Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles My "Rugby" 77 .358

Several years ago the stock cracked on my Hawkeye .358 because I didn't know the torque spec for the front action screw is 95 in lbs, and I only tightened it to about 60. The factory stock split like kindling! I got a piece of T grade English walnut from Roger Vardy in Austrailia and had a guy do a 95% action inlet and basic profile. Then I went to work on it. I've always liked the looks of those old Rigby stalking rifles with the short forends so I decided to Rigbyize this Ruger. I fitted a modified NECG banded front sight that I trimmed up and stippled, as well as a NECG banded sling swivel and a rear stud from Ullman Precision. I also filed off the cheesy engraving from the floorplate and reblued the part to match the new hardware. The forend tip and crossbolt plugs are ebony, and the stock is finished with a homemade alkanet root stain and Sutherland Welles tung oil. A VXII 1-4 sits in Alaskan Arms QD rings, so I can switch back and forth with a XS peep sight as desired. This winter after deer season's over I'll figure out checkering and finish this rifle off.

We drew first blood yesterday when this 3 point caught me emerging into a small muskeg and took off at a trot. As he didn't seem horribly disturbed, I followed after him, grunting as I went. When I came to the next opening about 40 yards away I found him facing me with his ears back and hackles up, ready to fight. He looked at me as if to say "Oh crap, it's you again!" and took off. I commenced with four rounds rapid. In one of my less stellar bits of shooting I achieved only one hit, but it was enough; taking him through the body at a hard quartering angle and and blowing out the throat. I love the rut and 250gr Noslers at 2375!

Thanks to JB and his ballistic achievements showing what TAC will do in a .358, and to others here who've shown their projects over the years-very inspirational.

What a beautiful rifle - well done 👍
Some modest checkering would be nice to complete the look......

Nice looking rifle for sure!

I believe the technical term for that is whomp.

Please do an intervention for stick. Beautiful rifle. Amazing job. No other words required.

I’d checker it is all.

Awesome hunt and great work on the rifle!

Good grief you run alot of nice rifles down there. Congrats on the deer. The mild recoil of the 358, you can rattle off some rapid snap shots. Any other planned hunts with the .358?

75% of the power of a 9.3x62 with 50% less powder. If that ain't magic, I don't know what the heck is. I saw no difference in killing power between the 2 cartridges. But you can surely feel the difference in weight when carrying the 358 all day.

Nice job on the first buck of the season Bucktail. I was out yesterday too - it was a glorious day, but no deer were seen or harmed by me. Heard a guy fire 3 salvos, totaling 7 shots about 1/4 - 1/2 mile from me. I've shot a lot of nice bucks with the .338" x 250 gr NPT out of my retired .338 Win. Using the .358" x 250 NPT out of my Whelen nowadays. Those heavy-for-caliber NPTs at modest velocities just work.

Thanks guys.

Mainer you ask about plans? Just to kill more deer, although if I run into the right brown bear I won't hesitate to sort him with this rifle.

I really like medium bores as they provide alot of versatility for my hunting: A 250-300 grain bullet at typical medium bore velocities will work for defensive brown bear shooting, while being useful on the rare 250 yard shot I get. As illustrated yesterday, they also work very, very well on odd angle shots.

That is a sweet looking rifle.

Awesome job on the stock. I have a stainless Hawkeye in 358, that I need to replace the stock. It’s a great caliber.

I have a hawkeye thats probably only torqued to 65 lbs which is as high as my fat boy wrench will measure.

How should i go about accurately increasing the torque to recommended level?

95 inch/lbs sounds ridiculous.

Very nice rifle.

SCgman1, I think you'll have to buy or borrow a new torque wrench. I use a Tekton:

https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-TRQ21...p;hvtargid=pla-4583451676644531&th=1

I think it also depends on what your rifle is chambered for. My .358 stock split when I went to check zero after taking it apart for my post-season cleaning of the deer rifles where I have to remove all the moss and hemlock needles. My son bought a 77 locally that had been rebarreled from .338 to .416 Taylor, with a laminated Ruger stock. The stock split within the first three rounds he fired with his new rifle. Come to find out the guy he bought it from had switched out the stocks before selling it and hadn't torqued it properly. That rifle now sits in a factory plastic stock, properly torqued, with no issues.

