Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Ruger 77 Tang 7 mag rebarrel to what??

I just read the .376 Steyer post and got to thinking. If you had a Ruger 77 tang safety in 7mm Remington mag and had a want for a big bore, what would you choose? I would want no less than 3 in the magazine, preferring more, and a 20" barrel at the most. No open sights as it would wear a low power variable. Largest animal would be black bear or hogs. It would be nice to have something that would completely anchor each animal mentioned above. All this in an Oregon Gunsmithing stock. What do you think?

Many options. 300 Win, 338 Win, 375 or 416 Taylor, 458 Win.

After looking into it, the measurements of the .458 Winchester magnum look very appealing. It looks like mag well length and bolt face would both work. Am I reading this right?

375 Ruger . . . . . DAMHIKT

That one slipped my mind. Is that just a rebarrel?

Being an STW fan, I'd think about the 358 STA, or would that be too long? Maybe 375 (not 378) Weatherby?

358 nm

Yep, bolt and and length would not be an issue. I don’t have that particular rifle to try.
But, I just ran 416 Ruger 400 grain Hornady and 458 Winchester 500 grain Hornady rounds through a M70 classic CRF 338 Winchester to the extent the chamber would allow.

3ea in magazine, both worked. The 458 Winchester being a bit slimmer in the case body, gives a little more room for width in the magazine well.

Seconds on the 358 Norma Mag

458wm and don't look back. If you really want a 20” barrel, you could likely get a rebore done on that barrel. At 20 I would bet there is plenty of barrel.

A rebore would be nice. I could keep the lines of fhe original barrel to stock relationship. I'm thinking something along the lines of .375 Ruger or .458 Win Mag as opposed to the other suggestions. I've always peferred to have something common enough to have the possibility of picking up some factory stuff if I needed to. That pretty much eliminates the STA and the Norma mag. Should have stated in my first post.

Any suggestions on who to contact for a rebore? I've read good things of JES. Anywhere else to look?

Most of my generation of rebore folks have quit or left for the happy hunting ground. JES seems be fast and fair. I don’t know if he has a 458 saami reamer or not to clean up the chamber but no doubt he could do it.

Barrel diameter at the bore?

Stay away from Classic Barrel Works, Dan Pedersen. JES is outstanding if he does the chamber you’re looking for. Oregon Gunsmithing does rebores but after interviews with him and a couple experiences others had he seems to promise more than he delivers at a higher price than you’re lead to believe it will be.

I spoke with JES about a week ago regarding reboring a barrel to .458 and re-chambering to 458 Lott.
The rebore was not an issue. The 458 Lott reamer he would have to rent, but no issue there either.

I did not ask about 458 Winchester reamer. He may have that on hand. If not, I am sure he would rent one.
He certainly seemed like a hell of a nice guy.

I may get in touch with JES. I’ve read a lot of good reviews regarding his work.

Rebore sounds like a great idea, but you need to check muzzle diameter to see how big you can go. I was going to do a rebore and rechamber to one of the 375 Ruger based cases with a similar 77 with a magnum chamber. It was a few years ago, as I recall, there is a little bit of the chamber that is bigger on the belted magnums so that it wasn't as simple as running a chambering reamer in and opening up the chamber. I would have needed to set back the barrel then rebore, rechamber. I dropped that project when I considered that I would end up with a pretty lightweight barrel and not exactly the cartridge I wanted and way more cost than I wanted to put in it.
I did end up with a rebarrel to 416 Talor which I loved. It might be a little powerful for your needs, but it sure was fun.
Good luck,
Bfly

hillbillyjake,
You could do no better than a .458 Winchester Magnum.
All else pales in comparison.

Yes, JES does .458 WinMag rebores and re-chambering, did one for Sir Jerry on a stainless .375 H&H M70 Classic barrel.
That is about like a No. 5 sporter contour, perfect for a .458.
Shame on Sir Larry for the .458 Lott request when he could have had a .458 WinMag.

I had a Ruger M77 "Mk I" in 7mm RemMag and it had a very slender barrel.
They might have made a heavier barreled version too ?
Barrel diameter at 24" length on the Ruger factory 7mmRM barrel is the missing info here.

@ Blackfly1 and Riflecrank. I'm going to do some measuring of barrel this week and see what I have. Fully understand that if there isn't enough there I'll need to look into other options. Thanks.

Verbal reprimand noted and acknowledged.

I was curious as to those 7mm Remington magnum barrel thicknesses also. Many years ago, I had a Ruger tang safety 7mm
Remington mag, that barrel was very slender.

I presently have a 7mm Remington mag in a Ruger Hawkeye and one in a Mark II, these barrels are slender also. A different contour from the 338 Winchester and 300 Winchester. Easy to see the difference.

Frankly the 300 does not appear overly fat when you compare a .458 bullet to it. The Ruger 300 Winchester was one that I considered a re-bore to the 458 Winchester. I would have to do some measuring, Eye balling at 22” it looks pretty slim for a 458.
Eyes can deceive, measurements would confirm as to barrel thickness at desired length.
I like the contour / thickness of the 22” M70 Super Express.

I have not compared / measured but the Interarms 458 Winchester looks about right for a slim barrel to me.