Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles At my witts end and need some help. Advise on wether i should sell a sour shooting rifle

Went out today with the same scope and factory 175s and factory 140s. The 140s were all over the place just like yesterday. The 175s to my suprise would do just under 2 inches. I guess it likes the heavys. Oh well, im selling it, done with ruger. I have no use for 7x57 loaded with 175s. Im so frustrated. I have three of these in 7x57. This is the only one ive shot. Now i dont know if i ever want to shoot the others.

I have learned that barrels are individuals, they each like certain loads and you just have to experiment a bit with each.

[quote=CoolHandHodge]Went out today with the same scope and factory 175s and factory 140s. The 140s were all over the place just like yesterday. The 175s to my suprise would do just under 2 inches. I guess it likes the heavys. Oh well, im selling it, done with ruger. I have no use for 7x57 loaded with 175s. Im so frustrated. I have three of these in 7x57. This is the only one ive shot. Now i dont know if i ever want to shoot the others. [/quot

Might be a darn good idea to have a chamber cast made. I have a Ruger #1A in 7x57, neat rifle that shot bout as well as yours does now, only mine would not even shoot 175 gr. round noses into less than 6". Lighter weight bullet just made shotgun patterns.
I checked screws, scopes, even pulled the little red pa off the butt and checked the tightness of the bolt that holds the but to the receiver. I took it to my gunsmith to have a chamber cast done as I could not touch the lands even with the 175's. The throat was over 2" long. I sent the gun to Ruger and after a 7 month wait the gun came home with Ruger saying the gun was accurate. I did notice thatthe barrel had been replced. There was a nasty scratch on the barrel, more like a gouge that was way too deep to have been polished out.
It could be you rifle got one of the lft over Wilson barrel that were so much crap.
Funny thing, I had one of the tang safety M77's with a crappy Wilson barrel that was a tack driver. Sorry I ever sold that one.
FWIW, I have another Ruger, an M77 RSI, the one with the wood out to the muzzle that is a one trick pony. Only one load out of dozens tried has shot worth a damn in that rifle and even it's only good for 1.25" at 100 yards. That one is a .308 Win. BTW.
The sad thing is nobody knows for sure whar Ruger's accuracy standard is. I've heard anywhere from 2" at 50 yards to 2" at 100 yards, neither of which would be acceptable to me from a new factory made rifle. Another point to check is how well Ruger sealed the wood on the inside. I have quite a few Ruger rifles, mostly the Number One's but they and the M77s I have do not appear to have been sealed at all on the inside, not even under that rubber buttplate.
Based on your comments about the 175 gr. bullets shooting fairly well, my best guess is the throat. If that's the source of the problem, Ruger owes you a new barrel.
As for me, I would not feel right about dumping a sour shooting rifle on someone without at least telling him what is going on. The fellow that sold my my RSI was honest enough to say it didn't shoot worth a damn. I liked the feel of the gun and the price under the circumstances was fair so I gambled on it. Like I said, it's a one trick pony but it was good enough to take a nice Mule Deer at 250 yards. In fact, deer just hate to see me hunting with that rifle as it's been one hell of a lucky gun for me and awfully unlucky for them.
Paul B.

Hodge,

I am not surprised that the old bullets worked. With a bit of tweaking I bet you'd have them under MOA. They are slow but oh so deadly.

I am surprised that the more modern MK II still has a long throat. Could you tell us roughly what year it was made?

1B

Darn Coolhand,

I was hoping the scope was the problem. I'd ditch it too.

The others may do wonderful, give 'em a try.

Good Luck,

JM.

Here's a fix for poorly shooting rifles that I've heard from a couple of gunsmiths over the years have used it when other remedies didn't work out. Cut an inch off the barrel and recrown it. The theory is it changes the harmonics of the barrel and may improve accuracy.

This is essentialy what the Winchester/Browning BOSS option of twenty years ago did. Adjusted the barrel harmonics to the load you were shooting in your rifle for best accuracy. For some reason the two companies felt compelled to include a muzzle brake as part of the BOSS. So it was LOUD.

Or a John Barsnes has suggested to some in the past, your rifle won't shoot because it is possesed by demons...

I'm not too surprised that your X57 likes the 175s. I rather think they were designed with those heavies in mind and that pattern has followed with some of the more traditional gunmakers. Not a lot of down sides to shooting heavy bullets either. My 7mm-08s have really liked the 139 Hornady, but the Mauser round is a bit different. I suspect the rifle might also burn stick type powders just a bit better than the fine grained ones.

