Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats ruger 77 tang safety caliber conversion

I have this old ruger 77 with a tang safety that was my father's rifle, so I'm not interested in getting rid of it, but I would like to rebarrel it to a more interesting chambering. It is currently a .25-06, but I have an interest in a 6.5-284 which I've never owned before. Other than the obvious barrel swap, would I have to change anything else, perhaps the magazine follower? I would be paying someone, I don't have these skills myself. Thanks for any help. Don't bother trying to talk me out of the cartridge choice.
Thanks,
kstockfo

In all likelihood you'll be fine going from 25-06 to 6.5x284 without any changes other than the barrel. Rebarreled a number of Remington 700 to 6.5x284 over the course of years. Never had to change the mag follower.

You should be ok. Sometimes the larger case of the 284 can hang up a bit and not feed as smooth. If so I’m sure a little tweaking on the mag box and shaping on the follower and it would be fine.
Do you already have 6.5-284 brass or ammo? You could see how they fit in the magazine currently also.
A 6.5-06 would be the easy button! Couldn’t resist😁

25-06 is pretty darn cool round! Think this one over good before you pull her a part.

I say this because I used to think the 25-06 was a total waste. I've since seen a few kills with one and had a few kills with my own to really appreciate the chambering! One of my favorites

Lots of possibilities for an '06 length action. 700s often feed well enough with .284 based cases. Never tried a Ruger.

I would think about .280AI and .240 Weatherby as my first choices.

It's not very different than the .25-06, but most Ruger .257 Roberts rifles are on the '06 length action, not short action. If that scratches your itch, go for it.

Kinda funny how the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. If I had a good .25-'06, a lot of projects I'm considering would just wither on the vine instantly.

Tom

I can be of some help on this one. I have an old tang safety Ruger 77 .30-06. I also happen to have a 6.5x284. Mine is a Ruger #1V. To check this out for you I just went down to the basement and grabbed the 77 and a box of 6.5x284 handloads. I should mention these handloads use the 147 grain ELD-M which is a very long bullet.

When loaded with 6.5x284 rounds, magazine capacity went from five to four. Feeding seems perfectly fine. Rounds wouldn't chamber due to the body diameter of the 6.5x284 case but rounds cleared the magazine feed lips and made it to the chamber with any difficulty at all.

I hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for your help.
kstockfo