On top of all the rifles, black powder and center fire from auctions I am bidding on an old Ruger tang action in 7x57, it will replace an old Spanish Mauser I sold a while back.

Will be nice to have one again.

Be wary of the older tangers, particularly in 7x57. The barrels can be hit or miss on quality. I once had a tang safety 7x57 with a throat so long it wouldn't touch a 175 Partition to the lands and keep the bullet in the neck. Needless to say, it did not shoot well. What's the serial number on the rifle you're looking to purchase? Should be able to figure out if it's a Ruger barrel from when it was made.

This is correct. I have a liking for the 7x57 as well but have steered clear of the Rugers for the reason prairie goat mentions.

Maybe you will luck out and get one that has a good barrel, is a good shooter! Nowadays you can get good after market triggers for them, that really helps!

I don't believe Ruger made any of the barrels for 77 tangers.

Ok you're probably right, I thought they started transitioning to their own barrels in the last few years of the tang safety. Anyway the point is that tang safety Rugers can be a bit "hit or miss", both literally and figuratively.

That said having owned several Tangers all have shot well. 300 Win mag, 7MM Rem mag,257 Roberts, 270 Winchester and a 6MM Remington. I would go for it. If it doesn't shoot well Winchester barrels use the same thread and remington barrels can be turned down and threaded to fit.

I have a 77 tang safety from 1974 in .30-06 and it is a great shooter, most factory ammo is around 1”.

Here is info, including serial#

Make: RUGER
Model: 77
Caliber: 7 X 57 MAUSER

Bore(s): Very Good
Comes With: No additional items
Action: Bolt Action Rifle

Main Description: No sights, blued finish, tapered round barrel, plum coloured receiver with integral scope bases, tang safety. One piece wood stock, checkered forearm and pistol grip, black rubber recoil pad, grip cap, hinged floor plate, swivel studs.

Wear: Metal finish shows some scratches, handling marks and wear. Stock shows some marks, scratches and finish wear.

Barrel Length: 21.5"
Serial: 7263779
Class: Canadian Non Restricted, Pal Required

Buy it chances are great that it will shoot. I have seen a lot of tangers and they have all shot
from acceptable to damn good. I had a 7x57 that had a Linda Lovelace throat and it shot 154 gr hdys into nice 3/4 triangle with the load i tried I quit there and just hunted it. Ive heard of poor shooting tangers but have yet to see one.

I Wouldn't Fhuqking Linger. Hint...............

Not with a Leupold and 257 bore. Sheesh

If I read the chart correctly, that serial number would make it 1977 production. The original recoil pad would likely have been red. Some late production 77 tang safety models did have black pads. The 21.5 inch barrel is probably just a measuring error as 22 was the norm. Sounds like a fun rifle. I’ve owned a couple just like it. They shot ok but were a bit finicky. I kind of wish I had one back. Enjoy.

Sandbaggin’ sunnaffagunn!

This is correct, with the tang safety rifles, about 1 out of 3 had a decent barrel

I’ve had piles and nary an accuracy issue. Hint.

Myths and Wives Tales,never aren’t not funny. Hint………..

^^^same
Funny, with all the bad rap on tangers the price keeps going up.
I did like the very early stock and last black pad stocks as they had thinner forends. The last ones did not have a safety that locked the bolt.
I have had 2 in 7x57 and loaded for two others.

Well managed to get a lot of stuff in the auction, and ended up getting the Ruger for 900.00CDN
Did not plan to pay that much, had simply put a high bid to see how it would go and near the end some obviously wanted it bad enough to go higher, so took me to my limit.
Oh well, shall see how she is once she gets here.

Had one back in ths day. Worst shooting factory rifle I ever owned. Had it set back and re-chambered to .284 Win. Got more velocity and worse accuracy. Not a knock on on the m-77 in general, just the red pads.

Ruger 77 tang safety 7X57MMs sure are high priced lately

Those 77 tangers have gotten really pricey.. Cabelas has a bunch all over !000!

77RS 358s are really high!

I remember paying $275 on sale at Texas Gunman's, Beaumont, 1977 for a .280. It was on sale cause it sat there a few months, no one but me wanted it in 280! ha

1975 Ruger dealer & retail prices, plus models & caliber listing.

Received a whole bunch of stuff from the auction and the Ruger was in the box.
Rifle looks really good, looking down bore it looks fine, still want to run a borescope through it.
But it’s in great shape, some marks on floor plate, but nothing much else, nice trigger, smooth action, will try some of my old factory ammo and old reloads in it, but will also do some fresh reloads for it.
Just have to look to see which of my scopes to try on it.

I would like to have a 7x57 tanger. But not sure I’d pay todays ridiculous prices. I have a 1976 M77 .257 Roberts that shoots well. Not sure if it has a Douglas or Ruger barrel.

I had a tang safety M-77 in 7x57 25 or so years ago, someone had glass bedded and free floated it. With a load out of Ken Waters "Pet Loads", with Win. 760 powder and 140 grain Sierra flat base spitzer's it was damned accurate. If memory serves the velocity was around 2,880 F.P.S.. I really liked the rifle but it would not feed reliably from the magazine. I managed to get it to work most of the time, by swapping the magazine spring and follower out of two other tang safety M-77's I still have. However every once in a while during practice, working the bolt briskly, it would fail to chamber a round. I took it to a gunsmith and he had seen that same problem with that model rifle and caliber before, full length magazine, [ala .30-06] and slightly shorter cartridge. We could have made a block, or perhaps fashioned a shorter magazine for it, but it seemed more trouble then it was worth at the time. I didn't trust it to go "bang" every time, so it went down the road.

In January of 1975 I was 19 years old and at the Yankton gunshow. Local gunsmith who displayed at shows had a new 77R in 7x57 in the box that he carried around for several years. 7x57's were low demand chamberings. Federal made the 139 gr factory load as well as the 175 rn, both RP and WW were 175 gr rn's at 2490 fps. In 72 Ruger had made a limited run of 77R's for J&G Rifle Ranch in 7x57, 257 R and 250-3000. Yes the pad is red.and the rec plum and it does have a long throat cut for 175 gr roundnose. I had rcbs dies and ww & rp cases allready because I started on my rifle journey with a m93 in 7x57. $160 was his bottom dollar I paid cash10's and 20's nobody had stacks of 100's those days. I put a 6x Weaver Classic on it with the rangefinder crosshairs. Imr 4350 139 Hornady sp bullets 1 1/4 to 1 3/8"@ 100 was the best I could do when I finally subbed in the 140 gr npt the load still worked.. I am 68 years old now, do I wish I would have kept it? Nope because I wasn't stupid enough to sell it or the m93 7x57 I bought at 14 or the 700 adl 7 mm rem mag I bought at 15. When all the guys I went to school with were playing ball I was working and buying the things in my life that have served me well. Magnum Bob

I have a early Ruger M77RS Hollowbolt in 7x57 Mauser from 1971. It has a very accurate Douglas barrel with a long throat for the 175gr RN bullets. The follow on Wilson barrel contract is where barrel QC was a occasional issue, especially in the 7x57 chambering.

The Ruger tang safety barrel issue is and was blown way out of proportion. A few out of spec barrels in certain chamberings ruined the tang safety reputation for the vast majority of M77’s that were fine, accurate rifles. The barrel QC was an issue and the accuracy perception is “what it is”!