In the latest issue of NZ Guns & Hunting there is a write-up of the Ruger No. 1 in 303 British. The best groups (?) that the author could get with factory ammunition were 4 to 5 inches. He tried bullet weights between 150 and 180 grains.

Then he writes:

"At home I pulled out the reloading gear and decided to make up some handloads using a long 180 grain Speer Hot Cor round nose bullet. I tested how far I could seat a bullet out in a case, and discovered that I couldn't find the rifling no matter how far out I seated it. It seems that Ruger has made the rifle with a very long freebore or throat. Possibly they expected everyone to shoot it with Woodleigh 215 grain bullets or maybe cast their own. This alone may have had something to do with the issues I'd been having at the range. In the end I seated the bullets out as far as I could without it being ridiculous.

This resulted in a very pleasant chance to the rifle's performance. Shooting the rifle in easily, I then fired a nice three-shot 1.5 inch group at 100 metres with the 180 grain Speer bullets and 41.0 grains of AR2208 (Varget in US manuals).

Taking the time to let the barrel cool between shots, what some people call a cold bore group, I slow-fired five measured rounds that went into 1.3 inches. This is more than satisfactory accuracy for a hunting rifle. Chronographing the load I found it was going 2340 fps average. It seems that correct projectile choice and bullet seating depth are the key to the No. 1 's accuracy."

I think I read somewhere that Ruger made this rifle with a .308" bore and I suspect they've chambered it with a lot of freebore to keep the pressure down. In other words they've bodged it.

Pity because I'd rather got my heart set on one until now.