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I bought my first one in about 83 it was a 370 Winchester, I bought a 243 not long after and a 30-06 followed. When they went to the bolt safety, I switched to Remington 700's and sold all of them. My brother still has the 30-06.


I may not be smart but I can lift heavy objects

I have a shotgun so I have no need for a 30-06.....
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Bought a Tanger in 257 Roberts AI from a guy here on the fire a few years back. Bedding and 120 Partitions worked really well. Sorry I sold it off.

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I was on a decent flatbolt kick for a while and bought/sold/traded several. I still have two of them - a .243RS and a .270.

I'm 44, and tang safety Rugers were about all my dad used when I was a kid. So my first deer rifle was a tang safety .30-06 and I killed a ton of deer and coyotes with it.

My dad's .338WM is legendary in our family and will be the one gun of his I'll never let get away.

I've probably shot 10-15 different ones over the years (mine or his). The only one that wasn't plenty accurate with factory ammo was a Liberty .257 Roberts that I wanted to love, but couldn't.

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Bought a 338 WM tanger with iron sights in 1992 from a friend who wanted something smaller. It weights 9 1/4 lbs with a Leupold 2.5 x 8 and shoots under an inch with all factory loads I have shot in it, and under 1/2 inch with NP 225 reloads at 2850. I've taken several elk with it over the years, from 40 to 400 yards, but lately have gone to smaller and lighter guns in 30-06 to save a couple of pounds carrying. Still consider it my go to gun for bull elk or anything bigger. I may not use it much anymore, but I'll never sell it. Kids get dibs.

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Bought a Tanger in 7 mag back in 93 when working at LGS. It was straight out Jekyll and Hyde. One day it would shoot like gangbusters next day you couldn’t hit a paper plate with it. Tried scopes, rings, bedding, trigger job,increased striker spring, you name it , it had been done to it.
I had a list of 19 different loads I had tried with it. Sent it in to Ruger and it came back with a target and a note 5 shots 7/8 of an inch @ 50 yes 50 yards saying accuracy ok. Traded it that day on a Winchester Model 70 Stainless/Synthetic that would shoot lights out with damn near anything.
Still own some Rugers and like them too. But that one was a dog. I guess it was a hit or miss brand barrel on it .
I would buy another one if the right deal came along though.


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Originally Posted by Featherweight6555
Bought a Tanger in 7 mag back in 93 when working at LGS. It was straight out Jekyll and Hyde.


That prompts me to tell this story about my M77 .338 Win mag. I purchased the rifle used, at a time when we were talking about some day hunting Sitka blacktails in Alaska, but without any definite plan. The rifle was in pristine condition, but could not be made to shoot a group less than about 8 inches, regardless of who shot it. Life moved on, and since I was at the time living in Houston, both elk hunting and Alaska were far away. A move to Colorado changed the opportunities, and although by then I was using my very accurate Ruger M77 in 7mm Rem. mag on elk to good effect, the .338 remained a big question mark.

At the conclusion of a successful Colorado elk hunt, the four of us were having dinner and drinks before Finn would return to Texas and the rest of us would return to work. The post-hunt discussion turned into a gun swap, with Finn taking possession of my .338 to experiment with it to see what was the problem. At home he set it into his long, open gunrack next to his computer desk. As was his habit, the .338 alongside all his family rifles, sat in the rack with a .338 bullet set point-first into the muzzle of the barrel. He always put a bullet of the caliber of each rifle into its muzzle to keep mud dauber wasps from filling the barrels with mud nests. The loose bullet would simply fall out if the rifle was grabbed in sudden need.

One day Finn was idly fiddling with that .338 bullet, lifting it and plunking it into the muzzle, but then once flipped the bullet base down and to his amazement, the base of the bullet dropped neatly into the barrel! Upon inspection he discovered that the rifling stopped well short of the muzzle! In his typical pragmatic African bush way, Finn hacksawed off 2 inches of barrel, re-crowned it using a bolt in a drill, and voila, the rifle shot around a 2 inch group when tested. Mystery solved.

I ultimately ended up with the rifle back, and later had Rich Reiley of High Tech Customs re-barrel the rifle with a Lilja barrel and true the action. This turned the old tang safety Ruger, still in .338 Win mag, into a 1-inch rifle with 250 gr. Swift A frames (when I do my part). It did eventually take a Sitka blacktail, and many elk.

