Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Just bought my first Ruger M77/22

Went to the local gun show this past weekend looking for a Rem. 870 in 20 to make a home defense gun out of but came home instead with a really sweet M77/22 with the smooth barrel and nice walnut stock. Got it home and mounted a nice vintage 3x9x40 Redfield on it and started getting it sighted in. Bore sighted it and then started shooting paper at 25 yards, then 50 and finally out to 100 yards. It was just way too windy to do much fine tuning but yesterday I got it to print a best 3 shot group of right at 1.5 inches with Winchester superX and CCI mini mags. Rem. Yellow jackets looked like a shotgun pattern, terrible. Then after about 30 shots or so it started spraying pretty bad with the good stuff. Could this be attributed to just getting dirty or do you think it might be something else? Checked the mounts and all were snug. Also, I'm shooting about 5 inches or so low at 100, should I adjust for dead on at 100 or at 50? Thanks for any and all help.

I sight my .22s for 50 yards, about as far as I get shots at squirrels. Sighting for longer ranges gives a mid-range trajectory that's too high for my use. Your needs may differ. Test accuracy at 50 to minimize the effect of wind. Even at 50 yards, wind can kill you. Wind flags can help you out.

.22s are notoriously ammo sensitive and hyper-speed stuff is often very inconsistent. But if ammo that was shooting well starts to spray, something has gone amiss. I'd start by carefully cleaning the barrel, then start over with good ammo, and season the barrel with 10-20 rounds of each type before shooting test groups for that type. Running a wet patch or bore snake through between ammo changes may help. If things don't improve, you may have bedding issues or a bad crown. If your rifle is an older model, check the barrel clamping block to see it it's tight.

Mini-mags are good reliable ammo, but have never grouped as well for me as match ammo or good subsonic HPs. I keep some around, but mainly use other stuff. Try some Wolf match, Aguila match, SK, Norma, or some of the practice ammo put out by Eley or RWS. These cost a bit more, but for me the results are worth it. Cheap ammo is cheap for a reason.

I think I'm gonna try the Volquartsen target sear kit, the factory one has a little too much travel and pull rate for my liking and it looks like a very easy job. Once I do that I'll see how it shoots and if it stays a bit more consistent.

I will echo what pappy has already mentioned. i have a couple of these and i think you will be happy with yours. the target sear change takes all of 30 seconds to do. that Norma TAC 22 stuff has been shooting really well in all of my rimfires and including my 77/22's and 10/22. bullets.com has the best price on the stuff at this time. i have also had very good luck with the mini mags but the tac 22 stuff beats it out.

It was shooting ok for 30 rounds or so, I don't think changing out the trigger is going to stop the spraying. I would remove the stock and reset it, if nothing changes, look elsewhere...action screws, magazine well, stock inletting.

This has to be very rare but a friend of mine had accuracy problems with one and he eventually sent it to Ruger. They changed the barrel retainer V block and retainer screws. Presto.

One tip, my rifle has always shot respectable groups with about 4 different brands and weight of bullets, but I noticed the two-piece bolt was loose so I ordered a shim kit and accuracy improved.

Good luck

I'd start here.......

Just got back in from another session on the bench and things are looking up. I started out with the Winchesters that shot pretty good yesterday and shot 6 through a fresh clean bore and it was decent. Then I switched to some Remington Target and the first group of three I shot measured out at 13/16ths of an inch!! Then I decided that instead of wasting more of the good ammo I went back to the winny's and shot steel at 150 yards. Got a few hits but that was about it. Anyway until I get the trigger work done I think that'll be it.

i have 3 of them and all shoot squirrel head at 50 yards with the federal champions. one of mine was not consistent and i found that snugging the front action screw up as tight as it would go fixed it. two of mine like a little barrel pressure right at the end of the forend and the other one is free floated. all of them like the CCI minimag hp's. tight 100 yard groups are tough. i can never get a day that is still enough for consistency at that range.

If the groups jump from 1.5 to 5 inches with the same ammo, that is most likely something is loose. Almost for sure. Not likley a dirty barrel. Rim fires are notoriously difficult to shoot at 100 yards and over,so; when things go south, I find it best to drop back to 50 and start over.

For accuracy, I had good luck with cci standard velocity. That and Norma match not bad for next step up. Shooting at 50 yards. Maybe some advantage to going hi velocity at longer distances, but; generally rim fire shooters try to avoid loads that cross the sound barrier. That is super sonic to sub sonic drop. Better to start off std-velocity than cross the sound barrier on the way down range.

I strongly recommend all your accuracy and test shooting at 50 yards and then move out to where things get exponentially tougher. Any problem go back to 50 and figure it out (not 100).

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll probably go back to 50 and fine tune it once I get the trigger to my liking. When the gun is coming apart I'll be sure and check for loose screws that might point to the problem.

And the SS stuff drifts less as well.