Gentlemens:

I was followed home by a Ruger #3 and have decided it will be the basis of my bench rifle. I have recently seen a picture of Steven Hughes' side lever Ruger and fell in love. I have always been a sucker for anything in a side lever.

So.... We have got so far as to decide that it will be a Side Lever action.  I am soliciting any ideas, advice or insults associated with this project.  I want to lose all that Rube Goldberg stuff hung under the barrel and will need to do something with the trigger. There is a lot of room between the tangs if the safety is removed so I suspect one could incorporate a set trigger of some sort. 

The hammer will have to be powered in some other way, either a flat spring or perhaps a coil like Winchester used.  I reckon it is even possible to lose the hammer all together and make it striker fired. 

I would be glad to hear from anybody who wished to toss their two pennies into the bucket.  Thanks for your help!

Glenn

HST;
I cannot help you with re-engineering the Ruger, but one of my Ruger's (a custom #1) has a pretty decent German single set trigger on it. I believe that it is still available.

Dale53

Foster: 

Thanks for the input. It is going to be an interesting project. We are going at it in two some what separate ways as you are interested in a hunting rifle and mine will be a pure bench rifle. Howsomever, there will be plenty of common ground.

Instead of the "Squeeze cocking" set up how about a squeeze safety, kinda like the grip safety on a pistol? The Ruger safety is pretty safe, what with it blocking both the trigger and the hammer. Perhaps you could incorporate the lever pressure into the system.

Glenn

hst, This project has my interest up on the full setting, have always liked the looks of the Hepburn & thought it would make the prefect bench rifle with a straighter butt stock attachment, this project of a side lever Ruger may be the better answer & less $$$ if you do not count personal labor involved! Presently only one Ruger #3 in 7mm x 1 1/2"R resides in the gun safe, it is very accurate with breech seated cast bullets and would definitely benefit from a side lever conversion for bench shooting. Had the Kepplinger single-set trigger installed when I purchased the rifle. It is an excellent set trigger, does take a couple tries to get it adjusted to your preference, but once completed it maintains the setting, FFL's holders/dealers price from Brownell’s is about $170 and IMO well worth it. Personally, only performed the basic mechanical work on the #3’s, defiantly would like to hear more about this project and in the future perform the same type of conversion on my #3. Thanks for bringing up this fascinating project, Mike 

The two gentlemen are correct. I now remember that my trigger is a Kepplinger. It is engineered for the Ruger and should be relatively easy to install.

Dale53

Foster, possibly one reason Mr Hughes hasn't responded to your requests about the sidelever conversion is that he's not the guy who accomplished it. Mr Hughes was merely the stockmaker on these projects and not the metalsmith, in fact I don't believe Steve Hughes does much metalwork at all compared to his volume of stockwork. A fellow named John Madole is the guy who can give you the straight skinny on how it was done, but I don't know how to contact him. The best pictures I've seen of this conversion are contained in Steve Hughes' book Custom Rifles in Black and White, which also contains some truly great photos & descriptions of some other truly great custom single shot rifles.

Glenn, I've used the Kepplinger SST on both Ruger No 1s and various Mausers, it's an OK design but maybe not quite as crisp as some others. It's a typical over-center design similar to the original roller SSTs and so is sometimes a little mushy-feeling in comparison to the ones with sharp secondary sears.

I no longer possess a Ruger but continue to use the Kepplinger triggers on two Mausers. I've found that they sometimes require some spring-tension adjustment/balancing to achieve the best results and have actually had to substitute other springs on one occasion. Also I've had to reduce the internal sear engagement surfaces on my Kepplinger Mauser triggers to achieve good crisp unset pulls with no creep. I don't remember having this problem with the Ruger Kepplingers but as always, YMMV.

At one time Canjar made an SST for the Ruger, IMO I would MUCH prefer the Canjar over the Kepplinger but where would you get one? Maybe keep your eyes on eBay? Or advertise in the Journal or here on this site? Of course I know that a man of your means & resources can easily make one but it's somewhat of a hassle to say the least.

In the past I've been able to buy spare parts from the Canjar folks including extra trigger/kicker assemblies that I could use with my own bench-made trigger legs, for various custom applications including one of my Borchardts. It's sometimes a lotta work but it's been worth it for me, keeps me off the streets & outa trouble for the most part (VBG).

If you choose to pursue the adaptation of some other type of DST such as the previous mention of using triggers from a muzzle-loader, I can offer an opinion. I've been pursuing the use of other set triggers on the Winchester walls and have made several conversions of this type with mixed results. I've had trouble getting the triggers to maintain their settings due to the relative sloppiness of the triggers' fit in their frames.

I've now concluded that possibly the best solution is to use the more-compact DSTs intended for Mausers rather than the earlier designs like the original walls or muzzle-loaders. Over the years I've found that the best compact DSTs are IMO made by Anschutz and Precise Metalsmithing Enterprises, both of which are available from Brownell's. It's been my experience that either of these brands are capable of holding a dependable setting right down to the 2-ounce mark and so far I've had no trouble with the sear surfaces wearing under use. Have been using one particular set of Anschutz triggers now for many many years with no changes, and a set of PME triggers for almost that long. IMO they are both superior products & I recommend them wholeheartedly, AAMOF I keep an extra new set in stock at all times just in case they quit makin' 'em unexpectedly.

Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you want to be confused any further, I would be honored to help. And Ben S informs me that you need all the help you can get!
Best regards, Joe

Gentlemens:

Thanks for all the input and support. 

I see two ways of approaching the hammer spring issue. The first is to find a better way to power the hammer. The other is to use a striker. I don't know which would be best. The Hammer will likely be an easier solution, and by lightening the parts one could tame it all down. More thought and experimenting required.

I did see a picture of the Dakota M10 without the stock and it appears to be striker fired in a manner that I was envisioning for the Ruger.

Joe, I believe you to be right about the Hughes action being done by Mr. Madole. Unfortunately, I understand that Mr. Madole has passed on.  A man who could do work of that caliber will surely be missed.

Do you recall if any of those pictures showed the action open? If so, did the floor plate come down with the lever?  If not then there had to be modification to the block as well as the firing mechanism.

I checked Brownell's website for the triggers you mentioned. All I could come up with is a set of triggers for the M-98 made by NECG, part #661-098-100.  Do you happen to have the numbers of the Anschutz and PME?

And yes, I must confess that Ben is right.

Glenn

hst, here is Brownell's url for the Ruger set triggers { (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) } Check page 8 of the #58 Catalog, they also have installation instructions for the Ruger trigger in the guntech section. Mike