On the other hand, my Ruger 77 6mm SPC I found that it wouldn't shoot very well in the factory plastic stock until I torqued the front screw to 60 in lbs and the rear to 25. Which is to say on a light kicker or maybe with the plastic stock you have some leeway, but with any cartridge producing decent recoil torque specs are definitely a thing to watch out for.

Heck Yeah!!! A+ job all around... Well Done, Congrats and thanks for sharing!!!

PAB:

Awesome focus and effort. Paid off bigly, it seems!

Mines a 30-06.

With an ‘06 I’d be sure to have it torqued properly.

Nice set up. What's your Tac load with 250's? I just necked up some 308 brass to load some rounds for my BLR 358. I got some Tac out and some 250g speer hot cors then came upstairs to get my phone so I could find a good start and range. I'm hoping to get to 2300 with the 250's. Mostly shooting 200g cast pcgc bullets at slower speeds but want a good hotter load on hand.

Bb

Thx for the link, gonna give myself one of these tektons for xmass.

It's 48gr of TAC with a CCI 250. I use the same load with both the Speer and the Nosler.

Thanks again for the kind comments all. I hope to encourage anyone with the slightest such interest to take on a project for themselves.

As usual, your latest rifle project post does not disappoint. First I've heard of those scope rings -- a little pricey but they are slick.

Ruger tighens the hell out of them. On my M77 Express that screw was in so tight I resorted to a 18V Makita impact driver to back the screw out. When I was trying to turn it by hand, I was certain I was going to strip the hole. Almost had to do the same with my M77 African. I thought 60lbs was the spec, too, but both were in way tighter than that.

That is one sweet, neat, classy looking thumper!

Might want to oil it up good…I’m pretty sure I accidentally left some drool on it! 🤤

Oh hell…just noticed there’s a buck in the pic. LOL. Congrats on the buck too.

Very nice rifle, great work and thanks for sharing.

i wasn't aware folks in Alaska could take pictures of rifles not thrown on rocks or laying in mud puddles.


great looking rifle

Well, I did fall once pretty good with it in it's original stock, does that count?

Between the drooling and throwing comments, it's nice to see I'm still in with the people of my birth! Hope you guys have a great deer season!

Glass bedding those stocks surely helps with the cracking issue. And still torque them down.

It’s hard not to be a .358 Win fan after using one. I sure like mine. Heavy on wallop, light on recoil. 2+2=5…!

And so versatile regarding load choices, pistol bullets, cast, full house, something for everyone.

DF

[quote=Dirtfarmer]Glass bedding those stocks surely helps with the cracking issue. And still torque them down.

When front action screw loosens in the big mortise that Ruger uses it acts like a slide hammer and will break the stock I bed all the Ruger 77,s.

Beautiful!

You'll be sorry!

I hate doing checkering, so I won't!!!!. They still seem to work.

Great looking rifle.

Google Rigby Highland Stalker.

It has a Prince of Wales type pistol grip. I like the way the one posted here looks better than the Highland Stalker. If it was mine, I’d have a classic checkering job done along the lines of the Rigby.

I don’t care for a rounded pistol grip on a rifle. Looks good on a Browning Superposed.

DF

I actually agonized awhile on what I was going to do for that part of the stock and spent alot of time going back and forth before deciding I like the grip cap option. I'd love to someday get my hands on an original Mauser factory sporter or an actual Rigby/WR/Sedgely. At the end of the day, this is just some bastardized take on what was a stunning epoch of rifle making. I started with a less than boring yet not primo stick of wood and then tried to keep the lines clean and classy.

One fun thing I did with it was to put two notes in the lightening holes I put in the buttstock. One note explains how I did the finish and what products I used. The other note is a little letter to whoever ends up with the gun someday, a sort of time capsule thing.

You done good.

I like it.

DF

Good job. And one of the best calibers for the US. RZ.