By Joe Berk
The Ruger No. 3 was Ruger’s economy version of their higher end No. 1 rifle. Unlike the No. 1, the No. 3 had plain walnut stocks, no checkering, slightly less polished bluing, and a simplified loading lever styled like those on early single shot Winchesters. The No. 3 was introduced in 1973 in three classic cartridges: .45-70 Government, .30 40 Krag, and .22 Hornet. In later years, Ruger offered the No. 3 in .223 Remington, .375 Winchester, and .44 Magnum. Ruger discontinued the No. 3 in 1986, so any No. 3 will be at least 40 years old today.
Of all the chamberings (with one exception I’ll mention in a bit), the .44 Magnum is thought to be the rarest. Ruger doesn’t release production figures, so nobody outside of Ruger really knows how many were made. Online estimates include 200 to 400, 867, and “less than a thousand,” but these are all guesses based on who knows what. Like a lot of Internet info, all we know for sure is that at least two of the guesses are wrong (and maybe all three are).
You almost never see a .44 Magnum Ruger No. 3 for sale. I’m downsizing my collection and I thought I would sell mine, but after seeing the Gunbroker ad and looking at the rifle a bit more, I took the ad down. This is one I’m going to keep.
Even though I’m letting a few rifles go, I still have the collector bug. The only No. 3 Rugers I don’t have are the .223 Remington and the .375 Winchester. If I came across either of those at a killer price, I’d be mightily tempted.
The rarest Ruger No. 3 rifles ever made? It’s rumored that a couple left the factory chambered in .30 06. I’ve never seen one. The other very rare chambering is a modified .30 Carbine designed to replicate the trajectory of the 1980s-ish General Dynamics Viper anti-tank weapon. That No. 3 was a barreled action that fit inside a Viper launch tube (the Viper was a shoulder-launched anti-tank missile, kind 0f a modern day bazooka). I’ve seen and handled those, as I worked on the Viper engineering development program at GD back in the day. One of these days I’ll get around to doing a blog on it.
We’ve written about Ruger No. 3 rifles before in other chamberings. Here’s a list of links for easy reference:
A .30 40 Krag Ruger No. 3
A .22 Hornet Ruger No. 3
Ruger No. 3 .45 70 Loads
Undoing Bubba
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