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Jaguar,

Interesting story!

But it fits some other experience with tang-safety Rugers. In general the barrels were pretty good--but once in a while there was a real dog. Mentioned in my earlier post on this thread that a friend who had a 7x57 that he could NOT get to shoot asked me to try it. I couldn't get it to shoot either, and eventually slugged the bore. Turned out the TIGHT spots in the rifling were .287" in diameter--and there were far more loose spots.



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Originally Posted by Jaguar
Originally Posted by Featherweight6555
Bought a Tanger in 7 mag back in 93 when working at LGS. It was straight out Jekyll and Hyde.


That prompts me to tell this story about my M77 .338 Win mag. I purchased the rifle used, at a time when we were talking about some day hunting Sitka blacktails in Alaska, but without any definite plan. The rifle was in pristine condition, but could not be made to shoot a group less than about 8 inches, regardless of who shot it. Life moved on, and since I was at the time living in Houston, both elk hunting and Alaska were far away. A move to Colorado changed the opportunities, and although by then I was using my very accurate Ruger M77 in 7mm Rem. mag on elk to good effect, the .338 remained a big question mark.

At the conclusion of a successful Colorado elk hunt, the four of us were having dinner and drinks before Finn would return to Texas and the rest of us would return to work. The post-hunt discussion turned into a gun swap, with Finn taking possession of my .338 to experiment with it to see what was the problem. At home he set it into his long, open gunrack next to his computer desk. As was his habit, the .338 alongside all his family rifles, sat in the rack with a .338 bullet set point-first into the muzzle of the barrel. He always put a bullet of the caliber of each rifle into its muzzle to keep mud dauber wasps from filling the barrels with mud nests. The loose bullet would simply fall out if the rifle was grabbed in sudden need.

One day Finn was idly fiddling with that .338 bullet, lifting it and plunking it into the muzzle, but then once flipped the bullet base down and to his amazement, the base of the bullet dropped neatly into the barrel! Upon inspection he discovered that the rifling stopped well short of the muzzle! In his typical pragmatic African bush way, Finn hacksawed off 2 inches of barrel, re-crowned it using a bolt in a drill, and voila, the rifle shot around a 2 inch group when tested. Mystery solved.

I ultimately ended up with the rifle back, and later had Rich Reiley of High Tech Customs re-barrel the rifle with a Lilja barrel and true the action. This turned the old tang safety Ruger, still in .338 Win mag, into a 1-inch rifle with 250 gr. Swift A frames (when I do my part). It did eventually take a Sitka blacktail, and many elk.


This is why this forum is still great! An awesome story!

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This shows what the problem with the .338 looked like. Still have the 2 inches he cut off. You can see in the muzzle, no rifling. The tape around the bullet indicates how far the bullet will drop into the muzzle base first. Pretty extreme. My other M77s have been good to excellent.

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Another Finn the pragmatist story from a different annual elk hunting trip. On that trip, after a lot of miles on his 4X4 Ford, Finn's U-joint was giving out. From our place to Llano, TX was around 900 miles. He needed to get home, and didn't want to spend the time and money on a mechanic in the Denver area. His pragmatic solution was to borrow a few tools, disconnect the rear drive line, and lock in his front hubs (those were the days). He drove home in front-wheel drive and fixed it once he arrived home.

Last edited by Jaguar; 01/23/22. Reason: inserted actual photos
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I've been trying to get my neighbor's 280 tanger to shoot. He was getting 3-4 in groups at best. I took it and after floating the barrel, recrowning the barrel, relieving the magazine, and retorquing the action screws, I got it to about 2 in. I haven't worked on it in awhile. Was going to try some heavier bullets. I have not bedded it yet. I need to check the screw hole as roundoak pointed out, thanks.


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Mine have benefited from free floating and bedding. Seems like most M77 stocks have uneven fore-end pressure after many years of drying and settling in. You can easily see the pressure points when you pull the stock off. Even a paper test will tell a tale. Also, mine have moved around the country, and been very wet and very dry at times, so I'm sure the free floating has been a help with that.

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My first was a 77V in 25-06, with fiddleback from end to end. I never should have sold it. I have one in 30-06 now, and one in .338WM. Neither will get sold any time soon, tho I haven't hunted with the .338 in 15 years or so.

