I’ve owned dozens of tang safety M77’s and found virtually all of them shot great but as previously mentioned they did benefit from bedding and free floating usually. I sold one in 7mag to a friend that got many miles out of it. He brought me a target with 5 holes in under 3/4” that he’d shot at a 100 yards. The coolest thing about the tiny groups that he shot was they were (all 5 shots) a different bullet as well as 3 different bullet weights. The 140gr, 150gr and 160gr Speer, Nosler, Federal, Winchester and Remington bullets printed 5 shots in less than 3/4” dead center at 100 yards. That rifle impressed me as much as any other rifle I’ve ever owned and I’ve literally owned thousands (benefits of owning your own shop 😉).
I’ve always liked Ruger rifles because in my opinion they are the blue collar working man’s rifle. They’re strong, accurate, affordable and available…..attributes that not all rifle manufacturers can boast about.
The only accuracy issues that I can recall were in relation to the stock/forend and was quickly remedied by relieving the forend and/or bedding. I know several guys that for whatever reason didn’t want to go to the trouble of bedding the rifle so they used the ugly rubber barrel vibration dampener with great success.
It’s crazy how the prices on those rifles have gone up astronomically. I’d sell the used Ruger tang rifles for $250-$350 but even at those prices they didn’t “fly out” of the shop. Hell…the half dozen Stainless Colt light rifles took us 8 years to sell and we were asking $495 each. I wish I’d have kept a few of them. 😫…..woulda, coulda, shoulda.
