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.

I know this is a hypothetical and the OP does not even have the gun. ..... As long as he made an initial selection. I will 2nd this choice. It is as good as any other big bore (his words) It is not some rare oddball or goofy choice I need to wiki just to figure out. Not some new and improved fad round. It is a very versatile and fun caliber to reload for.

As for salvaging the original barrel, a new barrel, no sights, will actually cost less and be proper sized,for a BIG BORE, again the OP's words. Cost less, work better. ....

If not so currently, make sure you have that rifle very well bedded and relieved in the tang area. 77's are stock breaking machines.

And to measure your barrel at the 20” length you desire not at the current muzzle. Should have said that in my first post. I have a first gen mark ii barrel stainless and it is the slimmest Ruger mag barrel I have ever seen. Measures .620 at the 20” mark. That would leave .081 on each side of the bore. Don’t know if that is good enough or not.
Ruger had a few profiles on their mid magnum rifles.

Were I going to have built or rebore an existing Ruger, I would put it in one of the Bell & Carlson Ruger stocks with the full length aluminum bedding frame. I think a stainless Ruger Mark II or Hawkeye in 458 Winchester with a 20-22” barrel would be a very handy rifle.

The Ruger Alaskan in 416 Ruger, somewhat suppressed this idea for me. But, that set-up would still make a heck of rifle in my opinion, at a reasonable price. Add the sights on your choice.

I found out the hard way that Ruger 77s are stock breakers after disassembling my .358 for a post-season cleaning. Upon reassembly it broke during the first range session. Come to find out the factory torque spec for the angled front screw is 90-some inch pounds. One has to be careful to make it tight enough.

My kid has a 20.5" 77 re-barreled to .416 Taylor. It makes for some handy power.

@pabucktail, is there a stock you would suggest? I know there isn't a lot of choices. It's got a Timney trigger in it so it's been relieved a little in the tang area already.

My son's has a 90's vintage laminate stock, which is fine. I'd hunt up one of the newer factory plastic ones myself.

What does a Timney trigger have to do with relieving the tang?

There are no problems with the wood stocks, just bed them.

@LongSpurHunter. When I installed the Timney trigger, i had to remove material on the left side in the tang area in order for the rod that actuates the safety to be able to function properly. Making a spot on the stock that was already thin by comparison a little thinner. Have you had good luck with a bedding job eliminating issues with the stocks in big bore Ruger's?

375 Ruger

7mm Rem Mag to 375 Ruger is just a re-barrel.

Alternatively, if you trim the 7mm RM bbl back to say 20" you should have enough meat left at the muzzle to accommodate a rebore. Some might suggest taking a turn off the tenon when going 7mm RM to 375 Ruger. The benefit(s) of a re-bore are 1) a cut rifled barrel, and 2) maintaining the original barrel profile. Word to the wise though. If you rebarrel/re-bore to 375 Ruger, make d*mned sure the stock is bedded, the area around the tang is relieved, and consider cross-bolts behind the recoil lug and between the mag well and trigger opening.

Sounds like a lot of work to the factory stock. I would probably end up going with a different stock. Would a bedding job on a decent synthetic stock still be necessary?

The original M77 in .458 Win Mag in a walnut stock had a lot of extra metal in the forearm - a steel brace at an angle that was attached to the barrel with a bolt and the other end into a "slot" in the forearm that acted as a second recoil lug. It was a lot of extra metal to save the stock from breaking at the tang and/or the magazine well. I found all of that when I disassembled mine. I had no idea of all that metal being hidden away in the forearm.

It was a rifle I should have kept, BTW. And it had a 22" barrel with a banded front sight and a contour suitable for a .458. It was very well built as a .458, and I loved the tang safety.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

My 77 7mm RM barrel is too thin for any possible re-bore, I think. I plan on Re-barreling but my choice is 257 Weatherby. If I were going to re-barrel to a larger bore, I personally would prefer the 358 Norma.

Pretty tough sledding when it comes to finding aftermarket stocks for the OPs 77 tang safety. DAMHIKT. Unless you find one posted in the classifieds, ePay, et al, you're pretty much outta luck. Oregon Gunsmithing is the only place I've found that offers a composite stock for the 77 tang safety.

