Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles I found a very interesting rifle today

Ok Scotty. This is how it went down today:

Took in some trade bait: Newly purchased Tikka 204 Ruger from last month. I stripped everything good off of it. That would include the $455 B&C stock:
Tikka T3x B&C stock OD green with black spiderwebbing

Mountain tactical bottom metal: $150
Mountain tactical rail: $62
Mountain tactical bolt handle: $75

Total: $742 Just in aftermarket parts I took off of the rifle. I replaced the stock with a T3 stock I had laying around from an old rifle. Keep in mind I took it back to the shop I bought it from last month. I know the guy in there very well and he gives me pretty damn good deals, so I wasn't wanting to screw him or anything. Told him how about $500 for the Tikka. He says how about $550? I say ok, sounds great. He knows I pulled parts off of the 204, but the main one was the stock. I originally paid $750 for the rifle and he also threw in a box of ammo for free. Ammo worth about $40. I also brought in some steel cased 223 55gr FMJ Wolf ammo. 18 boxes that I was never going to use: $9/box. Brought what I owed on the rifle down to $388.00. As I was driving home I thought, damn I have a lot of bullets, I have been buying for the 204, I'm not going to use those so I give the guy a call: Hey, do you want some reloading components for that 204 I just sold you? "Hell yes:, he says, "bring them in". Well, we arrive at $20/box for the bullets. I paid $19/box for them. I also had some primed brass I threw in. That was put towards the rifle at a sum of $220.00. Now I owe $168 on the rifle. I think it worked out very well for a Friday afternoon... Oh, incase you are wondering where all those Mountain Tactical parts and B&C stock went:



I need to take that rifle to the range and put up a clean target!! That sob is jumbled, but that day there were a lot of guys at the range and I didn't want to interrupt shooting by walking down to set up a new target... As for the new Ruger, it's going to take some work. The barreled action shifts in the stock, so it is not glass bedded and someone freefloated the barrel. I imagine the original owner, or whoever did that was getting something like 5" groups. Probably the reason he sold it. Little does that guy know I will work some magic on it and make it a sub moa shooter. The solid black 1/2" rubber butt pad is going to get replaced with a red pachmayr. I imagine what's on there now would feel like getting hit by a 2x4 or a mule. I'm not even going to think twice about putting a better recoil pad on that one.

One of these will work^^^^

I found a die set in town for $44, so I need to find some brass and I'll be ready to rock and roll...

BSA be patient on the brass. More 300 saum out there than 7 saum by a damn site but out there. I chased 7 mm saum for 2 years before I acquired enough....mb

Thanks Bob. I have some once fired heading my way and in contact with another member for some more after the holiday. I won't need a whole lot, just enough to do some testing and I'll probably keep a box of 50 loaded up after finding a great load. The rifle is going to need some work right from the get go, with a new red pachmayr decelerator, glass bedding and you know how the triggers are on these rugers. When done, it will be more like a fine tuned model 70 than a ruger. Should shoot decent enough for what it is too. We will see though. My expectations are only 1" 3 shot groups, but ive had some rugers shoot much better than that. This one has a pretty skinny short barrel, hopefully it was machined well, with minimal residual stresses!!

I'll tell you I never heard Jud bitching about his 7 saum in the ruger. My boat paddles in 308 and 223 are sure enough good shooters even with original heavy triggers. Good luck and keep us up on it..mb

Nice grab on the 300!

Any pictures of this rig yet BSA?

Not yet buddy. I'm on vacation with my daughter, so maybe next week?

Just for you Scotty:




I also checked it for function (the reason the dummy rounds were in the picture). Works great. That was before cleaning and polishing the feed ramp and raceways. Now it is even better. I set my die up so there is very minimal shoulder bump. After I fire some off, I'll do a proper check to get a .002" bump or so and it should be fine. All once fired brass that I received from a member here works fine after sizing brass. Looks promising, so far..

