Jim Golden
AH veteran
I called Ruger about it, way back. And they were mortified, and said "Mail it back to us NOW!" I bought it new, and it's been like that since day one. Call me dumb, but I was afraid of losing it in the mail. If you had the safety on when you shut the lever, there was never an issue. But with the safety off, if you shut the lever, about one in three would go off. Never had it happen to a live round....discovered it just in the gunroom. But, it does need to be looked at. I have a really good 'smith I work with and he's probably better than the factory. I need to let him look at it. I've never shot an animal with it. Maybe I'll have him rebarrel it to 45-something bigger than 70 and fix the action while he's at it. It's been basically a wall hanger for a long timeThe difference in case body geometry of a 50-90 Sharps and a 500 NE, other than length, is negligible however the rim is quite different, the Sharps being more robust .... but that is not the focus of this thread and I apologize for that.
I happen to have a 45-90 Rolling Block. That is that longest 45cal I could fit in that rifle because of the large hammer inline with the chamber; obviously the Ruger No 1 doesn't have that problem. On my first bison hunt I mistakenly handloaded it to 458WM equivalent and shot through the bison 4-times before it realized it was dead. On my next bison hunt I loaded it with a black powder substitute tipped with a 500gr paper patch bullet with much, much better results.
That is certainly a serious issue with your No 1, never heard of that before. I'm a bit surprised that you haven't had that addressed in 20-years.
Back to 458 Lott' 450 Ackley thing. I personally don't see the point of doing it but each to their own. By Jarrah's own admission he's just aren't gaining that much.