Hiredgun,
I know the Ruger 77/22 Hornets were, if they have not remained pretty much the same even to this day, a hit or miss thing from day one as 22 Hornets. Was very common that they had to be reworked to shoot descent, and it gave them a bad name. While I have been a Ruger fan from my very first in the late 50's/early 60's, that is why they were not even considered for my 17 Ackley Hornets. With the three 17AH's I already had in hand that were semi custom or custom, I also bought a Browning 1885 Low Wall 22 Hornet with the plan to also turn it into a 17AH. Dang thing shot so good on long range diggers as is that I changed my mind and left it a 22 Hornet - later sold it to a friend. I also think many of the older 22 Hornets I had decades ago would hve made great donors for either of the 17 Hornets because they shot so good as they were. The 17 Hornet cartridge is so spectacular by default it wouldn't have taken much to convert those into excellent 17 Hornet shooters I'd think.
I used to have a friend up to about 10 years ago that redid the 77/22 Hornets, but his real thing was building lots of custom 10/22 and 77/22 22RF's back then. His rifles, bumped scopes and craftmanship was amazing. Great guy who came to see me with many of them tow to fondle once, but I lost track of him over the years. I did have pictures of many of them, but they were lost in a computer crash long ago. I also had him modify two magazines for me for my 17VS 17HMR, cut down from 7 to 5 capacity. Anyway, like you he figured out how to make many Rugers better.
My mid 80's 77/22 that has always been a favorite is now a switch barrel 22LR/17HM2, but I haven't shot it with the GM 17 barrel..... yet.