I have not checked recently but Bansner use to.
I have a tang safety one converted to a Mark II. Because they did not make them at that time for Mark II’s.

I got a Brown Precision unfinished stock that came with recoil pad and sling studs installed.
It was a short-action stock for .308 WCF that I reworked in 1990 to go on my 1981-vintage .30-06 M77 Roundtop.





Imbedded some steel cross bolts in the recoil lug area and epoxy bedded the longer-forward action.
Worked very well, 1/2 MOA for 3 shots with 150-gr Remington Bronze Points or handloads.

My bubba heart treasures that rifle still.
The barrel is about 0.555" diam. at 22" muzzle, under barrel band.

A Ruger M77 Mark II .30-06 was 0.560" at 22" muzzle likewise.







That is the same make & chambering of rifle used by the naked guy Glen Villaneuve on LIFE BELOW ZERO.
He used it as a walking stick, etc., took a lickin' and was still tickin', 2013-2019, until he left show.
I think the producers got tired of blurring out his privates during 20-below-zero outdoor bathing etc.
Proof that the tupperware stock is rugged and I will vouch for accuracy of many rifles so stocked.

A Ruger M77 Hawkeye .30-06 was 0.656" diam. at 23.5" length where threading of muzzle started:





That last one is almost a number 4 sporter contour, a bare minimum, IMHO, for .458-cal if shortened to 20" from 24".
The first two are about like number 1 sporter contours, featherweights.

All the Ruger M77 rifles in 7mm RemMag I have seen had similar contours as on the .30-06 rifles but lengthened to 24".
I have two take-off 7mm barrels in storage from Ruger M77s rebarreled to .257 WbyMag and .416 Taylor.
They were skinny.

A pet peeve of mine is the flashy silver-colored scope.
Krylon spray paint fixes that easily.
A suggestion for the Roundtop Ruger M77 action is to use the Leupold Mark 4 cross-slot bases and 8x40 screws with J-B Weld.











Same bases as fit the Remington Model 700, cut off any overhang or don't.
Ring options for the standard Ruger integral bases are shown in post above .
Either way is good for a .458 Winchester Magnum.

I used a Shilen Contour #5.5 on a Ruger M77 Mark II for 25" barrel length, muzzle diameter = 0.760"



Same rifle, different stock and scope:



Happy with that, could have used a #5.
Shilen refused to make a stainless #4 in .458 cal. when I asked,
but they did make a #5 which I used on a CZ 550 Magnum, muzzle diameter = 0.710" at 25" length.
A Winchester M70 Super Grade .458 WinMag made in 2011 has muzzle diameter of 0.730" at 24" length.

McGowen made a stainless #4 that I had cut to 23" and it was 0.670" diameter at the muzzle,
on a Winchester M70 ".458 WM+" shown here:



Shorter barrel would give greater wall thickness at the muzzle, of course.
Shortened to 20" it would be about 0.700" diameter at the muzzle,
handy but obnoxious to shoot.

i love Ruger's but in rifles they kick me way more than they should. i know it's stock fit

That is true for me!

I re-stocked my 7mm RM tanger. It hurt when I shot it. I’d rather have shot my 375AI pre64 70 than that 7mm RM

Can you tell me about the front sight please?

That front sight is a CZ 550 Magnum front sight that I beat off the donor barrel with a propane torch and a hammer and large screwdriver used as punch.
I cut off the rear of the ramp where I had beaten it, polished and cold-blued the cut end.
Then I hammered it onto the McGowen barrel using J-B Weld as grease.
Patridge insert is from NECG, where you can also get different heights of the original CZ factory bead iinsert.

... if his cheek bones are not too broad to use iron sights.
Stock is better for scope use.

I asked the same question regarding what iron sight I should put on my 3575 Whelen AI. I got the same advice as what Rifle rank wrote. I am very happy with it.

I would love to have that sight on a few lever actions.