Whoever mounted the scope, must have been a short mother fu cker. I will re-do it later after all the other work is done. Glass bedding and stock refinish. I adjusted the trigger down to a very consistent and safe 2 5/8 pounds:


I didn't want to go any lighter because these Ruger m77 mk2 triggers can be sensitive. Kept all the angles, replaced the factory spring and went a little lighter. It is very smooth and crisp now. Should be great, as compared to the 6 pounds it was at when I checked it. Totally factory setting. That is a good sign, actually. The rifle cleaned up real nice. Barrel shows minimal use, but was dirty as heck. Rifling looks great and lands are sharp. I'm still expecting pretty good accuracy after glass bedding and load work up. I have 65 pcs of brass now and am expecting another 50 pcs tomorrow. I wont' be shooting it for a few days though. Giving the finish a little time to cure. Laminate stocks are pretty easy to re-finish, so I chose that route. I believe this is a JRS (John R Sundra) stock from Boyds. Not factory, even though Ruger started using this same style laminate stock. The recoil pad was solid rubber and hard like a car tire, so I replaced it with a red Pachmayr Decelerator. My preference these days. The scope is in like new condition. One of the reasons I bought the rifle:




New recoil pad after some jig work. Not cleaned up, just checked for fit:

That will be much better than the solid rubber pad it had.




The glass is super clear, as one would expect from Zeiss. I guess the rifle was roughly $675, which is not a stellar deal by yesterdays standards, but a good deal these days. I'm thinking I'll be pretty happy with it, as it fits well. We will see how it shoots later this week. I may just sling some cheap azzed FMJ's I pulled from some 1942 30-06 ammo. ha ha... We'll see though... I'll show the bedding work after I get that done. That will be in a few days though. Here are some pics of the red pachmayr and after sading on the stock:


I think it's going to be a pretty good one after work is done... I may also put the new Zeiss V4 4-16 on this rifle. I was trying to decide which rifle that scope would work on well and this one may be it???
This is how it sits for now, until the stock work is done:


Bubba smith out...

Looks great!

That this is great BSA! Don't sell that one too quick, looks mighty handy. I'd have to find someone to check it for me, but man, what a wicked little rifle! Looking forward to seeing what it does on the range. How long is the mag box on it?

Thanks Teeder. I appreciate the brass! Funny, the other lot of brass I ordered is coming from Cresco PA.. Weird coincidence. That is supposed to be here today..

Thanks Scotty. I thought so too. We wills see how she does. It is sitting in Devcon 10110 right now as we speak. I have 50 pcs of brass primed and polished, ready to go. The mag box measures 2.903" roughly. Which should allow me to load up close to the lands with no problems.. I haven't checked OAL's for different bullets yet. I'll wait for the bedding to harden up a bit before messing with it too much. Its also frefloated right now. I'll shoot it as is and if accuracy is not good, I'll have to play around with business cards at the tip of the forend. Generally 2 points of contact work well for these Rugers, even if you have to put a pressure point in. Something a lot of guys don't get.. No bedding in the azz end, as you want to maintain necessary clearances (It's a Ruger not a Model 70). Its a mechanical theory that generally holds water from what I've experienced. We will see though.

It be a fine hunting rifle. I like laminate stocks.

Thanks hanco. I like them too. Pretty impervious to the elements. A tad heavy, but that helps with reducing recoil on a magnum rifle. I'm curious as to how this one works out in that department. Like Scotty said, should be a pretty good little handy rifle. The Ruger 77 is a workhorse of a rifle.

Had the same rifle but in 300 WM. Blonde laminate, SS - was a great rig.

Yeah, I have a 300WM that I've had since '95 like that. I put it in a laminated wood stock because the boat paddle pounds the crap out of you. I didn't want to alter the Zytel stock, so I left it original and recently sold it on ebay for something like $380!! Damned near what I paid for the rifle many years ago.. Speaking of stock color though, I changed this one up a bit. Went with a more red stain, that I like to use to bring out more color in the stock, then I applied 5 coats of poly to it... Sanded out some scratches and installed the red pachmayr. Looks slightly different now. Not like your typical Ruger laminate.. I've done this with laminated wood stocks and it works great. Finish is pretty strong and even more impervious to the elements that way.. I think the bedding is going to turn out pretty good too. Plenty of coverage, I hope!!

That's funny! Had the same darned one. Got it when I first got stationed at Camp Pendleton in 97. Now one of my good friends owns it.

It was responsible for destroying 2 Burris scopes of the time and making me shun them ever since. Late 90's or so. Back when you bought rifles at the hardware store.

I got mine at the PX and mounted and VXI 3x9 of the day on it. Darned thing never skipped a beat. I got dumb after reading too much internet..

Killed a few elk and deer with it.

8.5 pounds as you see it. Ready to rock and roll. Or at least see what it can do. Glass bedding is solid, as I had expected. Checking different bullets for OAL right now..