Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger 77/44 Mag

Had a chance to buy a barely shot used one the other day for a great price.

Seems like it’ll be a great little thick cover/short range hog/deer rifle.

For those that have used/shot them, what’s your take?

I just bought one also and mounted a Leupold 1.5-5 scope on it. That scope fits with low rings and no changes to the open sights. The Ruger 77/xx rifles are a great fit for me and are a pleasure to shoot offhand.
The last of my ammo order arrived today. Will be shooting Hornady 225's and 300's, Winchester 240's and PPU 300's. I'll be shooting it as soon as the weather cools a little. I'll post what ammo it likes best. I'll be interested to hear how yours does.

I was trying to get to the range today, but didn’t pan out.
I’ll post back my results with iron sights and possibly add a red dot.

I have owned a couple of 77/44's and have been very satisfied with accuracy and performance on whitetails, I handload mine using Hornady 240gr. XTP's. My BIL owns one and between him and his son and other family members his rifle has accounted for 25+ Hoosier whitetails, he shoots Winchester white box 240gr. loads from Wallyworld. I have replaced the Ruger pad that's hard as a brick with a Pachmyer Decelerator which makes a big improvement.

Wow, that’s a great track record.

I don’t plan on using mine past 100 yards

The two I owned were very disappointing from an accuracy standpoint. They were 50-yard rifles at best.

Did you have to grind a pad to fit or does Pachmyer make a pad that fits the 77/44 without alteration?

Fingers crossed I don’t have that issue

A huge improvement is to change the sear and spring. 5 minute job and it makes the trigger way better.

wish mine hadnt shot patterns. they are the handy-dandiest rifles out there.

Been shooting one since around '98. Red dot sight and it runs about 1.5 MOA with 300 gr paper patch and Lil Gun. Never had to shoot anything twice.

I've been shooting a 77/357 for a while now, mainly with the kids using 38 specials and iron sights lately. A lot of fun. Previously I had a 1-4 scope on it but never really shot it for accuracy or tried to find a load for it.....it's not the type of rifle I'm worried about 1" groups with. It seemed respectable enough with .357 loads when sighting the scope in, good enough to hunt with at shorter ranges. I'd think a fair amount could be gained by going with a laminate stock, fitting, and bedding it securely.....maybe worth trying full length bedding.

I had one. It was very handy to carry while hunting the thick stuff, and packed a surprising punch. Don't sell a .44 Mag rifle short when loaded with a heavy cast bullet.

I had changed sear and spring, then shimmed the bolt. With the load I was shooting, I could count on 1.5 to 2 inch groups at 100 yards. That would've been a long shot in the terrain I hunted with it.

L'il gun and a 300 grain Beartooth WFN at just under 1600 fps shot through every deer I shot with it, from any angle.

Recoil was surprisingly stout, looking at the little rifle and cartridge.

That rifle falls into the group of "Just why in hell did I sell it?".

I traded mine on something that turned into a "forever" rifle, so no regrets, but wouldn't mind another. At about half the price, one of the Henry SSs might work too.

Good question you pose there.

I had one for a while. Thought it would make a good big brother to my 77/22 Mag.
No matter what load or tweaking I did, it would not shoot better than 4.5" groups at 100 yds with scope.

I just was not happy with that so it has moved on.

I got one of the blue/walnut 77/44's back when they first appeared on the scene, and i liked the feel, balance, etc...but accuracy turbo-sucked & it averaged 3-5" 3 shot groups at 50 yards on a good day with most hunting loads.

When the stainless 77/357 came to be, i gave that one a try & it was considerably better....i've packed it around quite a bit since then & i like it quite a lot.
When i later found a stainless 77/44 i gave it a second chance, and that one turned out to be a nice shooter, with quite a few 200/240gr loads clustering at around an inch at 50 yards.

I stuck 1-4x glass on both, and i pack around the .357 & the .44 quite a bit when running around on the farm....very handy package.

The one I had was as well. I was pretty disappointed in it. It was an older model though. I'd give it another try on a newer one.

eblake, not quite apples to apples but I have a model 92 Browning lever action 20" barrel 1:38 twist. A few points- and wonder if you find the same with your Ruger:
1. the 225 FTX - Lever Revolution???? ammo shot great - BUT did not like its on game performance. Multiple hogs shot - one large axis doe at close range. They don't seem to open up- or at least, anchor animals well. (I know I will get flamed and the usual responses....just telling you what I have seen with them). Not the only one reporting same for this particular load. Not writing off all other Lever revo's....

2. I tried shooting lighter bullets and found the lower I went the wilder the groups spread. 300 grain bullets shot well and most did ok down to 225. 200 grain less so and anything under were slinging everywhere -and I mean wildly.
Perhaps the added velocity of the longer barrel plays into it. My older eyes have me keeping this a 50 yard gun. Surprising accurately. Got me some 240 Hornady xtp I plan to try.

3. I had not tried 44spc in mine though by all accounts it will cycle in both our rifles. I consistently hear it won't be as accurate as Magnum loads- just fyi. A shame because my steel butt plate.....is a steel butt plate!

Good luck to you and the OP on his new purchase. Should be fun.

I recently picked up a 77/44 with the intent of having it chopped and threaded for use as a supressed subsonic thumper. I haven't gotten it to the range yet, but did go ahead and install a spring and shim kit from MCARBO. The bolt only took a .001 shim to get as tight as I wanted it, and the spring dropped the trigger pull weight from 5.5 lb to 4.5 lb. I might wind up getting the Volquartsen sear as well to drop the trigger more.

I did get around to loading up some 305 gr cast HPs (sized to .432, I've heard that the 77/44 bores run big) over W231 last night. Hopefully they shoot ok, I'm really only looking for ~3 moa from this rifle once it's finished.