Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Shimming 77/22s is a real thing!

From where does this saying come from?

It was a common expression on Rimfire Central for a while. It happens to concur with my personal experience. If your experience has been otherwise please feel free to contribute to the discussion.

My experience has been otherwise.

A 0.007" shim was the cat's ass for my 77/22. Bolt was a featherweight operation. Was preparing to ship to Clarks for a new barrel and tune up when I too discovered a shim discussion. A 0.004" did nothing. A 0.010" made for an extremely stiff bolt but shot well. The 0.007 turned out to be the ticket. Polite bolt resistance, easily executed with just ones thumb, and grouped as well as the 0.010.". Several fellow ground squirrel shooters are impressed with its performance. Winchester Power Points (HP) or American Eagle HP's do well. Of course the $15 a box target stuff does extremely well, but can't afford case lots of that stuff.

Buddy has a CZ 452 that shoots right with my Ruger. I much prefer the smooth lines of the Ruger, especially in the magazine region, as well as the Ruger safety.

Thanks for the link.

Are there other sources for shims so a person can price shop?

I have a 77/22 laminate heavy barrel target grey SS rifle I am hoping is old enough to do this with. How do I tell?

And to the comments on the 452... I bought one and will admit the 77/22 would go down the road if I had to pick between them.

Don’t know on shopping, $10 may be hard to beat.

https://www.triggershims.com/ruger_m77.php#S77.25

I’d give them a call on the compatibility, nice folks, or watch the YouTube video to see if your bolt is the same.

If you are thinking about barrel shims they can come into play when headspacing a new barrel. For DIYI the older vblock barrel is the much easier.

Thanks gents. I better do this to mine.

I’ve done CPC and the shims. CPC doesn’t use shims (Randy there curses them). The website gives the details of what he does.

I like his work better than using shims. The shims have worked for me though. They are a quick and cheap fix to the bolt slop. Still shoot a Hornet using them. Installed 4 or 5 years ago and realized a huge improvement.

Rob

That’s what sold me on the idea. It was so cheap and easy we just had to try it.

My bolt turned out lots tighter than I thought, but since I had the time and the shims I went after mine yesterday first with 1minutes recommendation of .007 and the bolt wouldn't close. .005, same thing. Down to .003 and it still was a no go. .002 and it closed. Not sure that .002 is going to make a bunch of difference or if that thin a shim is going to stand up to bolt opening and closing and not wind up somewhere down in the action some day. If any of you are doing this, make sure that you pay attention to where that detent is going back counter clockwise once you have the shim and pin back in. Go past that detent and you had better have some hand strength to overcome that bolt spring tension getting it back to where it belongs. Don't ask me how I know.