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I bought a new Ruger 77/17 in 17 hornet. It shot poorly, about 2” five shot 100 yard groups. I glass bedded it (including 1.5” of the barrel nearest the action), the rest of the barrel is floated. And I replaced the trigger sear and spring to get it to 2.75 pounds. And I bought a shim kit and shimmed the two piece bolt.
Also, I tried three bullets, three powders, and multiple combinations of them. That never helped the 2” accuracy.
So I had it rebarreled with a Shilen select match barrel. Now it’s at about 1.25” groups on average, with some at 1”.
A friend has recommended remove the glass bedding that supports the barrel just forward the action. I have many rifles bedded with the first 1.5” of barrel supported and they are tack drivers.

And recommendations on how to improve accuracy on this rifle?
Thanks

Went thru the same drill with a 77/22 Hornet, with the same results. You might not get it under an inch. Remove the bedding, and see what happens, you can always put it back. Have you tried upward pressure at the forend tip ? Easy to do.

If all else fails, sell it and buy a CZ.

Thanks Craigster.
How does one add forend tip pressure?

A few business cards will do the job.

Thanks, I’ll try that.

Let us know how it goes.

Here's an idea which may not work, but doesn't take a lot of effort - take both extractor claws off the bolt and try a few test groups. Obviously you'll need a small screwdriver to extract the fired cases when you do this. I don't have experience with the hornet version, but my rimfire 77/17 had springs of significantly different stiffness under each claw. The result is that when a round is chambered the bolt is biased to one side, rocking the locking lugs slightly off their seats. With a round chambered you could push sideways on the front portion of the bolt and see movement against the springs.

With the claws removed the bolt should stay inline during loading and firing provided there is minimal headspace. If it helps accuracy, you replace the springs with identical ones on each side- I used ones from cheap disposable flint lighters which were perfect for the job. Extraction and ejection remain 100%.

My rifle went from inaccurate to acceptably accurate, but because I made more than one change at the same time (not very scientific I know), I dont know how how much this contributed to the improvement, if any. I still believe it is worth a try.

Well, I shot it with forend pressure, business cards. No improvement in accuracy. Actually a little worse, 1.5” or so five shoots at 100 yd. This with a high end shilen barrel, glass bedded, bolt shimmed, and trigger job.
It’s a Ruger, I should have known better.
Thanks for the recommendations, guys.

In one of my hornets seating depth gave a big improvement

What powders and bullets? IMR 4227 has worked well in both of mine. Also had good luck with Speer’s 45 soft point, the Sierra 40 gr Blitzking, and the Nosler 40 gr tipped Varmageddon

It’s a 17 hornet
Powders have tried AA2200, CFE-BLK, AA1680, Lilgun.
AA2200 has worked the best

Bullets, I’ve tried Berger 20 and 25 grain, Hornady vmax 20, and Dogtown 20.
The best performer has been the Berger 20 and Vmax 20.

You might try H110, it's worked well for me.

Maybe give Shilen a call, can't hurt

Might try removing the 1.5" bedding in front of the lug.... my 77/22 has a free floating Shilen barrel and shoots fine. Also, not a Ruger but on one of my Win. I had to bed the barrel 1/2 way up the stock, about 6", on the factory sporter barrel. It shoots under moa.

.17' is tough. Bedding with the tiny recoil means nothing at all. Barrel vibrations, get real it is like a pellet gun. Pellet guns prefer one over the other and the .17 needs the right bullets too.

How does bedding mean nothing? To me bedding is more about no stress on the action and making the action stay in the same spot.

O.P. is the bedding stress free? If so I agree with taking the bedding out from under the barrel. You can also try shims under the action at the screws to lift the action and provide a full free float as a temp fix to see if it makes a difference. When you tried the shims did you try various thickness's? At different spots on the barrel? Have you played with torque on the action screws? I am assuming you have tried different seating depths. How is runout on your reloaded rounds?

Yes, I’ve varied seating depths.
I only tried pressure near forend tip.
Is the bedding stress free? How do I determine that.
I have some antelope and elk hunting the next 30 days, and am totally frustrated with this gun. Likely won’t touch it for a month or so.

The tiny little caliber does not whip the barrel. Yes you can bed the action. Even a .22 can benefit.
Then the Op states he is going antelope and elk hunting so is he using the .17? I don't think so and the .17 is a fun gun.

I had exactly the same experience with that rifle in .22 Hornet, as did my friend, we both bought them when the rifle first came out. Total POS, both of them. We tried every trick known to the mind of man, bedding, screw torque, barrel shims, every powder and bullet combination ever devised for this cartridge, could not hit a hat at 100 yards with either of them, best we ever did was 3-4 inches. Took them down the road to the gun show and got rid of them at a considerable loss. Got CZ's and now are happy campers.

