Brandy a Fine Rifle

One evening I engaged in seriously dangerous behavior… I was sipping brandy and browsing online for a Ruger Number One in any of several fast-stepping big game chamberings. Without adult supervision. Suddenly there it was! The Ruger 1-S, a favorite configuration with the 26” barrel with sights! The owner claimed he’d bought the 7mm Remington Magnum new about 20 years earlier, put part of a box of ammo through it, cleaned it and put it away. The photos showed a pristine Ruger 1-S. The price was a couple of hundred under the usual asking price… I hit the “buy now” button and trundled happily off to bed.

Ruger’s Number One falling block rifle has long been a favorite of mine. In the 1970’s I thought they were about the coolest rifle on the market - so different from everything else. Now 50+ years later, I still think they’re excellent hunting rifles. Slow to reload? Try a traditional muzzle loading rifle… The Ruger Number One is so much quicker to load!

The next morning I grinned as I thought “I bought a rifle last night!” Then I fired up the ol’ laptop and confirmed that I had indeed bought a Ruger Number One, a favorite rifle. Well okay then… Some communications with the seller and he assured me that it was a nearly new rifle, but twenty years old. A few days later it arrived at my favorite local dealer and we opened the box curiously. The rifle was as described, clean and apparently unused. Instantly the fine rifle was named “Brandy.” Not many of my rifles acquire names, but a few do and Brandy is one.

I’d sort of been hoping for a 257 Weatherby, but was quite familiar with both the 257 Weatherby and the 7mm Remington Magnum cartridges. In the past I’d re-formed 7mm Remington Magnum brass to produce 257 Weatherby brass in the past. Although no 7mm Rem Mag rifle had been in my safe for a few years, I had dies, new brass, fired cartridges, handloaded cartridges and quite a few suitable bullets ranging from 140 - 175 grains.

An unemployed 1970’s 3-9x Leupold, turning plum, was in my gun safe and fit on the rifle just fine. I was quickly able to take it to the range. I noticed that the lever was tight, the bore spotless, the walnut and blue were both un-scarred… At the range I quickly got a zero 100 yard zero and started thinking about an upcoming hunting trip to Wyoming for mule deer and pronghorn antelope. Soon I did some scope swapping and “Brandy” got herself a nice, newer 3.5-10x Leupold.

With high velocity big game rifles I tend to opt for premium bullets such as the Nosler Partition or Accubond, Barnes TSX/TTSX, Hornady CX or something else that won’t come apart at high impact velocity. My first thought was to go with a 160 grain Nosler Partition or Accubond, both have shot accurately and performed well on game for me, but I didn’t have many of those and had an abundance of 160 grain Sierra GameKing bullets on hand. I decided to try the Sierras to give me a general idea of their point of impact, trajectory, velocity and accuracy. I loaded them over some of my dwindling supply of Reloader 22. My long-proven load was 65 grains which is above max in some manuals. It normally provides good accuracy and velocity.

This load clocked a respectable 3050 fps and I was impressed at the accuracy at 100, 200 and 300 yards…

This was a typical 300 yard group, using the Ruger Number One in 7mm Remington Magnum with the 160 grain SPBT GameKing over 65 grains of Reloader 22.

When I saw that level of accuracy happening time and again at 100, 200 and 300 yards I decided that mule deer and pronghorn aren’t armor plated and that a standard 160 grain cup and core bullet would work just fine. Particularly with this kind of accuracy. I loaded up a few boxes of ammo, confirmed the zero and headed for eastern Wyoming to a favorite cattle ranch I’d hunted before with roughly 40,000 acres.

My hunting buddy and I were once again with a great guide, Ol’ Tony, who knew the ranch well. Things started slowly with very few mule deer seen. I blew one stalk on a pronghorn and missed what should have been an easy shot. Heck of a buck! Kind of like the fisherman’s “You should have seen the one that got away!” Ah well, an opportunity lost.

We spotted the reflection off a buck’s antlers and stalked him carefully. The antlers had looked good - but when we got there, we found a napping forked horn, a 2x2. We had a good laugh and moved on, leaving him to grow.

Finally at long range we saw a group of bucks heading towards a small pass in a low ridge dotted with sagebrush. We closed the distance and stalked forward. Tony and my hunting buddy were up high on the ridgeline and I was slowly working my way forward along the face of the ridge on a vague game trail. I was walking at first, then crawling, finally I saw a decent young 3x3 muley. The buck hadn’t noticed me yet. I leaned against the steep side of the ridge, half-kneeling/half sitting, and steadied the crosshairs for a shot at about 150 yards. I gently touched the trigger, the 7mm spoke and the buck stood for a moment, then collapsed in place. I reloaded the single shot rifle and moved forward towards the fallen buck.

My hunting partner joined me - he had passed on a chance at bigger bucks and was intent on finding a trophy muley. I’d hunted the same ranch several times and was quite satisfied with a 3x3 buck after several days of hunting. He snapped a photo of me with my buck and the single-shot rifle. Brandy had her first kill!

The hit was farther back than I wanted but dropped the buck quickly after a long stalk on foot, and even crawling.

After the buck was field dressed and hanging, I noticed a slight bulge under the off-side hide. I slit the hide with my pocket knife and found the spent bullet.

This is the recovered bullet adjacent to an unfired 160 grain Sierra Game King. The recovered bullet weighed 97 grains and looks quite similar to recovered bonded bullets! To me, this is one more instance of a standard jacketed, lead-core bullet taking game with a normal impact speed. Good penetration, a fine mushroom and quickly lethal.

A day or two after the muley buck I managed to get another shot at a pronghorn. This was a rather long shot and I messed up and hit the neck. When the soft nose bullet hit the spine.. Well it looked pretty bad, very bloody, and I have no photos of that particular pronghorn.

This buck was photographed in the same general area as the buck I took with Brandy the 7mm Rem Mag, but on a ranch where I had no permission to hunt. They are incredible game animals and the meat can be delicious!

Antelope tenderloin sizzling in the skillet. Wonderful “trophy” of the hunt.

I ended up with excellent meat in the freezer and a nicely bleached but quite average skull. Am hoping to hunt antelope again.

I’m a lifelong hunter and handloader as well as a USMC veteran and a retired police officer. You can catch my videos and written articles on Ultimate Reloader - on either Rumble or YouTube.

Shoot well! Guy