{"id":24692,"date":"2024-03-02T00:01:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T08:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=24692"},"modified":"2024-03-03T13:18:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T21:18:45","slug":"a-ruger-45-70-circassian-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/03\/02\/a-ruger-45-70-circassian-no-1\/","title":{"rendered":"A Ruger .45 70 Circassian No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

The .45-70 Government cartridge was destined for obsolescence in the middle of the last century and then a curious thing happened:\u00a0 Ruger chambered their No. 1 single shot rifle for it and Marlin did the same with an adaptation of their lever action rifle a short while later.<\/p>\n

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300-grain .45 70 Winchester and .22 LR Federal cartridges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Marlin and Ruger came on board with their .45 70 rifles, there was suddenly significant interest in the cartridge.\u00a0 I fell in love with the .45 70 when I bought a Ruger No. 1 in 1976 (a rifle I still have), and I’ve been reloading the cartridge ever since.\u00a0 I’ve owned several No. 1 Rugers, a few Ruger No. 3 rifles, a bunch of Marlin .45 70s, and a replica 1886 Winchester (by Chiappa, with wood that is way nicer than anything from Winchester).<\/p>\n

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Starboard side of the Ruger Circassian .45 70 No. 1 rifle with 26-inch barrel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yep. The .45 70 was adopted as the official US Army cartridge in 1873, hence the “Gov’t” designation sometimes seen with the cartridge name.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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In addition to its Circassian walnut and 26-inch barrel, these rifles included wrap-around checkering on the forearm. The standard checkering pattern for a Ruger No. 1 is shown on the rifle to the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All these manufacturers have offered special editions of their .45 70 rifles. One of the more recent offerings from Ruger was a 26-inch barreled No. 1 with a Circassian walnut stock.\u00a0 When it was first offered about 7 years ago by Lipsey’s (a Ruger distributor), it was a limited run of only 250 rifles.\u00a0 They sold out immediately and folks still wanted these, so Lipsey’s and Ruger offered a second run of 250 rifles.\u00a0 I wanted one with fancy wood, but none of the Circassian Rugers I saw online had wood nice enough to be interesting.\u00a0 Even though the rifles had Circassian walnut, all the ones I saw were plain and straight grained.\u00a0 Then one day I wandered into a local gun shop and I saw the rifle you see here.\u00a0 It caught my eye immediately and at first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.\u00a0 These rifles were next to impossible to find and here was one right in front of me.\u00a0 It was pricey, but I Presbyterianed the guy down to $1050 (you fellow Members of the Tribe will get it) and I pulled the trigger (figuratively speaking).<\/p>\n

Ruger’s more recent .45 70 No. 1 rifles have a short leade (the distance between the forward edge of the cartridge case and where the rifling starts).\u00a0 Mine won’t chamber cartridges with 400-grain and above bullets.\u00a0 In fact, I had some ammo I had loaded with an old batch of Hornady’s 300-grain jacketed hollow points, and this ammo wouldn’t chamber, either.\u00a0 \u00a0I examined the profile of my old 300-grain Hornady bullets and compared it to pictures of the current Hornady 300-grain bullets, and it was obvious the older bullets had a more gradual ogive (the curved portion of the bullet’s profile).\u00a0 I ordered a box of the current Hornady 300-grain slugs, I loaded them, and the ammo chambered in this rifle easily.\u00a0 In researching this issue on the Internet, the issue of recent Ruger .45 70 rifles’ shorter leades is a complaint that’s popped up more than once.\u00a0 One guy even sent his rifle to Ruger, but he said Ruger measured the chamber and returned it to him with no work done (according to him, Ruger said the rifle met SAAMI chamber spec requirements).\u00a0 It’s not really an issue to me; if I want to shooter the heavier bullets I’ll use a different .45 70 rifle.<\/p>\n

I had some Winchester factory .45 70 cartridges in my ammo locker, including the Winchester load with 300-grain hollow point bullets.\u00a0 I thought I would shoot those to see how they did in the Circassian No. 1.<\/p>\n

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A big ol’ .45 70 hollow point cartridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Spent cases destined for reloading. This is one of my favorite cartridges to reload.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first shots were at 50 yards, and the Ruger grouped nicely.\u00a0 The shots were biased very slightly to the right.\u00a0 That’s okay, because the Ruger rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation.\u00a0 \u00a0I didn’t bother making the adjustments on the range, as it was a fairly windy day.\u00a0 I’ll make the adjustments, if necessary, on the next trip.<\/p>\n

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50-yard groups with the Circassian No. 1. The groups are biased to the right, some more than others (a function of how I held the rifle for each group).\u00a0 Ignore the upper right target and the circled holes to the right of the bullseye; those were from a .243 I had out on the same day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I then set up a standard 100-yard target (at 100 yards).\u00a0 There were 20 rounds in the box of Winchester .45 70 ammo and I had already shot four 3-shot groups at 50 yards.\u00a0 That left eight rounds to play with at 100 yards, and play around I did.<\/p>\n

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Eight shots at 100 yards. I need to move the rear sight a bit to the left. The vertical stringing is most likely a function of not allowing the barrel to cool between shots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The results surprised me.\u00a0 I was holding on the bullseye at 6:00, and those big 300-grain hollowpoints hit at about the right elevation.\u00a0 As was the case with the 50-yard targets, the point of impact was biased to the right.\u00a0 The first three made a tight group and then the shots climbed as I progressed through the eight.\u00a0 The vertically strung group was only about an inch in width.\u00a0 The stringing is almost certainly due to barrel heating and the barrel being deflected up by the forearm (it’s not free floated).\u00a0 I was pleased with the results.\u00a0 It told me that I could leave the elevation adjusted for 50 yards and it would still be spot on at 100.\u00a0 On my next range outing with this ammo, I’ll adjust the rear sight to the left a scosh and take my time between shots to preclude the stringing.\u00a0 Even with the stringing you see in the above target, it’s not too shabby for a 100-yard group with open sights.<\/p>\n

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More blogs on this and other .45 70 rifles?\u00a0 You bet!<\/p>\n

Buffalo Guns<\/a>
\nA Wind\u00a0 River Marlin .45 70 Rifle<\/a>
\nA .45 70 Remlin 1895<\/a>
\nThe 1886 Winchester<\/a>
\nTurnbull Guns<\/a>
\nMarlin Cowboy Front Sight Installation<\/a>
\nMarlin 1895 Cowboy Revisited<\/a>
\nHenry Rifles<\/a>
\nThe Henry Is In California<\/a>
\nDeveloping a Henry .45 70 Load: Part 1<\/a>
\nDeveloping a Henry .45 70 Load: Part 2<\/a>
\nHenry’s Home and an Interview with Dan<\/a>
\nHenry Accuracy Loads<\/a><\/p>\n

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Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

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