington Magnum & .300 Winchester Magnum-6
.25-06 Remington-7
.280 Remington-8
7×57-10
.264 Winchester Magnum-11

Configuration points are:

S26M Beavertail no sights-2
S22L Beavertail no sights, S22L AH no sights & S26M Beavertail Target Scope blocks-3
S22L AH sights & S26M AH no sights-4
S26M AH sights & S24H-5
S26M Beavertail sights & S26M AH Target Scope Blocks-6
S22M-7, and S22L Beavertail sights-8

Serial # points are: One digit-10, Two digit-8, Three digit-6 and Four digit-4.

The Scale is: Nice rifle 0-4, Collectable 5-7, Rare 8-10, and Very Rare 11+.

1967 Catalogue

The 1967 Catalogue spread on the No. 1 contains a wealth of information. If you, as a collector have not read it thoroughly, I would certainly recommend it. The Catalogue describes how these different rifles could be ordered; the customer picked the barrel weight and length, the caliber, the forearm style and the sighting equipment-rib and sights or no sights or target scope blocks. I suggested several years ago a shorthand system for identifying the various configurations that I believe is much more convenient. It uses two or three letters to describe the barrel weight, forearm style and sighting equipment. It works well for the 10 configurations that are the most difficult to describe. These are:

BB- 26″ barrel, Beavertail forearm, no sights(the present 1B)
BBS- 26″ barrel, Beavertail forearm, Sights
BBB-26″ barrel, Beavertail forearm, target scope Blocks
BH- 26″ barrel, Alex Henry forearm, no sights
BHS- 26″ barrel, Alex Henry forearm, Sights(what was the 1S)
BHB-26″ barrel, Alex Henry forearm, target scope Blocks
AB- 22″ barrel, Beavertail forearm, no sights(the present 1AB)
ABS-22″ barrel, Beavertail forearm, Sights
AH- 22″ barrel, Alex Henry forearm, no sights
AHS- 22″ barrel, Alex Henry forearm, Sights(the present 1A)

On the above, I will note that the 26″ barrels are the “B” or medium weight and the 22″ barrels are the “A” or light weight. The other 3 configurations are the 1V, 1H and 1S in .45-7

Ruger Gun Values By Serial Number