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After waiting approximately six months the Ruger No.1H in .450/400 Nitro Express 3" finally arrived on Wednesday 18 Feb. The following afternoon I drove up to the Blue Mountains to collect her. Oh yes she is very sexy indeed.

Within only 30min of me arriving, the rifle was cleaned and a mate and I promptly drove to an appropriate test firing facility nearby. We set up four 2L juice containers full of water at ~40m for a bit of fun. Four from four, easily with the factory set sights.

I was very impressed with the point, balance and mild recoil of the Ruger. My mate, who is vastly experience in big bores, was suitably impressed with the projectile penetration in the ground behind the targets, which prompted a penetration test. Subsequently a round was fired into an anthill mound at ~40m; the 400gr Woodleigh RNSN penetrated ~20" into the hard material. A piece of granite rock was brutally used to locate the projectile as the anthill was set like concrete!

My mate stated a 570gr Woodleigh RNSN from his 500 Nitro Express would not have penetrated half the depth. He added there will be no penetration problems on Buffalo Bulls with my current load.

Upon concluding the afternoon's activities, we convened back at my mate's abode for tea and scones. :lol:

The recovered projectile weighed 361.4gr (or 90.4% retention). Sometime down the track I may do the usual wet newsprint test to compare with other calibre/projectile combinations.

Last Saturday, I mounted the scope in the QD rings and got my derrière to the range. The pith helmet stayed home.

The range results were very pleasing. The 400gr Woodleigh RNSNs and Hydros are averaging 2060ft/s and 2040ft/s respectively. The velocities are typical of this old and time proven British classic. Both loads have a COL of 3.675" and use Federal 215M primers;

400gr Woodleigh RNSN - 83.0grs AR2213SC
400gr Woodleigh Hydro - 81.0grs AR2213SC

Disregarding the four sighting rounds on the right, the Ruger is very consistent with both loads having a similar POI at 50m and 100m – three RNSN and two Hydros fired at each distance resulting in the single hole group.

The group top right are the RNSNs and the two shots top left are the Hydros.

I was able to find a few RNSN in the stop butt which consists of a sandy gravel – very harsh on projectiles. The retained weight was impressive; 297.2grs, 272.6grs & 267.7grs. I couldn't dig deep enough to locate the Hydros – I tracked them over 1m (~40") and they went deeper!

Increasing the Hydro charge from 81.0 to 82.0grs should increase the velocity by ~20ft/s, with negligible change in the POI.

On Monday afternoon, the Ruger went on its first little outing. Although no animals were seen, but there was plenty of old and fresh sign about.

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Cheers

Drew