The ups and downs of Ruger 77s????

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I don't own one, but I've recently worked on two for a friend.

IMO they are beautiful rifles, much more so than a 700.

My friend's M77 MKII was shooting 4-5" patterns. He took it to a "gunsmith" who freefloated the barrel. He didn't have it bedded because it was going to be $80.
The stock fit was horrible, you could move the barreled action around and the barrel would move left and right 1/8" each way at the end of the forearm.
I bedded it for him and since then he's sighted it in and said it was shooting right at 1" 3 shot groups.
I haven't heard back from him about the second M77. It had the same problem and I bedded it too. It is his dad's gun and is a MKI. His dad hasn't shot it because my friend got him a Browning A-Bolt Medallion for xmas...can't blame him:D

One thing to note: The first generation of M77s, with the tang safety, is not CRF. It has a Mauser style extractor but the bolt face is not recessed for CRF and it has a spring ejector.
Kinda bassackwards to have a Mauser extractor on a push feed if you ask me...

Can't beat them for the $$.
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Now I wouldn't say that. You can get a heavy barreled Savage that would shoot circles around sporter weight M77 for $500.
You can also get a Tikka T3 for the same price as an M77. They're guaranteed to shoot 1MOA and my T3 Lite in 308 is a consistent 0.5MOA gun. Neither are as pretty as a walnut stocked blued M77 though.
 
I avoided them from reading the horror stories of their accuracy.
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I had a Ruger 77V in 243 with the original trigger and factory barrel which I
glass bedded in a McMillan stock and consistently shot <1 moa w/ handloads
--with hole in hole for a 5 shot group being my best with it. I had a friend
who had one of the mkII varmints w/ the laminate stock and all original
equipment on it who could hit little square plastic honey packets at 200 yds.

I guess we just got lucky and picked up two of the good ones.....
 
Fumbler's right: the original 77s (tang safety models) were not CRFs- but the Mark IIs are.

I bought my first 77 (a .257 Roberts) in 1975. Since then, I've bought three more: a 30-06 (also tang safety), a .308 (MK II International) and a 7X64 Brenneke (also a MK II). All of them are accurate and reliable. Surprisingly (at least to me), the International, mannlicher stock and all, is every bit as accurate as the others.

In terms of ergonomics, I much prefer the original, tang safety models. IMO, the Ruger 77 is just as good a rifle as are the Model 70s and the 700s (and the Savage 110s and Browning A-Bolts). You can hardly go wrong with any of them. Pick the one that feels the best.
 
I've HAD 2 M77 Mark IIs. One in 223, one in 308. I get rid of both of them. The actions on both of them were so sloppy I would have been ashamed if I'd produced such a poor quality.

I won't ever buy another one.

Just my 2 cents.
 
LOL, my rifle still had <$1000 (with scope) put into it and was out-shooting
$3000+ sniper/target rifles. BTW I sold it to another THRer who still owns it
and loves it.

The story about the 98k I bubba'd by hacking off the fore-end and only adding
a timney trigger which shoots 1 moa I'll save for another day. :p
 
I've got one Ruger M-77, a .30-06 because Ruger is one of the few makers that doesn't charge extra for a left-hand version. Mine will go less than 4" at 300 yards, and honestly, I don't have any business shooting further than that. I did replace the stock, but only because I didn't want to trash the wooden one, and I do shoot handloads, so maybe that's the difference.

But mine isn't going anywhere without me!
 
If you take a Remington 700 (push feed) and load a round into the magazine and move the bolt foward the bullet doesn't pop out of the magazine when the bolt is at the rear of the action.
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I have a Win model 70 push feed and if you put a single round in the magazine which would be on the right hand side, when the bolt pushes it up the magazine follower will kick it completely out of the gun. It's almost comical. I still use the rifle as it doesn't do it from the left or if there is three cartridges in the magazine, but I would rather it didn't do it.
 
I own 2 Ruger M77/22 MKIIs, and one shoots MOA-the other sub-MOA. The odd .22 WMR is the sub-MOA. I bought it used from a guy who shot it less than a box of 50 holds, he still had rds for it. No one ever told him how to sight it in, he just thought you put a scope on and it was set. When the pawn guy only offerred $180 I gave him $300. The other is .223 and shoots 1" groups without modification to anything. I could sell all my rifles except these two and be content with what I have, until you show me one in .308.
 
