Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger 77/357 accuracy

Wondering if its worth trying one to improve on lever action accuracy? I heard the split bolt design doesnt help with accurizing these things. Anyone shooting good groups with theirs?

What you call good groups?

Never fiddled with the .357 version, but my .44 sings sweet music. Shot maybe a dozen jacketed bullets thru it around 20-25 years back, then switched to paper patched lead.




Then a couple years back decided to try some regular ol' lead.




Deers and pigs hate it.



All that with a 3 MOA red dot sight. YMMV

You're on to something good, my friend.

Havent had my 77/357 long, but the couple 357 load I try will do 1-1/2 to 2" at 100 yards. Good enough for my purposes. Its not a target gun, its a hunting gun.

38 Special doesnt seem to do as good.

Doing some searches on ruger forums. Seems these things are a crap shoot, some shoot well , some are like shotguns. Load preference is one thing, but even rimfires arent half this bad. I wish the old remington 788 could be re-done by someone, those things seemed to shoot pistol cartridges a lot better.

That one that shot the groups above sure shoots well...holy [bleep]

Had a .44 a couple of decades ago. The best thing one can do for these rifles is to either tweak or replace the trigger. They’re muzzle-light, and the standard pull is tough to shoot well as a result. That done, and maybe a little shimming of the two-piece bolt, an easy job, and you have a handy-dandy little rifle that will do most of what most of us require from a rifle.

If I knew then what I know now, I’d probably still have that .44. Every so often, I get an itch to buy one of the SS models and obtain a walnut stock for it. If Lipseys ever gets the same idea........

There is a threaded version now. It seems like a good candidate for a can too: larger bores, somewhat heavy bullets, lower velocities, fairly short overall...

Do the stainless bolts gall in the stainless receiver?

Well, none of the other SS Rugers I have or have had, galled; whether due to hardening or dissimilar alloys I can’t say. I routinely lube all my bolt actions with moly truck bearing grease on the contact surfaces anyway. Despite what others have said, I’ve found that they operate pretty slickly.

I bought a 77/357 earlier this year after wanting one for awhile. On the first outing, it stuck a case after 10 rounds (the one time I didn’t bring a cleaning rod!!). I was shooting and hitting bean cans at about 25 yards, just chronying some loads for it so can’t speak to its accuracy potential. Haven’t had time to shoot it since; I’m a little put off with it though. She may be going back to Ruger if this problem repeats.

Somewhere on this site was some info on putting some spacers in the bolt of
77/22mag, 357 mag and 44 mag. There is varying amount of free play with the bolt
closed on shell case and therefore varying head space so to speak.

I see it on my 22mag and I am thinking about getting some spacers to see if they can
improve the accuracy.

I know a lot of 22 match shooters measure the rim thickness of ammo sorting for similar thickness.
It is supposed to make quite a difference in really accurate guns.

Varying rim thickness and a sloppy bolt on some would be in a similar nature of things I would think.

Or......

I have the 77/22 mag and installed the spacers. I did a lot of work on mine including a trigger and a match chamber so I am not sure if or how much the spacers helped accuracy. The spacers are sold as a kit with instructions. An easy installation.

I shoot 125 JSPs through my 77/357. At 100 yards, it will put the first 2 shots touching each other. The third one will be a flyer to the right about 3 inches. I can let it cool and the first two will touch again. Not sure how or if I can correct that third shot. Not sure I need to. I was in the blind two weeks ago and had a coyote come out 60 yards. DRT with that 125 gr load. about 20 min later her mate came by and tried to go around to see what was wrong. at about 75 yards, he was DRT too. Love that little rifle.

Have you tried 158g xtps?

Bb