I've had no trouble getting any of them to go 1.5 MOA or less. The 77V, totally unmodified, did 5 MOA with factory, 1 MOA with neck-sized only reloads. The .338 goes MOA with some "junk loads" I threw together without work-up, using Hornady 250 RN, and 1 inch groups (3 shot), at 200 yards with some Sierra 250 - also not worked up. I have 3 of the Sierras left, and about 30 of the Hornady loads.

Glass bedded receivers, free floated barrels, and factory triggers worked on. The 338 has also been Mag-Na-Ported.

I've never had a Mk II.


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I’ve owned dozens of tang safety M77’s and found virtually all of them shot great but as previously mentioned they did benefit from bedding and free floating usually. I sold one in 7mag to a friend that got many miles out of it. He brought me a target with 5 holes in under 3/4” that he’d shot at a 100 yards. The coolest thing about the tiny groups that he shot was they were (all 5 shots) a different bullet as well as 3 different bullet weights. The 140gr, 150gr and 160gr Speer, Nosler, Federal, Winchester and Remington bullets printed 5 shots in less than 3/4” dead center at 100 yards. That rifle impressed me as much as any other rifle I’ve ever owned and I’ve literally owned thousands (benefits of owning your own shop 😉).

I’ve always liked Ruger rifles because in my opinion they are the blue collar working man’s rifle. They’re strong, accurate, affordable and available…..attributes that not all rifle manufacturers can boast about.

The only accuracy issues that I can recall were in relation to the stock/forend and was quickly remedied by relieving the forend and/or bedding. I know several guys that for whatever reason didn’t want to go to the trouble of bedding the rifle so they used the ugly rubber barrel vibration dampener with great success.

It’s crazy how the prices on those rifles have gone up astronomically. I’d sell the used Ruger tang rifles for $250-$350 but even at those prices they didn’t “fly out” of the shop. Hell…the half dozen Stainless Colt light rifles took us 8 years to sell and we were asking $495 each. I wish I’d have kept a few of them. 😫…..woulda, coulda, shoulda.


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Used to have a 250 savage with the full length stock. I miss that rifle, but I am only 25 so plenty of time to get more tangers.

I'd like to get one in 243 with the ultra lite stock, if that was a configuration they offered.

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I have owned 5 tangers over the years. Most accurate is a 257 Roberts I still have. I sold a 30.06 which was also very accurate to buy a better rifle (haha). Should have kept it. I would buy it back, but the current owner is smarter than I am.


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I’ve owned just two. A .243 and a .270. Both got shooters. Both are gone now.

Last edited by lastround; 01/27/22.

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As I said in an earlier post I collected Ruger rifles for several years. Their biggest issue was barrels. Ruger used Douglas barrels until about 1973, then switched to Wilson barrels. Ruger installed Douglas Premium barrels on the No.1 single shot. Every Douglas barreled rifle I've owned was accurate, some exceptionally accurate for hunting rifles. The Wilson barrels, in my experience were a 'hit or miss' proposition. Lack of quality control. Many of the Wilson barreled rifles I owned were "easy MOA' accurate. But some were not and nothing I did would get them under 2". I pulled a new ultralight .30-06 (M77RL) off the shelf at Bob Ward's in Boseman in about 1986. Upon looking at it I noticed the hole in the end of the barrel was off center. Didn't need any caliper to tell; you could see it with the naked eye! I handed it back an asked to see another one which I bought. That rifle would shoot almost any load into MOA or better. Yep, both Wilson barrels. Sometime in the 90's Ruger switched to in-house hammer forged barrels. All of the MKIIs I've owned have been consistently accurate.

No. 1s below serial number 130-05000 should have a Douglas premium barrel. Any M77 that dates to 1972 and earlier would also have a Douglas barrel.

Last edited by mcknight77; 01/27/22.

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Douglas barrels on all No. 1s??? Never Wilson?

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Originally Posted by Aagaardsporter
Douglas barrels on all No. 1s??? Never Wilson?


Douglas before serial number 130-05000. Wilson after that, but with some overlap depending on caliber and stock on hand.


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Originally Posted by 41rem
How many have you owned, any favorites?

41



I have three. Two in .308 Win, and one in .243 Win. But, I get to be more friendly with mine.308 Win.

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