Mike78, the NECG front sights are pretty similar and easy to install yourself.
:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15288546/1

Thank you for that reference. How long is the base, as I have barrel bands to consider, though I guess they could be cut?

From the band to the tail of the extension is approximately 2 1/8", and yes it could certainly be cut. I'll likely cut down my next one somewhat just for aesthetics on a short forend stalking rifle I'm doing.

Run it by me again what a 175 gr nosler Partition in the 7 mag won't get done that you need to do?...mb

Pretty funny that a guy calling himself "Magnum Bob" comes to the big bores forum to advocate small bores. Not trying to be a prick here, it's just funny to me.

I have a Ruger 7mm RM and that barrel is to thin for any re-bore, I think. I’m going to re-barrel mine.

I’ve built a number of 375/338s on that action for my customers & friends. They’ve taken a lot of Buffalo, moose grizzly & African plains game with them. One came home from Africa and called me ordering another one. The PH was so impressed when he shot a hippo end to end, he gave him the rifle.

375/338 would fit in between a 375 Whelen AI and a 375H&H AI, I’d think.

What barrel did you use? Stainless Steel?

I suppose I’ll never need one, BUT!!!

BECAUSE AMMO WOULD BE EASIER TO FIND IN THE WORLD AND A 20 INCH BARREL TUFF TO BEAT A 375 H&H

The H&H is a bit long in a Ruger 77 and I have a 375 H&H AI pre-64 Model 70
I tried to sell my 7mm RM tanger for $200 less than I had in it. Didn't sell and I'm not giving it away. I've thought about the 458 Win. I'd probably want to shoot cast bullets in that. I have several other 45 caliber rifles and I have molds for 45.
I was quite sure that I had read somewhere that the 458 didn't shoot cast bullets well. I'm looking at Ken Waters July 81 article on the 458 pet loads. He seemed to get a couple of good accuracy loads with the cast bullets in his rifle. But he complained quite a bit about difficulty in cast bullet accuracy What say you?

Too long for the Ruger.

Mostly used shilen (CM). But had Douglas do a special contour on the last one that turned out great. He’s shot 4 Buffalo, 3 leopards & a grizzly, among other things, with it.
No stainless. I just can’t get into them for hunting rifles, although I built one for a goat hunt using a Ruger tang safety action 7-08.
There are many neat things you can do with that action.[img]https://ibb.co/QXqjkh6[/img]

Barrels may still be available from Gun Parts Corp (Numrich Arms). Haven't looked recently but they had 458 Win Mag factory barrels for No. 1s relatively recently.

TS M-77 is a straight conversion from the 7mm RM to 458 Win Mag just with the rebarrel, though you may have to slightly tune the feed ramp for the larger diameter bullets especially if you plan to use flat point solids. For your purposes, many 0.458" diameter round nose and rounded HP bullets are available so they may feed with the factory ramp profile.

The 375 Ruger idea is a good one, though I'm not sure how well they would feed through the PF TS M-77. You would need to see if the TS follower works or if the 375 Ruger Hawkeye follower would be needed. Again making up some dummies and trying feeding would answer that question. I can try it in my 458 TS M-77 and let you know how well that works as I have some dummies already made up, if you consider that route.

You could make up a few dummies with the bullets you intend to use and try feeding up the ramp as is with the long TS factory magazine follower in place.

BTW, if you get a tapered expander plug (a couple of diameters in steps) you can even form your 7mm RM cases to straight wall 458 Win Mags as the latter are hard to find right now. 300 Win Mag cases also work as a starting point. I anneal the smaller caliber cases before expanding to 458 Win Mag.

your right i forgot that length , so 338 Win. mag

358 Norma mag!!! i need won in my collection, I'm on a roll!!

I had a tang-safety Ruger Model 77 chambered for the .338 Winchester Magnum rebarreled (Shilen - 24-inch) to .416 Taylor by Atlanta gunsmith James R. "Jim" Shaw (now, sadly, deceased). Although this is still a push-feed action, the conversion was a success, and the .416 Taylor is a very efficient caliber in this bore size. I don't try to hotrod the caliber, but it's easy to reach 2,300 feet per second with 400-grain bullets.