I bit the bullet and purchased a left hand Ruger M-77 Compact in 300 RCM caliber, from CDNN.inc, down in Abilene, TX. for about a penny less than $600. They have both calibers, and in gloss or matte finish. My piece was made in 2012. Its claw ext. had 0.022" more gap, than does its replacement which Ruger Support shipped immediately, upon our complaint. The first one dropped the fired case within the first inch of extraction. The tighter second number works just fine.

I was impressed by my wildcats using Hornady virgin brass. But now shooting the real deal, I am dumbfounded. It most certainly is a full fledged, 300 Magnum, with the factory ammo. It was accurate right out of the box. By the time the replacement claw came in, my G.S. had done a trigger job, bringing its pull down from 5.5 lbs. to 2.7 lbs.

Now I'm pushing $700 with shppg., FFL charges, and the $45 trigger job. But this is still a bargain, and the little piggie really does shoot. Note that this model is discontinued, and sports the full length Ruger M-77 gunstock. So putting in a lightweight fluted barrel of 25-26 inches for my 243 VampKat, will actually improve the aesthetics of this rifle.

This will be my first left hand donor rifle, and now I'm going to try and blood it later this month. The 243 Custom VampKat die set is still quite a ways off. And I'm not ordering a new barrel until I can load accurate ammo for my take off Shilen Target barrel, in one of my four test bed M-98s'.

All of my RCM wildcats have too short of necks. The custom forming and reloading die set is supposed to help this by letting me form cases from full length 375 Ruger or the Basic cases. Then I can put whatever length necks on them, I want.

Hornady has really eliminated most of the noxious muzzle blast of a short barreled 300 Magnum, in this 300 RCM. I suspect that cutting down this barrel to 17 or 18 inches, would raise the muzzle blast exponentially. Down to the 284 caliber, it should stay 20 inches. From 6.8mm down to the 6mm, it should grow out to 25-6 inches, in a moderately generous diameter, fluted barrel.

Ironically, this short CRF action also feeds the 6.5 Rem. Mag. and 350 Rem Mag. with aplomb. So in effect, you have four, factory cartridges, plus my 6, 7, & 8mm wildcats.