Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters About the Ruger M77 Lightweight 20"...

AFAIK, this setup was a lightweight 20" barrel dropped into the same walnut stock as the standard contour 22" and 24" tubes...

Ruger doesn't offer it anymore...

was it Ruger's attempt to diversify the M77 line regardless of demand, or was it an attempt to address a customer clamor for a lightweight M77?

Their M77 "compact" rifles are still in production, with dimunitive 16.5" barrels...

Curious as to why the lightweight 20" went the way of the dodo (?)

It'll he back.

Ruger has a way of stopping production of certain firearms/chamberings then reintroduce them again a year or two down the road.

I had the SS version. It had the thinnest barrel (at the muzzle) I've seen. It shot and felt surprisingly good. Kinda wish I still had it.............

We, the kids, bought one for our Dad. He was getting older and his Browning BAR was getting heavy. As I age, I can understand that. Anyway, he loved the rifle and caliber (270). He beat it all to heck, and hunted with random ammo. He’d mix 130 and 150 gr by different makers and go to the woods. Maybe we reloaders are too picky.

After he passed, I got the rifle and cleaned it up and cleaned the bore. I had some 140 gr Sierra 140 gr HPBT bullets, and I loaded them up, and the rifle shot amazingly well. I passed the rifle along to his favorite grandson, as I know Dad would have liked that.

Recently I was in the Left Handed Gun gun shop in Hico, Texas and they had an ultralight in 223. I almost bought it, but just flat didn’t need it, but next time I’m out there and if they still have it...well...

A terrific gun shop, by the way.

I don't have a standard model to compare it with anymore, but still have an RL in .250 Savage. I'm pretty sure they were different stocks if a thinner forearm contour counts as different. Other than that, it may have been the same stock.

I have an RL that was rebarreled with a 22-inch #1 contour Douglas in 7mm-08. It has a slimmer stock than the standard tang-safety 77 sporter, with a much shorter forend that has a black tip.

The other RLs I've owned (not many, but more than one that I can recall) had similar stocks, which ate noticeably slimmer through the grip area as well. Accuracy varied, probably due to the fact that back then Ruger wasn't making their excellent hammer-forged barrels, and instead was using outside manufacturers.

I have two original R77 RLs. Both have slightly down sized profile stocks as compared to full size R77 stock
with 20" barrels and black forend tips.

A few years back a friend and I collaborated on a 77 RL "build''.

He found a donor R77 in 30-06. We used that action.
Another friend furnished a take off 22" R77 barrel in 7x57. We used that, but had it fluted to lighten it up.
He bought a new R77 RL factory stock he found at some supply place.
He bought a Timney trigger.
We put it together and bedded it.

The first three shots using rounds I loaded for my R#1 7x57 went into 3/4".
It continues to shoot 1/2" to 3/4" groups with a variety of loads.

What JB said.

Had a tanger UL .308 I bought from my brother back in the 80s. Not a tack-driver, but an almost perfect rifle for Eastern whitetails. Of course I sold it, like so many other fine rifles, chasing some foolish notion. A 22inch barrel would have been an improvement I think, as it was just a bit muzzle-light.

I bought a tang safety model in 30/06 off an old guy for cheap. He said he’d bought it back when to be his sheep rifle but that he’d never gotten it to shoot anything worth a damn.

I cleaned and scrubbed what seemed like pounds of copper out of it. Once clean it showed horrible tool marks in the bore so I lapped it a little bit and then JB bore pasted it again to finish up.

Took it to the range with several different loads and bullet weights. All of which it promptly shot into anywhere from 3 to 6 inch 3 shot groups. After the range session the bore once again looked like a copper mine.

Shifting gears I bought a #4 SS .358 blank on sale for $40 when the Montana Rifleman barrel company was stopping retail sales. I fitted and chambered it for the Ruger in .35 Whelen. Opened the barrel channel on the little slim stock and bedded the whole thing with marinetex. It shoots great now and I killed many heads of Alaskan game with it.

Not apples to apples, but the M77 Hawekeye UL is not that much lighter than the M77 Hawkeye.

Here is a M77 Hawkeye UL LA 257 Roberts matched up to a M77 Hawkeye 308 SA.

I owned a pair of Ruger 257 Roberts Ultra-lights. I picked these up late in the Mark II run as the Hawkeye was coming out. Fit and finish was excellent, accuracy was also good, running and inch or less for 3-5 shot groups. The reason I parted with them is that while they shot well from the bench, I was horrid with them from field positions. That short/light barrel coupled with a semi-heavy action and walnut stock was just a bad combination for balance. Very butt heavy.

Agreed, nice rifles but too butt heavy. I still have one but I'm planning on having a larger contour barrel put on it.

The 22" Douglas #1 7mm-08 barrel on my RL I mentioned earlier in the thread balances (and shoots) great, and the rifle is still considerably lighter than a tang-safety standard sporter.

This is just what I had hoped for, and I’m filing it away.

I’ve long had a similar plan to convert a 77RL to 7x57 with a 22” barrel. My idea of a perfect budget mountain rifle.

I have had two tang safety M77 RLs since the early 80's, one is 257 Rob and the other is 308. Both hold about an even inch at 100 yds, but more importantly, they each put the first cold shot exactly to POA. Being a still hunter, I don't use a sling. I find them a real pleasure to carry and handling is sweet with the balance point just barely behind the angled action screw.

quote=10gaugemag]
It'll he back. Ruger has a way of stopping production of certain firearms/chamberings then reintroduce them again a year or two down the road.[/quote]

Hope 10gaugemag is right. I would love to see Ruger bring the M77 RL back, along with the M77 RSI. I'd be first in line to buy o[ne of each in 7-08.

Looking at one in 30-06, in a thin 20" barrel, I imagine it to be a loud and vulgar beast...

I had one. It was loud, pronounced muzzle flash and recoiled pretty sharply.

I did my 275 Rigby a Douglas #1 at 23".

How did the Douglas# 1 fit in the UL stock? happen to remember how long the cylinder is?

It matched up pretty good, only had to remove a little in the barrel channel. Karnis did the stock on this one, with some added changes, this one goes on almost every hunt.