Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only M77 Ruger Rifle, not MKII

I would like to know if the M77 Ruger Rifles with tang safety, are controlled round feed, particularly one in .458 WM. Thanks, in advance. I am new to this forum, seems like a good one.

The 77s, all of them IIRC, are CRF.

The tang safety models that I have handled, as I recall, are not true CRF. Pretty fair rifles, but not pure CRF. They are a kind of an odd marriage of mauser features and pushfeed. To be what we refer to a controlled round feed, the bolt grabs and CONTROLS the cartridge as it comes up from the magazine. If one were to push a round part way into the chamber and then bring the bolt back the bolt face (extractor)will have a grip on the cartridge rim and will carry it back to the ejector. For some reason that I never understood, the early Ruger 77s were not designed to operate in this fashion. To be fair, I have not handled a MKl in the large calibers. Ruger may have opened up the bottom of the bolt face on those models to make them CRF, look at yours and watch how the bolt moves the cartridge, grabbed by the extractor immediately upon moving up from the magazine, or pushed ahead until inserted into the chamber. If the bolt pushes, as I expect, and if you are going to use this on big bitey stuff, I would put a little cash with it and trade it for a true CRF model.

safariman is correct; the tang safety M77 models are not CRF. Mauser style extractor but they are a push feed action.

-Bob F.

I sit (partially) corrected. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks everybody, the reason I asked about this, is that I have not laid eyes on this rifle. It has been offered to me, and it was described to me, but the present owner did not know himself if it was push feed or CRF. I have owned several MKII's but have never handled the old M77. Thanks for your fast reply's, it will have a bearing on buying the rifle or not.

Does CRF really matter for your application?
A lot of the older push button safety 77s were nicer than the new ones.

I like to see guys not buying them because they are push feed. That makes them cheaper for me to buy up.....

Yep, a old Ruger tang safety in 458 would be a POS any way you look at it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Please send me this fiends name so I can buy the rifle and save others from a fate worse than death, ie, owning a non-CRF rife... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have two Ruger M77 tangs, a 35 Whelen original factory rifle and a 9.3x62 custom and I wouldn't trade them for any new Ruger, or much of anything else I've seen.