Ruger M77 Tang Safety Sub-Moa Accuracy

That is better then my MKII, I hover right around the 1.5" range with handloads and factory.

Those older guns were all over the place depending on who made the barrel. I've seen some that were that good. Others not so good. If you get a good one keep it.

My 77V .22-250 is sub MOA. Not as far sub as others I read about, but pretty good.

A friend had one of the first run of Ruger 77Vs in .220 Swift. It was phenomenally accurate. He said that the first batch had Douglas barrels instead of their usual vanilla outsourced barrel of the time. He quit shooting groundhogs with it because there was a benchrest match with a stockgun class. He won much more than the price of the rifle in competition.

I have a 1981 m77 in 22-250 that puts 2 shots touching and the third shot is always an inch away.never figured out why,heat I suppose.the barrel isn`t a varmint contour and heats pretty quick.

My 250 Savage (1976 I think) is sub MOA with my hand loads, never even seen any factory ammo to mess with. The tang safeties are probably my favorite bolt rifle out there.

Any particular years to look for when buying a tang safety? My 308 is a 1987, I'm looking for a .270

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Not that I can tell. Ruger contracted out for all of their barrels prior to the MK-II which came out in 1991 or 1992. They were made by different vendors as near as I can tell and it seems to be just luck. Some barrels were near match grade and others poor. But even at that I think accuracy concerns are somewhat over stated. Most were just fine with a few on opposite ends of the great/awful spectrum. The bad ones always get noticed making it seem that things are worse than they really are with any gun. Looks like your 308 is one of the better ones.

Not to rain on a parade but being a RSO and seeing lots of rifles that's pretty close to what I've seen at the range for both the M77 and M77mkII's. From my experience with a good shooter both shoot right around or just over MOA. Realistically that's right were YOUR your gun is at. A cherry picked 3 shot (4,6,7) group of 1.44" becomes a 1.7" 4 shot (4,5,6,7) and a 3.5" 5 shot group (4,5,6,7,8,). Still good shooting out of a factory gun just nothing to dance in the streets about. Find a sweet spot hand load and you could truly have a MOA rifle. For recoil PAST makes a great wearable shoulder pad I use when shooting Vintage Military matches with steel butt plate rifles.

My 77s in .25-06 and .270 definately outshoot my MkII .270. Too bad I gave the 270 to my brother and the .25 is sitting on a consignment rack.

I have been lucky, my first one (1973) in 25/06 shot lights out with several loads after I bedded it. Then in 1977 I bought a new 77V in .220 Swift and it shot as well as my new pdog guns, they are all custom barreled Remingtons. I bought a 1976 model recently in .243 and it took a trigger and bedding but it shoots one hole with a 58 Vmax now.

dak0ta said:

What are good prices for these Rugers? I see $500-600 for good condition with a few hunting dings and some blue wear.

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I got my (near mint) MkII 7mm Rem Mag for $450 and it included a decent Bushnell Banner 4x12 scope. Bought it at a local pawn shop.

In the last year I picked up a blued Mk II 300 Winchester Mag (with scope) for a used Sig P226 I had $450 in; also a stainless Mk II in 338 Winchester Magnum scoped plus 4 boxes of ammo for $600. Both seem to have good accuracy potential. These are solid guns, I like the Rugers.

I had a 220 swift for years and it was special. Should have kept it.

My first 77 was in 1973. .243. Easy one-MOA with Remington factory ammo.

Next in the 1970s was a heavy-barrel .220 Swift. 3/8-MOA, reliably.

Now I have a 1997 vintage 77 Mk II in .223. 1/2-MOA from the git-go.

None ever needed tweaking beyond triggers. I put a Canjar single-set in the Swift, and a Timney in the .223.

Found another one.

My favorite rifle of all time was a Bi-centennial 77 270. It was a rare 77 with really nice fiddleback walnut. With my favorite handload it would shoot 1/2 MOA. I took 22 whitetails, 2 mulies, 2 pronghorn, a bobcat and turkey with it before I retired it. The bedding went bad and I had to glass the action and float the barrel. I got it back to about 1 1/2 MOA and sold it.

Found a tanger like new last month in 270 for $410. Stuck a Nikon 2X7 ProStaff on it, loaded some of my favorite 270 loads. First 5 shot group after sighting in was sub-MOA. I'll keep it.

Out of dozens of Tang Models I've owned and shot I can only think of two that wouldn't shoot with minimal effort. (22-250 & 338)
I've heard for years about how they farmed out the barrels and some were very poor but for the most part I view them as superior to the new MKII's with regards to accuracy.
Can't think of a single one that has cost more than $400 and most have had decent glass. The last one was a 7mag that cost $270 OTD with no glass last Dec.

I bought my Ruger M77, 6mm Remington in 1969. S/N is 70-05419. Ruger was suppose to use Douglas barrels pre 1971 and the flat bolt pre 1973. In theory the M77 in this date range has a higher price range, but I am not sure why. This is a nice rifle and it does shoot 1" to 1-1/2" groups all day long with factory ammo. I saw one of this date range in 6.5 Remington magnum listed for $1500. I saw another not in this date range listed at $800. What is the M77 worth ? ... whatever the buyer will pay is the answer.

I have two Ruger 77V's…one in 220 Swift and the other in 6MM and both shoot 1/2" or better 100 yard 5 shot groups. My 220 Swift is a Flatbolt made in the first batch with Douglas barrel and particular attention paid to fit and finish by Ruger as they wanted to have a good impression with the 1973 introduction of the limited guns which were a sell-out. If someone wanted to own a Ruger 220 Swift you couldn't do better than this. I've shot some close to one-holers with this rifle.

I Love My Tang Safety Ruger 77

I currently have 4 Ruger 77's - one of them is a tang safety rifle, vintage 1981 or so, in .257 Bob. It needed a little "fussing" (fore end relief from barrel contact at its midpoint) but it shoots an honest 5 shot 1/2moa with my go-to hunting load. I also have a 77 Mk II in .270, and with my 150 gr. handloads my wife can "cloverleaf" 3 rounds at 100 yds. too often to suit my pride!

Ruger makes a tough, quality rifle in the M77. Sometimes it takes a little "fussing" to get them to shoot really well - 5 rds. @ less than 1/2moa -, but even without that they're reliable, safe, and accurate enough to bring meat home.

One more thing.

I need to add that my old Bi-Cen 77 was not picky about loads. It would shoot 150gr and 130gr to the same point of impact at 100 yards. Pretty handy when you want to hunt out west. Just had to know the trajectory difference and then go hunting.

dak0ta said:

What are good prices for these Rugers? I see $500-600 for good condition with a few hunting dings and some blue wear.

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True standout in standard rifle category is .35 Whelen easily worth $600 in other calibers I would walk by. Strum & Ruger is unusual in that some guns in given model category are outstanding while others are not. For example, 28ga Red Labels were wonderful while 20ga and 12ga were no good unless one wanted stainless 12ga for duck/goose hunting.

I collected Ruger 77's for years. Some shot sub moa and others were finicky. One thing stood out and that was the early flat bolts I owned all shot sub m.o.a. I attribute that to those early Douglas barrels supplied to Ruger and Ruger's strict early quality standards.