Considering all the things you have tried so far, I would put a different scope on it. Preferably one with an Adjustable Objective so you can eliminate parallax. Get rid of those shims under the barrel too. You bedded it to remove stress, then have to crank the screws down to get it all seated again because there's pressure under the barrel. I have not once ever had a rifle that needed pressure at the forend to get it to shoot.

Oops, I plumb overlooked that. Are the rings tight?



I believe you but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I have two such rifles downstairs right now. One a Rem 502 .22 rimfire and the other a Douglas barreled Rem 700 30/06.


To check if the bedding is stress free, hold the gun with the recoil pad firmly on the the floor and the action screws tight. Loosen/tighten one action screw and watch for movement of the barrel at the end of the forearm. Retighten that screw and loosen the other while watching for movement. If you have a dial indicator with a magnetic base you can also set it up to check for movement. Everything I have read says anymore than about .003 movement is going to cause accuracy problems. I can neither prove or disprove that statement. My .223 shows a bunch of movement. I rebedded it several times trying to eliminate it. Finally a man who used to post here on the fire said shoot it and see what happens, it is the most accurate rifle I own. Go figure.

Something else that nobody has asked yet that I would like to know is: How are you benching the gun when you shoot groups? I know you have the trigger worked, but is there any creep or overtravel? In most cases, when you get to the point you have with a gun, that last 0.25" that you are looking for is usually not the gun.

What are the conditions when you are shooting? A bit of funky cross-breeze can open up your groups a quarter inch with the light .17s and .22s.

I have a leupold 6-18 A/O on the gun. It came off a custom Rem 700 that shoots 1/2” with that scope. And with me shooting.
Is it the shooter, maybe. But I usually take several guns to the range. And I can easily get sub 3/4” on many of them.
I’m going to let it sit a while and kill and antelope and elk with my bow.

Well the 77-22 hornets were never really known for there accuracy and 17 barrels are notersly hard to make...on my 77-22 hornet..there was a fix floating around on the Internet...this was early internet so who knows if it's still around...but it was a shim in the 2 piece bolt was supposed to help bolt alignment...it did help but I never got that rifle to shoot under an inch...and I have lived with it that way and it does just fine of what it is..a hundred yd gun...
The biggest single improvement in my was lapping the rings...they were horrible...made more difference than hand loads...I went from 3 inches down to 1.25 overall...

He's already shimmed the bolt.

Have you played with Torque on the action screws. That has helped me. Sometime a different setting will make a huge difference. My Ruger 17 Hornet is very accurate

I have a torque wrench, and have torqued them at 40 and 25 inch pounds. Didn’t notice a difference.
What level do you torque action screws?

Thats a good answer.

You say in your original post that your rifle is currently averaging 1.25”, with some groups at an inch.

What’s wrong with that?

Where are you trying to get to?

“Some groups” are as good as 1” is not very good for a Shilen select match barrel rifle.
I have many rifles with custom barrels that crowd 1/2”, on a regular basis, versus this one that can occasionally shoot a 1” group.
Been hunting and currently in an archery elk camp for a week.
Not sure when I’ll get back to work on this rifle. Frankly I’m frustrated with it.

My method is to insert a bore sighter. Without touching it at all, tighten and loosen bedding screws (recoil lug and tang) noting the position of cross hairs after each event. If there is any movement at all, then ones action is being stressed.

When I bed rifles the process is completed without using screws at all. I prop everything up with bags and simply sit the barreled action in the stock with a couple wraps of masking tape around the barrel to assure it's floated when all hardens.

My worst case ever was a Mark V Weatherby in 257. Removed the fore end pressure point and impact dropped 7 inches at 100 yds. Also turned it into a nail driver.

Also, I had to play with shims to get a rimfire 77/22 to come around. Ended up using a 0.004 shim to assure snug and consistent bolt closure. Next attempt was going to be a new barrel, but it was not needed.

Don't blame you... And, FWIW, it could be that the barrel you got is not 'right'.. I've had two barrels that wouldn't shoot; one was a Krieger, the other a Pac-Nor.. The latter was sent back for inspection. They found a problem and promptly sent me a new barrel.. THAT one shot lights-out..

Hate to say it, but you literally might need to install a different barrel to get what you want.. Any barrel manufacturer can have a turd leave the bowl.. In this case, maybe that's the problem..

I’m wondering about the barrel. May have g smith send it back for a look. I’m not rebarreling again. Got too much in this gun already