Good Afternoon Shooters,

Well the deed is done. I just bought my Ruger K1-B-BBZ No. 1 in 300 WinMag Stainless Steel and Laminate. I also just got new Leupold VXIII 3.5-10x50 in silver for it. Man, this is sure gunna look pretty once I have it mounted. My plan is to bore sight it tonight or tomorrow and take it to the range this weekend and get it all sighted in. I have both the extra-high rings as well as the high rings. Not sure which ones I’m going to wind up using. The high rings are supposed to be adequate for the 50mm scope but if I want to put a cover on it, it might not fit between the rim of the scope and the barrel. We shall see. When I have a chance, I’ll take a digital picture of it and post it. I have to move to a state where I can use the number 1 more in. Most of Maryland allows muzzle loading and bow only with the exception of western Maryland, about 4 hours from my house. I may have to get another one of these VXIII’s soon as budget permits for my T/C Omega .50 cal muzzleloader. It’s REALLY nice!

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new rifle and scope.

Give the rifle time to settle in - may take a hundred rounds or so before the groups really tighten up.

Didn't think it would take 4 hours to drive anywhere in Maryland - last time I was back there, you could drive through 3 or 4 states in that length of time!

From eastern shore of MD just to central Maryland, it takes about 2.5 hours of solid driving. Then to go up to the top westen corne where Maryland, PA, and WV all meet, its another 3 to 4 hours. This state might be a little pis-ant state but it does take time to drive.

Let us know how the new rig shoots and especially what you think of the scope. Is it the 1" or 30mm tube?

The VRIII is a 1" tube. Only the VXLR III (Long Range version comes in a 30mm tube. I have used it before. My uncle had the same scope on his Sako and it does a good job. While at the store when I picked up my No. 1 I looked at a Carl Zeiss Conquest that was 3.5-10x44 and had a real heavy duplex on it. WOW! it was impressive and the same price as the VXIII $529.00 It let as much light in with the 44mm objective lens as the 50mm lens did on the VXIII. And the optics were crystal clear. I know in the Camera world, a zeiss lens is no joke and one of the best optics you can get. It rates higher then a Nikon lens but in the hunting world optics, I did not know much about Carl Zeiss. My uncle’s brother told me that it's not the same German lens quality as they import for camera lens. I do not know if this is true or not so I cannot attest one way or another but he said the zeiss is very cheap American made mock-up of the good German lens. As I said before, this is not my opinion, just what I heard. Perhaps someone else can chime in on this one. I will say I almost went with the Zeiss and the only silly reason why I didn't was, they only make them in matt black finish and I was sort of set on silver so it looked hot on the no. 1. Like I said, a silly reason but it's my honest reason.

That's all for now.

Scott