Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Lack of custom rifles on ruger 77 actions

27 1/4"

Terry

That's some mighty purty lipstick dribbled on that pig!!! I really do dig that rifle and imagine it works great for it's intended purpose.

MuskM - 6x42 w/M1(s)?

Nice set up. Still 308?

Still a boring old .308. M1 elev turret only.

Nope. The High Tech stocks are for the older tang safety Rugers only, not the Mark II's. Below is an email exchange I had with them about the Mark II's.

I have a Ruger Hawkeye African in .375 Ruger, and I don't need any lighter rings on that rifle!

My other Hawkeye is a .300 RCM, and it doesn't seem to be heavy -- mostly light and handy with its shorter barrel.

I have heard that Talley doesn't make rings for the M77s because of loose tolerances, but I haven't verified that.

jim

Heres a custom Ruger 300 Win lightweight with a High Tech stock. The Tang safety model is easily modified to work on a Mark II

Good to know. If you don't mind, can you detail what all you had to do to make it work?

Rick Steinhour at Extreme Rifleworks fit it for me. He had to fill the void from the tang saftey and I believe he had to mill a space for the safety

Yeah, it's not tough to do with something like Acra-Glas Gel.

I had Charlie Sisk build me a custom .300 Winchester Magnum on a tang-safety 77 action a few years ago. He said that in his experiences they were just as easy to work on as 77's, but that many gunsmiths don't want to both with them both because of all the after-market parts available for 700's, but all the tools for trueing 700's.

Mine had a 25" Hart barrel and Bansner stock and weighed a little over 8 pounds with a 6x42 Leupold. It shots very well with a wide variety of bullets, and among other animals I took a big Sonoroan mule deer and 6x6 British Columbia elk with it. Eventually I sold it because my magazine editors got tired of hearing about it.

Who did the "color case" and if you don't mind, how muchlee did it cost?

It can be done but its not trivial. There is a difference in the height between the floor plate to bottom of the action between the TS and MKII/Hawkeye actions. This makes for a challenge because the front action screw is angled and when the height changes the distance between the front screw and trigger guard changes. There are ways to get around this, but its not a simple as it would be in a m700 or M70

Here's mine - it's still my favorite. It's a LH MK II that was originally a .270 Winchester. It has a 22" 1-8" twist #2 Krieger chambered in 6.5x55 Swede, A McMillan MKII classic stock 80% Olive 20% black. Timney trigger set at 2.25# and Black T coating. It's not a lightweight, but I'm primarily an eastern hunter so it's of no consequence to me. It shoots just about anything rather well and it just feels "right" to me.

My Ruger 77 Mk II in 280 Rem is a work horse. I have taken more animals with it than all my other guns combined. It is like a good ole trusty .22. Whatever I settle its crosshairs on hits the ground. It has an incredibly sweet Timney trigger. It shoots 1/2 moa with its factory plastic stock. If I could find somebody to bed it for me I'd be ecstatic.

1/2 moa?? I'd guess the bedding is pretty good as is - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The Ruger MkII actions aren't suitable for a bespoke style custom rifle as your throwing good money into an action that isn't that desirable.

But when it comes to hunting rifles to be used ... in my possession I have a 458AccRel on a Ruger MkII and a 458B&M on a MkII. Just about to pull apart a RSI 308Win to re-barrel to 375-08. The build I'm most looking forward to will look nothing like a custom ... it will look like a factory issued 338WinMag MkII stainless/synthetic ... except it will be chambered to 358Norma. A good friend has another 458AccRel, plus a 500AccRel done on Ruger actions.

The strength of the Ruger is that the rifles are available and relatively cheap, the stock mounts hold even on brutal rounds and the factory stocks (wooden/laminate/synthetic) have good ergonomics and can be used to good effect.

These are the actions you build strong, drag through the scrub 'customs', not safe queens that never see the light of day.
Cheers...
Con

Once I think about it the only customizing I have ever really seen
on a Ruger M77 is an aftermarket trigger.

I got tired of hearing of how Rugers were junk, thought that I would see for myself. I had an old early 80's tang safety in 6mm Rem that the barrel had been shot out on large dog towns in the late 70's.

I had a 26" Hart 1-12 twist, Max Heavy varmint contour installed, chambered in a tight neck 243 AI. Next, I ordered a McMillen Hunter benchrest stock inletted for the 77 tang safety in a Forest Camo color.

I gave the action a skim bedding job with Bisonite.

I installed a B&L 12x-32x that I used for p. dog shooting and took off to the rifle range. I shot .400 groups or smaller fire forming the brass with 70g Nosler ballistic tips. Next went to formed brass and shot .200-.250 theee shot groups which was comparable to the half a dozen Rem 700's and Stole Panda's which were chambered with the same reamer and same 1-12 twist Hart barrels.

My conclusion was they will shoot with just about anything else as long as you are not talking Competitive Benchrest accuracy.

I sold the rifle to a young man who got in the Varmint Hunter's Magazine 1000 yard club after taking many p. dogs at 1000 yards.

From my experience it is apparent that Ruger actions are the worst action to build on! They are incapable of any accuracy! These two dear died laughing at my custom Rugers...

.275 Rigby


.308 Norma


Also, built on a Ruger action I have a .257Roberts SA, 6.5-06AI which is showing great promise (with just the fire forming loads) and a 404 Jeffery being assembled as I type.

.257Roberts in Mcmillan UL stock!


Almost forgot the 9.3x62!

sactoller,

How are you handling the magazine on your .404 Jeff?...thanks...jim