Don't feel bad about selling it (them) if that's what you decide to do. I wouldn't feel bad about owning such a rifle. (If you want some promotional pics to use in selling it, I'll even whack a couple of animals with it for you! )

Some of them just never dial in.
I gunsmithed for a military shooting team in the 90's, and we'd test the newly built guns as we made them, and most often they would shoot really good- this was what we did for a living. If a rifle didn't shoot 5 shots into 3" spotter @ 300 yard test range, we would re-crown it right there @ the range. I have a 30 cal 10" pilot and could do a really nice finish crown by hand. If that didn't work, I would skim glass it, because sometimes, but rarely, the initial glass didn't do the trick and usually a skim would improve. If it still didn't tighten, I would look for other rubs and make sure the screw holes were free of obstruction. We would air gage them too for consistency and in the very end strip the bbl and throw another one on. So many variables, gas systems on M-14's, lead and throat lengths on the bolt guns.
If I were you, I would try maybe two other brands of ammo in 140g, or if you're still rolling your own, try to seat the ogive slightly into the lands. If this was your method, seat it maybe just slightly off the lands as sometimes a rifle will shoot great without close slug seating.
I am hoping something easy like that would improve and make you not lose the rifle.
My brother had one M77r that was a turd for accuracy with all loads tried and he traded it. It wasn't as bad as yours but it wouldn't shoot much better than 3 minutes and he hated that. We've been lucky with many other Rugers both R's and MKII's.
Good luck! Mike

How much do you want for it?

Hodge,
Have you tried factory Prvi 139gr ammo?

Is this the rifle?

g

Always rebarrel

Wait, you own three of the same rifle, and you're just now getting around to trying to figure ONE of them out to see whether it'll shoot?

Something appears to be amuck here...??

As for the reason i have three...

Sounds kind of stupid, but i like to collect rifles in calibers no longer chambered, especialy old military calibers...hence the 7x57. I also have a couple Remingtons in 8x57, another ruger and a remmy in 6.5x55, and featherweight in 7x57. Dumb i know, but i like them. More than likley i wont sell the rifle, i still like to look at it and its the nicest one i have...im just frustrated and disapointed.

There is NOTHING wrong with the 7x57 shooting 175s. It'll hammer stuff.

Shoot if for what it is, if you plan to keep it.

As much as I hate to agree with this character, I certainly do in this instance. The 175 grain RN 7x57 has killed a hell of a lot of stuff in its day and was the classic 7x57 load for years and years. (It's mostly what I've been shooting in my 7x57 Ruger 1A this year as well.)

Still, I wouldn't rule out sending it to Ruger for a look-see. The only way they'll likely remove your trigger is if they decide a repair is necessary and even then, they'll return your Timney unit along with the rifle. I know of one occasion involving a former co-worker of my dad's (also linemen) when his Model 77 Mark II 7mm Remington Magnum wouldn't shoot for squat. (This was about 1997 or so.) After he tore his hair out, he finally broke down and sent it to Ruger where lo and behold the damned throat was cut AFU. They replaced the barrel and sent it back to him in great shooting order.

You've only tried one load? Rifles are surprisingly like women. What one likes, another may or may not like. I would try several different loads and a few other things before I sold a rifle I really liked.

If you like the rife send it to Hill Country Rifle and have them accurize it. I sent one their way and it went from a 1.5" shooter to a .5" . I would send it to them in a heartbeat rather than dump it on someone else....unless they knew what they were getting.

Long

I had a Ruger once, that had a crappy barrel. Same exact results as you. I tried different scopes, loads etc, etc, etc.

Finally gave up and sold the piece of crap. Ironically, I own more Rugers than anything, but they are all shooters. I would keep that gun, and order a new tube for it in the same factory profile. That way you can use the same stock, and basically it will be factory, except for it will shoot lights out!

I had the same trouble with a Winchester M-70 in 7mm Mauser, sometimes they goof.

Assume nothing, and check the barrel's twist rate. If it's around 1:10" then it may not have enough twist for the 7mm Mauser. Although you say it shoots the 175 grain best, it probably will measure a bit faster than 1:10" A 7mm barrel usually has a faster twist, my 7mm Magnum has a 1:7 Hart barrel just for the Sierra 175 grain MatchKing. Your problem may be the factory installed an incorrect barrel. It does happen - I saw a brand new .41 magnum with a .44 barrel once upon a time - it didn't shoot either!

Either have Ruger check and replace the barrel, or send it off to Pac-Nor, Krieger, Hart, Shilen or one of the other barrel makers that does installations and have them match the contour. Then you'll have something good that will out last you.