Ruger M77 opinions

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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#16

Post by Elk34 »

laserguy wrote: May 9th, 2020, 2:28 pm
Elk34 wrote: May 9th, 2020, 10:43 am You know what. If all else fails. Buy new rifle
Already have the new rifle, won it in a raffle....the decision I need to make is what to do with this rifle.
Is it the same as the older one? Sell the older one


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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#17

Post by smithers599 »

FWIW, I love my old 77, with the tang safety. I wish they had kept the tang safety.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#18

Post by curt1950 »

harmonics has my vote, Maybe take the brake off and screw a thread protector on to kinda put it back to stock. I once had a FAL that would do no better than 6" at 100 yards until I removed the bipod, just doing that reduced the group to 2". As an afterthought, have you checked that the gunsmith didn't flatten the barrel slightly, sounds dum but he did have to put it into a vise of some type to work on it.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#19

Post by laserguy »

curt1950 wrote: May 9th, 2020, 8:56 pm As an afterthought, have you checked that the gunsmith didn't flatten the barrel slightly, sounds dum but he did have to put it into a vise of some type to work on it.
I will pull it out of the stock and take a look, hadn't thought of that
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#20

Post by curt1950 »

When I had LRK Mechanical bed my 700, they were explaining to me that if the bolts attaching the stock to the gun itself weren't properly torqued, it would cause accuracy issues as well.

LRK Mechanical have done some work for me as well, did they say about what the torque range would be ?
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#21

Post by QuietM4 »

Different torque specs on the action screws can/will drastically affect accuracy. My Bergara B14 HMR is factory spec'd at 55 in/lb. After playing around with load development, I tried different torque settings on the screws. After some experimenting with the torque settings, I found 45 in/lb in the front action screw and 50 in/lb in the rear action screw yielded the most consistent accuracy with my hand loads. 5 in/lbs either way on either screw did effect group size by a considerable margin.

Check with Ruger for the torque specs.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#22

Post by zonie77 »

You have a bunch of things on the rifle that can effect accuracy. Action bolt torque, scope mounting, barrel harmonics. One of the rifle companies had an adjustable barrel weight to adj for different loads. Maybe Browning in the 80's? I think it was called BOSS but I'm now sure.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#23

Post by laserguy »

QuietM4 wrote: May 14th, 2020, 11:11 am Different torque specs on the action screws can/will drastically affect accuracy. My Bergara B14 HMR is factory spec'd at 55 in/lb. After playing around with load development, I tried different torque settings on the screws. After some experimenting with the torque settings, I found 45 in/lb in the front action screw and 50 in/lb in the rear action screw yielded the most consistent accuracy with my hand loads. 5 in/lbs either way on either screw did effect group size by a considerable margin.

Check with Ruger for the torque specs.
That might be the issue, I am sure they removed the action from the stock. The rifle is glass bedded, I wonder if they screwed that up when they pulled the action and reinstalled it.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#24

Post by QuietM4 »

I’ve got the bolts marked so I can see if there has been any movement. They haven’t moved after 200 rounds, but maybe the will over time.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#25

Post by shooter444 »

I agree with the above two points.

1) Harmonics,... more than half of the rifles I have put a brake on, have resulted in groups opening up. Try shooting with it off, then go from there.

2) Over Torqued installation/barrel damage,... this is a hard one to diagnose. More than likely it will take a smith with some special diagnostic equipment.

Personally,... I would chop it down to 16.25", and re-crown. NO BRAKE, but, being as short as this, a break MAY NOT HAVE A BAD HARMONIC EFFECT,... that is something you have to roll the dice on, for yourself.

Short barrels DON'T lose accuracy/group size,... contrary to some folks thinking. In FACT, shorter barrels are stiffer than long barrels, which usually results in tighter groups, unless it is a nice and stiff LONG full bull barrel which I like,... just as well. BUT, that would defeat your "LIGHT WEIGHT RIFLE" purpose.

If you do a little research, you may find, that a 270 caliber shorter barrel, may not result in a whole lot of velocity loss, contrary to some folks thinking.


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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#26

Post by laserguy »

Ok, so I just did a bunch of research on muzzle velocity changes per inch of barrel length, Lyman published some info on the .270 and it looks like I would be losing about 35 fps per inch of barrel. Starting with the 22 inch barrel at about 3050 fps currently if I cut it down to 19 inches I would lose roughly 100 fps, this translates to 2 inches addition bullet drop at 500 yards and the bullet is still traveling at over 1600 fps at 650 yards which would insure expansion of the Barnes bullets I like to shoot.

I like the idea of a short, light, handy rifle and the ballistic loss is not that bad so I think I will take it in and have the barrel cut to 19 inches with no muzzle brake and then I will use it as a back up gun/ truck gun. Hopefully the added stiffness of a shorter barrel and removal of the brake will get it back to being a good shooter.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#27

Post by shooter444 »

Not that 10 FPS makes too much of a difference, but, if you check into some more barrel reduction computation results, you may find a loss of only around 25 FPS per inch.

I think, a more relevant parameter to consider, would be,... the maximum distance you usually take a hunting shot from.


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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#28

Post by Stray Horse »

Sell both rifles and get a Tikka
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#29

Post by zold »

First disassemble the rifle and give it a good cleaning to eliminate metal shavings, etc from the gunsmith work causing potential issues. Then reassemble and torque everything to spec. Do not overlook the optic mounts. Harbor Freight has a surprisingly good torque wrench if you don't have one handy. Now, take it to the range and shoot a group to see how things look. If there is still an issue, switch out the scope for another, known good optic and retest. If the problem still persists, I would consider taking it back to the smith who did the work and giving him a chance to make it right, since there is an obvious problem. If he is not interested in doing the right thing, then perhaps having another smith check the work is worth the cost. This could be a good time to upgrade the rifle the tack driver that you've hopefully always wanted.
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Re: Ruger M77 opinions

#30

Post by samnev »

I owned one in 22-250. Never could get it to shoot 1" 5 shot 100 yard groups. Credit in for a Remington 22-250 BDL
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