Sounds like since they're making their own barrels now, what my friend told me about their accuracy probably no longer applies. I'm not real into the controlled round feed thing, never had a problem with a push feed rifle, but that Mauser claw does look cool. :D

Thanks for all the input. I'm a little better informed now, definitely have learned some things I didn't know so far. They may be a little hit and miss, but I can bed and free float rifles if I have to. So long as I can fix it if it won't group. I was wondering about that particularly.
 
M77

I have a m77 in 7 mm and I have a winchester model 70 in 7 mm mag.The model 70 is by far a much better gun.My M77 has a trigger job a floated barrel and been glass bed, but my winchester out shot it right out of the box I did adjust the trigger.The only reason I keep my ruger is because it was my first gun at the age of 12.The m77 will shoot 2 inch groups at 100 yards but my winchester will shoot 3/4 groups all day.
 
Ouch. I'd hate to spend as much as a M77 costs, and then have to buy a McMillan to make it shoot.
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Bone stock, shoots .7 MOA at 200 yards with 55 gr. V-max's at just under 4,000 FPS. Rifle was $679. Trigger has slight stacking before it breaks at 3.4 lbs. Scope is a Nikon Monarch 6.5-20x 44mm UFCH.

KM77VT.jpg
 
Stacking????? Don't quite understand that with a rifle, a term usually used with a DA handgun. It has that much creep?
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I consider any perceivable increase in effort from the beginning of the stroke to sear release "stacking". IMO, "creep" is excessive travel with constant resistance.

I got used to my very tuned trigger on my Remington 700 LVSF .17 Rem and Howa M1500 .223, so the Ruger trigger, while not terrible, is definitely not as short and crisp.
 
I forgot to mention...I did a trigger job on my friend's MKII in addition to the bedding.
The factory pull was about 7-8 lbs with lots of creep. When I was done it had just a barely noticeable amount of creep and broke at 4 lbs. It makes for a great hunting trigger.

While the Ruger triggers suck because they're heavy and not adjustable, they are very very easy to work on.
If you've ever done a trigger job on a 1911 then the same principles apply.

Original M77s have adjustable triggers. I haven't seen the new LC6 trigger.
 
I've got a 77/17 in .17HMR.

Accurate as can be but the trigger was way too heavy.

Installed the Volquartsen target sear and spring and while improved, still a bit too much creep for my liking.

All-in-all though, I think it is a quality firearm and not harsh on the eyes either.
 
I was just talking with someone who owns a bunch of 77s, from the originals through the latest. Obviously he likes them, but one thing that stands out as a dislike is the safety on the new ones. It's sort of tucked into the cocking piece when in the safe position, and he finds it a bit of a trick to get the safety off in a hurry. According to him, not a gun to take into a situation where the game might get feisty.
 
Original M77s have adjustable triggers. I haven't seen the new LC6 trigger.
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Sounds like they got liability paranoid. Hmm, I guess I'd have to go with an aftermarket trigger. Even my old Savage is adjustable to about 3 lbs and has that glass rod feel. I'm sure I could shoot it once worked over, but I like adjustability. I'm no bench rest guy, though. 3-4 pounds is optimum to me for a hunting trigger. You don't want your heavy gloves messing up the feel.

Speakin' of that, supposed to be 30 degrees on the stand in a couple of days. Lord help me, I ain't used to that. For a south Texas boy, that's COLD!
 
I have 3 MkII 77's in calibers .30-06, .223 and .22-250 and they all shoot great. The .30-06 benefitted greatly with the addition of a Houge stock over the factory synthetic stock.
 
My father-in-law has a MkII (.308, walnut, blued, cheap scope) that I've shot a few boxes of ammo through and hunted with a bit. I believe that some of these are shooters out of the box, but his isn't. It shoots about 2-3 MOA, but I'm sure that could be drastically improved with a new trigger and a decent scope. The main reason I don't like it is because of the way it feels--cheap. Pretty subjective, I know. I think it's mostly due to the (unusually) poor fit of the stock to the receiver, the magazine floorplate, the (10-lb) trigger, and the rattle of the bolt when opened.

Also I'm pretty sure I remember that as the bolt strips a round from the magazine, there is about 1 inch of travel before the extractor slips over the rim. Sort of CRF.

His may not be a good example of the M77. On the other hand, I have been quite impressed with every single Ruger handgun I've ever handled, esp. my 6 1/2-in Single Six.
 
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