Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Early Ruger 77 Mk II Question???

Early Ruger 77 Mk II were control round feed......that is to a point. The early 77's had a small lug on the bolt face that prevented the the cartridge from sliding up and engaging the extractor claw. The claw only engaged once the bolt was fully closed. Later 77's dud away with this lug making them a true CRF. Anyone know why Ruger did this?

The earliest Mark II's used the same boltface as the earlier tang safety models. Sometime in 1992 or 1993 they changed to CRF.

They were push-feeds with claw extractors, not CRF to any point. They also had plunger ejectors that many, including me, find annoying at the bench.

There was some revival of interest in CRF about that time, and Ruger apparently decided to take that interest to the bank. Winchester began to make the Classics a bit before that I believe, and were probably cutting into Ruger's sales a bit, being a pretty good approximation of the rifle widely regarded as the best hunting rifle ever made (and a good bit safer to boot).

What makes the post-'64 CRF Winchester 70s "a good bit safer"? I was under the impression that the pre-'64 Winchester 70s' weak point was the coned breech that allowed a small portion of the cartridge case to be unsupported. The only recent Winchester 70 CRF actions that I have worked with have been on the WSSMs and among them, the Ultimate Shadows had CRF actions with coned breeches.

My early MKII 3006 had the lip on the bottom of the bolt.








Mine would not chamber if loaded from the mag so I showed the local smith and he machined the lip off. The gun has ran like a champ ever since.

They added a gas baffle to the bolt on the left side that serves to protect the shooter in the event of a case failure. On the originals, escaping gas could squirt down the left side and into your face.

Some years back, my son worked at a big chain sporting goods store. The employees had first pick of all the used guns that came in and got a 20% discount to boot. He picked up a transitional M70 ".30/06, for about $400, including a crappy old scope in pivot mounts. I had some mild '06 handloads ready to go, so we took it to the range to try it out.

I was sitting at the next bench when he fired the first shot. It sounded funny and when I looked his way he was sitting back with a funny look on his face. There were a couple of small spots of blood on his face and his left hand was cut from gas escaping from the floorplate, which was bent in the middle. The extractor had blown away from the bolt.

The smith at the store got the bolt open and extracted the case, which had expanded to the point of rupturing. The rifle had been rechambered to some .30 cal short magnum, but not marked as such. The smith guessed that it might be a .300 Win mag. My guess was .308 Norma, a popular choice in the '60s. At any rate, the store refunded his money and sent the rifle off to their main shop for evaluation.

My son was fortunately wearing glasses or things might have gone very badly for him. As it was, he only had a few powder grains embedded in his face and the cut hand. How much better off he'd have been with a Classic equipped with the gas block is hard to say. Most evaluations of the new rifle mention it as a positive improvement, though.

Some of the WSSMs featured a "CRF push-feed" action, whatever the hell that means. I've never seen one in person.

My 77 that had the lug didn't have a plunger ejector. I sent it back to Ruger with a request that they change it to CRF. Eighty dollars later it c a me back with a new bolt and was a CRF.

This describes the original model 77, not the MK-II. The very early MK-II used a blade ejector, but the bolt face was not designed for true CRF. The round was pushed into the chamber and the ejector snapped over the rim

This was changed VERY early in production. Within months or maybe even weeks of introduction. Finding a MK-II that was not CRF is a rare rifle.

I also have one of those early pushfeed claw extractor MKII. It started as a boat paddle .30-06 until a rebarreled it as a .35 Whelen

Pushfeed MKII on the left. CRF Hawkeye on the right.

I know where a MK II push feed (as described above) with a boat paddle stock in .243 is currently for sale ......price is $575. Gun is in good shape

You're right. I was confused about what he was talking about.

Won't happen again until next time.