MachIVshooter
Member
Something you're not likely to see very often, as the cost of threading the barrel alone is a good chunk of the rifle's value, and people buying these economy boomsticks usually aren't playing the NFA game. But every once in awhile......
I had stopped at the gun counter at wally world to do my usual weekly brick or two of .22 LR and whatever else I feel like snagging, and noticed that they had the 770 rifle & scope combos marked down to $254. I thought "dang, that's pretty cheap even for a cheap rifle". I pondered it overnight, deciding that since all four of my .308s are semi-auto, it could fill a niche. So today after picking up my boy, we headed back there, and I snagged one. I had already decided the 22" barrel was too long, and that the absence of threads was unacceptable, so it came out of the box and into pieces.
18" seemed like a good length, so off came the excess 4"
Now, the 770 is a unique design among bolt guns, using a pressed fit barrel with an extension and 3 lug bolt. Normally I pull barrels to shorten, crown & thread, but that's not really a viable option with these. Fortunately, the receiver is just under the ID of my spindle bore, so the whole barreled action went in (I do have ways of dealing with stuff larger than spindle bore, but it's much more of a hassle). Anyway, I decided I wanted to go 5/8-24, but like most sporters, the tube is too thin to have any shoulder at 5/8-24 with just .650" diameter where I cut. The way we deal with that is to make a shoulder. First I take a piece of stock, usually a leftover chunk of a >.750" diameter barrel I shortened, bore it out and thread:
Then we part it off just over .500" long, leaving enough for clean up. This piece will form the shoulder
Next we thread as we normally would, but we make the tenon .500" longer. In this case, I wanted .550" of threaded muzzle, so we threaded back to 1.050". Then we install the shoulder piece tight as we can go with red Loctite or Rockset and profile it to match the barrel, with a radius or taper up to the .750" diameter shoulder:
After that we just do final clean up and cold blue, and the piece blends in. The finish on this barrel is bead blasted and some sort of black oxide, so the shoulder piece is noticeable in contrast:
On a gloss blued barrel like this Tikka .338 I recently did, there is no evidence of a separate piece:
At any rate, with that done, I made a knurled thread protector and reassembled the rifle (replacing the junk scope rings in the process).
I also screwed my SiCo Hybrid on and put a couple through it in the back yard
My overall impressions of the 770 are pretty positive. The bolt could be smoother, and magazine insertion is reminiscent of a 10/22, in that it's more finesse than gross action. But the trigger is decent, the rifle has a good feel to it (heavier than expected, but still just 7.7 lbs w/scope), and it does shoot nice. With any luck, I'll get some shots on paper later this week so I can report on accuracy. If it's close to MOA @ 100 yards, I'll have to give this one pretty high marks as an economy rifle. I have multiple 700s and other nice rifles, but a good, cheap, synthetic stocked knock-around that I'm able to throw a can on has merit. I'm sure I'll put better glass on it at some point, though.
I had stopped at the gun counter at wally world to do my usual weekly brick or two of .22 LR and whatever else I feel like snagging, and noticed that they had the 770 rifle & scope combos marked down to $254. I thought "dang, that's pretty cheap even for a cheap rifle". I pondered it overnight, deciding that since all four of my .308s are semi-auto, it could fill a niche. So today after picking up my boy, we headed back there, and I snagged one. I had already decided the 22" barrel was too long, and that the absence of threads was unacceptable, so it came out of the box and into pieces.
18" seemed like a good length, so off came the excess 4"
Now, the 770 is a unique design among bolt guns, using a pressed fit barrel with an extension and 3 lug bolt. Normally I pull barrels to shorten, crown & thread, but that's not really a viable option with these. Fortunately, the receiver is just under the ID of my spindle bore, so the whole barreled action went in (I do have ways of dealing with stuff larger than spindle bore, but it's much more of a hassle). Anyway, I decided I wanted to go 5/8-24, but like most sporters, the tube is too thin to have any shoulder at 5/8-24 with just .650" diameter where I cut. The way we deal with that is to make a shoulder. First I take a piece of stock, usually a leftover chunk of a >.750" diameter barrel I shortened, bore it out and thread:
Then we part it off just over .500" long, leaving enough for clean up. This piece will form the shoulder
Next we thread as we normally would, but we make the tenon .500" longer. In this case, I wanted .550" of threaded muzzle, so we threaded back to 1.050". Then we install the shoulder piece tight as we can go with red Loctite or Rockset and profile it to match the barrel, with a radius or taper up to the .750" diameter shoulder:
After that we just do final clean up and cold blue, and the piece blends in. The finish on this barrel is bead blasted and some sort of black oxide, so the shoulder piece is noticeable in contrast:
On a gloss blued barrel like this Tikka .338 I recently did, there is no evidence of a separate piece:
At any rate, with that done, I made a knurled thread protector and reassembled the rifle (replacing the junk scope rings in the process).
I also screwed my SiCo Hybrid on and put a couple through it in the back yard
My overall impressions of the 770 are pretty positive. The bolt could be smoother, and magazine insertion is reminiscent of a 10/22, in that it's more finesse than gross action. But the trigger is decent, the rifle has a good feel to it (heavier than expected, but still just 7.7 lbs w/scope), and it does shoot nice. With any luck, I'll get some shots on paper later this week so I can report on accuracy. If it's close to MOA @ 100 yards, I'll have to give this one pretty high marks as an economy rifle. I have multiple 700s and other nice rifles, but a good, cheap, synthetic stocked knock-around that I'm able to throw a can on has merit. I'm sure I'll put better glass on it at some point, though.
