Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Have you seen this ??

Who says you can't put lipstick on a pig!

Looking to do the English stalking rifle on a Ruger #1. Something I was concerned about was the "baby crap brown" wood on current #1's and he said that was a sprayed on finish they used to try to match the stock and forend, but once you stripped all of that off there was often some decent if not fancy wood under there, and sometimes you got lucky and found really nice wood.

One option he offers is a "vintage finish" which is a custom staining they mix up for each rifle and is feathered in to be darker around the metal. He said a rifle so finished basically looks like a 100 or 150 year old firearm that had been stored in a safe all that time.

I asked him about stainless Ruger 77's since that's all I have and those can have the barrel and trigger guard ceracoated to a glossy blue-black but with the receiver left uncoated. So finished and stocked in a Germanic style apparently they can closely mimic a 1909 Argentine sporter with a blued barrel and trappings but the action left in the white.

My little brain is all awhirl at the possibilities. I should thank you for turning me on to this guy but I think you are going to cost me some money.

That is interesting stock work.

😂

I too called and spoke with RJ.

Man, I can't get this idea out of my head.

So much so, today I bought a tang safety Ruger M77RS in '06 so as to have a donor rifle on hand should I decide to go through with it. It's in like new condition, with the bluing 100%.

Both the Pre-war 77 and the Faux Rigby look awesome.

What to do .

I know how you feel.

I emailed him two days ago to get a work order started to turn a LH M70 into a faux Rigby, already have an unfinished Supergrade stock coming thanks to a campfire member and ordered some other bits and pieces of hardware - the Skinner peep sight arrived in the mail this afternoon. It will be a while before he is ready for everything but it gets my name in the queue.

Keep looking at that pre-war German design as well and thinking my MRC 1999 6.5x55 would be a perfect candidate for that. As is standard loony practice, whenever you can't decide between two things, get both. Trying to slow down though to see how the "Rigby" turns out but it's awful hard not to order both at the same time.

Well, after dreaming about a RJ Renner Ruger and going back and forth with RJ, he must have sensed my impatience and he mentioned he'd sell me his demo Pre-War M77 he used for his website pictures.
He made me an offer, and I accepted and paid right then.
It'll be shipped Monday. Here's the pics RJ sent sent me.

It's a tang safety round top in 7mm mag. I'm a sucker for the casehardening.

This from RJ, "It has a round-top casecolored receiver and floorplate with a period Williams Fool Proof receiver sight. This Pre-war 77 has a 24" barrel chambered in the versatile and ever-popular 7mm Remington Magnum. The rifle is mechanically like brand-new with a perfect bore and blued bolt face - not even a primer ring. And, of course, the exterior IS brand new as seen in the photos."

Congratulations! I bet that's going to look even better in person than it does in the pictures.

I should be jealous but that's a good solution. That's the way to beat the waiting time and get to the head of the line!

Hmmm. I wonder what they could do with my No 1 RSI?

I got my Pre-War M77 today.
First, I want to say, it's a work of art, as far as I'm concerned. I love the casehardening and the checkering.
Second, wow- it breathes new life into an ol' Ruger M77. The way it shoulders, points and handles now is awesome.
Third, until you see it side by side with a standard Ruger M77 you just cannot appreciate how much wood he removes off the stock.
Lastly, RJ is a stand up guy who does excellent work and I wholeheartedly recommend his service.

I thought I'd share some quick pics of the Pre-war M77 aside a Ruger M77RS 30-06.

PLEASE Get to the range and let us know..

Thanks for those pictures. Or not, since you're giving me second thoughts about whether to do up a faux Rigby or that pre-war Germanic style.

Seriously, I appreciate the pics and especially the one showing the top of the barrels, he really does remove a lot of wood. The MRC 1999 ASR has a funky kind of stock - it's a Boyd's Prairie Hunter in case anybody's interested - but there are two flutes or indentations at the top of the forend next to the barrel channel and I wasn't sure there would be enough wood there to do anything with, but from your pics it seems there is.

Beautiful.

That's a sharp rifle!

That is nice!

Stunning. That Germanic is killin me.

I may be totally wrong about this, but I wonder if the barrel contour on the ASR might be a bit heavy to give the finished product the same appearance/balance as the M77. Dunno.

It's a good point, after reading your post when I was home at lunch I compared the MRC to a Ruger 77 .308 and the MRC barrel is definitely a heavier contour - not terribly so but the difference is plain especially through the middle portion.

But I just remembered that the rifle Skeen bought is a 7mm RM so I'm guessing that has the Ruger magnum contour, in the picture it looks to be a bit heavier than the .30-06 standard contour he shows next to it. They chamber their .25-06 Hawkeye with that same magnum contour so I can compare my .25-06 to the MRC.

Skeen, if you read this post could you verify that?

Jim, it's a standard contour barrel. If the barrels look different in the pics, it's just camera angle or lighting. And, of course, no one has ever mistaken me for a professional photographer.

Cigar, thanks for turning us on to RJ. I don't know when I'll be able to make it to the range. I envy guys who can just go out and shoot out their back door. It's a little bit of a production and drive for me.

I spoke with RJ, again, last night, to get in "line" to have that 30-06 M77RS turned into a Faux Rigby.

Though some may disagree with this decision, I went ahead and removed the Williams peep-sight and mounted a gloss Leupold FX-3. I like it. The Redfield rings are casehardened too.

That might be a standard contour, but it still looks slimmer than the No. 2 "pipe" MRC puts on the ASR. I asked Jeff Sipe at MRC about a lighter contour barrel, and he said they make one, but when I tried to get the specs from either of the two sales managers he put me in touch with, things skidded to a halt. Over the years I've found that once you get below Jeff things just bog down.

By the way, this might be heresy, but I don't think the scope looks bad. I'd sure need one because my eyes don't work with iron anymore, open or aperture.

RM