Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger M77 Mark II w/zytel stock

A couple of months ago I purchased a Ruger M77 Mark II with a skeletonized stock chambered in 270Win. Unfortunately, I did not get time to put a scope on it and shoot it prior to deer season coming in.

For those of you that own or have owned these rifles, what type of accuracy can I expect from it? Are there any suggested improvements such as trigger work or bedding that needs done? Any information you could provide is appreciated.

Get out and shoot it before you do anything to it. They are generally very good-shooting hunting rifles just as they come.

^^^ This...

I own 4 of them. 243, 270, 30-06 and 308. All shoot well. The 270 is an especially good one. With 49.0gr of IMR4064 and a 130 Hornady Interlock it goes consistently sub MOA for 3 shots and just a tick over MOA for 5. It's better than minute of deer and frankly that's what I care about most. Great guns. I think you'll be pleased.

I've had mixed results.

.280 that won't shoot very good at all.

.243 that shoots great.

2 7mm Rem Mags that shot OK after some tuning.

All mine are trigger'd, floated and bedded and all shoot great.

I would expect 0.5 MOA. Both of mine will.

Tighten the front screw that pulls down the recoil lug as TIGHT as you can without stripping the head. Crank that thing!

Tighten the rearmost screw fairly solid.

Tighten the middle screw as little as possible to keep it in.

Have had several. My 223 and 22 LR shoot really good. Amazing actually.
Had one in 308 was the worst shooting rifle I have ever owned. Really like 6 inch groups a 25 yards. After working it over and workin with hand loads I finally got it down to 2 in at 100.. I later sold it. To bad as I kinda liked it..
But for the most part those things really overall are pretty good shooters...

The standard protocol for those rugers is to make sure the magbox is floating, and make sure the bolt handle isn't touching the stock when down.

I've owned a few with that stock, and all of them needed tuned as I mentioned above.

I have one in 270. Buy a Limbsaver recoil pad. Great rifle, but mine is related to a mule.

Have one in 22-250, it will shoot 1/2 MOA with WW 55 gr soft points if you hold up your end of the job. Next time you post refer to it as a canoe paddle stock and everyone won't have to figure out what your talking about. Magnum Man

^^^^^^^^^

Start there.

I work all the triggers on my Rugers and the MKII's are easy.


In 2010 I took two Zytel Rugers to the range for a final check before elk season, a .300WM and a .30-06. After a quick, final scope check at 100 yards I headed to the long range and put clay pigeons on the 600 yard berm. I busted a pigeon with each rifle with a total of 5 shots fired.

Here's a 3-shot target from my Zytel .338WM:


And my Zytel .300WM, first shot from an oiled bore:

I have an Ultralight, stainless in .30.06 that I love. I have been on the lookout for another like it for years.

This is what my son's 270 did with Vortex 130 grain TTSX...

It wears a Leupold M8 6x42 with #4 reticle.

I have three Mark II in laminate stocks.

All shoot 3/4" groups or better....
The 223 and 22-250 both gave me one holers.

Here is a picture of his rig.

i have 3, 300wm, 270, and a 257bob, all Zytels. The first 2 being good shooters with just about anything that i feed them, the 257 is another story. I now have it around an inch, after trigger work, and much load development. Going to pick up the stock for it tomorrow, sent it to a friend to dip it for a little different look.

The trigger sucks balls....

My 7mag had the worst trigger I had ever felt on a rifle. Got my gunsmith to fix that. It's now floated and I have some test loads loaded up for the next time I get to go shooting. We'll see but I expect good things.

I have had a .270 and a .280 and they both shots lights out with plain old green box Remington Corelock ammo.

They are great rifles. I wish I would have bought more back in the 90's when they were $350.00 new. I remember running across a 270 win for $270.00 and regret not buying it (still kicking myself in the azz over that one). Last year I had the opportunity to buy a like new 30-06 for $400.00. Stupid on my part to not buy it, even though I had 4 30-06's in the stable already. I have 1 SS MKII 300 win mag boat paddle tucked away for future use. These rifles keep going up in value. The rubber goodyear butt pad sucks and needs to be replaced with a limbsaver or similar recoil pad, especially on the heavy kickers.

I had one in a 280 just like you mine [bleep] green box lights out big regret getting rid of it yrs ago.

I call these the "Three Sisters":

Left to right, custom .338WM built from parts, .300WM, .30-06.



Lighter than walnut, accurate, impervious to wet weather, dang near indestructible.

They seem to be good luck, too. Five trips to the field, five elk. Two with the .338WM, two with the .300WM, one with the .30-06.

I did the same thing - found a stainless .270 Win for $325 at a gun show, didn't buy because they wouldn't come down to $310. Dumb. Went back the next morning to buy it and someone else was filling out the paperwork. Still kicking myself when I think about it.

I've had a 223 and a 308. Before I shot each of them, they got lightened triggers, bedding and floated barrels. They both shot sub-MOA, 3 shot groups. I sold both to fund new projects and wish I still had them!

Zytel .338?

Ouch!

Tighten the angled front screw to 65 in/lb and the rear screw to around 50 in/lb. Snug the middle screw but not tight and you may want to use a little blue loctite on it. There are instructions on how to do a trigger job (if needed) on the internet. A good gunsmith can handle it easily. Use a finishing nail to unscrew the firing pin assembly from the bold and strip all of the oil off of it if you hunt in cold temps.

Same for me ! I had a s.s. zytel in 270 Win. that I bought at a pawn shop for $250 best deer rifle I ever had!
$250 will not get one now!

Yep, what a steal back in the day. No way anyone would touch that rifle now for less than $650.00. The true beauty in these is their usefulness and ruggedness. They are a pure utilitarian rifle that just flat out works. The triggers are so simple, yet rugged and the 3 position wing safety is easy to manipulate. They handle great and shoot fine and the stainless finish puts up with a lot of abuse. To me, these were the new "rifleman's rifles" and I regret not buying more when I had the chance.

You'll notice that one has the limbsaver on it. CH is a smart man. I don't think he cares for the tire tread the stocks originally came with, especially on the heavy kickers...

Thanks, BSA, but the only one that bothered enough to change was the .338. For rugged, I like the tire treads. Not so much for shooting in tee shirts, which tends to leave marks.

I bought my 300 Win boat paddle new in 98. It has been one of the most consistently accurate rifles I've ever owned. I shot it for years with the tire tread pad but finally wised up and put a real pad on it.

Yeah, I think we talked about that before

Same here on the 280

I would rate the finish on the one I bought at 95-97%; paid $477 for it on Gunbroker....imagine that!

Couple months back I sold a 260 boat paddle on gun broker for just under 1500.00. It had factory sites on it and was pretty rare.

I have three, a 7mm rem mag, .338, and a .22 mag. I've used that 7mm mag more than any other rifle I've owned and really need to get it back out in the daylight one of these days. I've taken game from spitting distance to a couple of deer at the 600 mark.

It's spent countless hours/miles in a horse scabbard and plenty of time in a four-wheeler scabbard being bounced around. It's worn a Leupold 4.5-14x40 AO since it's 2nd year and I've never once had to adjust it's sight in other than an occasional change in it's diet and those were minor tweaks at best.