Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Ruger 77 RSM

Just got one yesterday. Can anyone explain the bedding system, the two screws in the forend, etc?

I thought about getting an extra stock so as to protect the original, but it seems that bedding it would be complicated perhaps

Thanks

There is a plate under those two screws and that plate is part of the recoil lug/barrel lug attachment system. Yep. Complicated
https://www.africahunting.com/threads/ruger-rsm-stock-tip.22870/

Thanks. Any recommendations on how tight? Both the same, etc?

Take it apart.get some acraglaas or glass bed and put some underneath the steel plate that anchors the action.This will bed and glue it in place forever.If some acraglass is pushed over the top of the plate this will just help anchor it-don't worry.You will need to tighten the main action screw-the front screw-with something that gives more torque than a screw driver.Use a ratchet or some device that will torque high enough-as tight as you can get it.I use red loctite on the screw this will eliminate any slippage.The screw slipping and untightening will crack your stock.Don't shoot your rifle before doing the above.You will crack the stock for sure especially if it's a Lott.You can tighten the rear action screw with an ordinary screw driver-but still use loctite.

It’s a .375

Years ago there was a video put out by Ruger or Brownells on this very same topic.They recommended a high torque-I can't remember how much but definitely over 65lbs.athey also showed the type of wrench to use to get that torque.It was a large wrench that required both hands to use it.A monkey wrench or a ratchet will work fine.Any rifle including the Ruger 77 MKii needs a bedding job.It's not difficult and you don't need much bedding compound.Just fill in the recoil lug recess half way and put some under the steel plate.athis will prevent the stock from cracking and will eliminate a shifting POI and poor grouping.One more thing, glue the iron sights after you sight them in.The recoil will move the sights around.They are not proper sights for a 375 or any rifle.Proper iron sights use a drift to adjust windage not a screw.The good thing about the Ruger sights is that the bases are not glued or even soldered to the barrel but are most likely integral.

Ruger says 95 inch pounds on the main lug, don’t remember the rear torque and just snug on the middle. The plate screws I don’t know. I would guess reasonably tight and medium strength loct tight muscle gut be a good idea. More than that, I would suggest asking a professional.

There is no such thing as a professional on the subject.

I would call Ruger and ask them!

Note that Inch pounds are not Foot pounds

https://www.ruger.com/videos.html?vid=232869370&cat=3769276

I caught that also. 65 foot pounds is twice what is required to torque the bolts holding the prop on my Supercub ! And enough to strip the threads !

How's the woolies holding out this winter? Keepin' the cold at bay?
Best regards
F01

I have this identical rifle. I have taken it apart re-assembled and never had any of the problems related in this thread. No glass bedding. No sight problems and no stock problems. I have never checked the bolt torque. Gun is very accurate with 260 gr Nosler partitions. I have some FMJ bullets that I am willing to part with if somebody is interested.

My Gen-2 version .416 Rigby shot so well as it came out of the box, I never messed with it.
I just kept screws tight to no more than 65 inch-pounds,
being a weakling, that is about all I can do with a Fat Wrench screwdriver.
I only tested one powder charge with a half dozen bullets ranging from 380 grains to 410 grains,
all in one session, 3 shots with each bullet,
and settled on a load that afternoon, for my first safari in 2001.
All the bullets were accurate enough, roughly zeroed to check a 3-shot group at 115 yards.
Hey, the bulldozer driver was either drunk or confused on meters versus yards
when he made a first attempt at a 100-yard berm at the public range.
Choice load, same powder charge as John Buhmiller and Jack O'Connor liked for 400-grainers:



Here is the rifle that did it with a 1.5-5x20mm Leupold in Ruger rings:







One shot, broke his left shoulder and his heart and exited offside ribs,
he ran 50 yards and fell, gave the death bellow promptly in the mopane of Botswana's Okavango.
PH Ronnie McFarlane (supervising my Appy PH) gladly took my spare ammo off my hands when I left.
He had an original John Rigby & Co. .416 Rigby he was using for backup on elephant.
Hopefully it found good use for him.
While I was there, his client made a bespoke .500 NE H&H Royal fire both barrels at once, and the elephant still died.

Below will follow the images from the thread linked earlier, related to bedding, with my comments "Painted" onto some of them.

The RSM has a weird bedding system, but it is prone to excellent accuracy.

I still have my fat-barreled 24 incher (Gen-2) and cannot bring myself to change a thing about it.
It was found at Great Northern Guns in Anchorage, late 90's just before the Gen-3 came out.
I hiked Crow Pass with it just to see if I could carry the weight on a little mountain walk.
I was younger then (sigh).
If the stock ever cracks it will get epoxy bedded and maybe a second crossbolt, visible or hidden.
Fluting of fat barrel with integral quarter rib might be messy ...
Reboring to .510-caliber would be perfect for a barrel that fat,
but I want not for another .510-caliber (sigh).

Riflecrank hates wooden stocks.He said many times he will never use another again because they always crack on him.So it's funny that he is giving advice on wooden stocks.

My stocks never crack even after many thousands of Dynamite strength 458 Lott loads.

Figured out the ignore feature here, turned it on for the user formerly known as shootaway.
He is as trustworthy as Joe Biden.
Dementia plus dishonesty is a bad combination.
Now when he posts I see this:

*** You are ignoring this user ***

If you have this particular model with the original recoil pad, what’s the length of pull? Mine had a decelerator pad added and the lop is 14”.
Wondering if the stock was cut or if an original recoil pad would still fit

I know the original pads weren’t very soft. That’s not my question.

If that is a 1" Decelerator pad then stock probably was not cut.
The Gen-2 had a 13.5" LOP with the 0.5"-thick hard, black rubber, Ruger pad from factory.
I think all three generations of RSM had the same LOP from RUGER factory, 13.5".

RSM and Red Label (.338 WinMag O/U DR and 20 Ga) use same pad and sling stud hole location.





After I whittled that hole for the sling stud, I started using a large hole punch to make them prettier on subsequent pads.
Brown dye also touches up the edges all around and where hole was punched.
Either GALCO or ACTION brands are my favorites, leather & Velcro.
The GALCO is prettier without having to be dyed darker brown on butt end.
I have dyed some of the 2-tone ACTION pads all black.

A shot of gunner500's re-bore of a heavy-barreled RSM to .505 Gibbs:

Of the 3 RSMs I've had, none had stock splitting problems. That includes a 416 Rigby - now for sale - a 458 Lott and a 416 Rigby rebored to 450 Rigby Rimless. Shot the 416 Rigby the least because it would only feed pointed bullets reliably, not the CEB BBW FP solids I normally prefer and I didn't want to modify the feed ramp on this one.

All were/are shot regularly with heavy loads and the bedding system and stock work as advertised. Other than having the 450 RR stock reworked to make it slimmer and fitting a proper recoil pad, the RSMs fit and perform well. Except for the 375H&H, IMHO too heavy for the cartridge, the 458 Lott and 450 Rigby are appropriately heavy for their intended purpose.

I've have had one of those pads for about 25 years or more....use it on my wife's guns....I cut off about 1 1/4" off all her guns to fit her. and put a new pad on...if I shoot one of her guns just add a couple layers of hard foam rubber and put the pad on to get the gun to fit me....