Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Impressed With My Old Ruger 77/22

I have the "boat paddle" versions in 22LR and 22Mag. I got the 22LR when I was in high-school and it rode in my vehicle for 10's of thousands of miles, kinda looks it too. I shimmed it about a decade ago and it'll shoot pretty much any ammo into "minute of gopher" out to 50yds. I got the 22Mag about 15yrs ago and shimmed it as well. The 22Mag really likes the Hornady 45Gn critical defense.

I have a 541S I drug out for our club match last weekend and flabbergasted a few who couldn't believe I had a wood stocked rifle......

The 22Mag and 541S both have Nightforce SHV 3-10's w/parallax adjustments. That scope makes for an excellent "killing" scope on a rimfire (and a whole bunch of other things as well).

The 580 series Remingtons are the birch-stocked, non-adjustable trigger, cheaper flat-finished version of the 541's. The tube-fed 582's are the best "feeding" of the 541/580 series IMO/IME, the 541/581 plastic mags are crap by comparison.

I wish Kimber would do a Montana in 22LR/17HM2 as well as 17HMR/22Mag and tube feed it up the rear like a Nylon 66/Winchester 63/Browning BA-22.

Yep , a good feeling rifle that handles somewhat like a centerfire
Mine was so so accurate , sent it to that guy that used to be touted as grand poo ba of accurizing the.77’s shot worse when I got back
Pissed and mosned about it and Bill Meyers told me to let him have it
He installed a Walter lother barrel , spelling ? With a super tight fit of the barrel shank to the receiver and a set screw in top of receiver
Holy chit ! It would flat hammer with eley ammo
Me and nephew used to shoot IR50/50 targets and then put the empty cases in bullet holes with cartridge head toward us and see who missed first at 50yds
Often getting as high as twenty couple shots before one of us missed
We even shot flys at 50 yds , there would be a bloody hole in target with legs around hole
Thng was awsume , unfortunately it was one of several guns that got stolen
Kenneth

I've had my 77/22 RS since 1986, great little rifle, no plans to let it go.

It was lightly used, found out it needed a replacement firing pin (was getting about 20% fail to fires, probably why it was being sold). Took it to a smith for a new pin and minor trigger job, been flawless since.

A pretty good reason they've gotten so expensive I reckon, a premium & dependable piece of kit.

My AW with sights & rings has been approved here to be part of an elite & trusted group of firearms I'd take if I moved off the grid to the middle of nowhere. Not just any firearm or platform is considered acceptable for that.

Yes, in condition similar to mine, they are bringing over a thousand dollars now.

We should get Rick to give us a rimfire sub forum

When I left this thread about 4 minutes ago I said to myself: & here comes Paul in 5... 4... 3

77/22' swere both my "old" boys first .22's, one walnut and blue, the other stainless boat paddle. They were a great combination of "nice", good performance and reasonable price.

I bought one just like yours TRH in mid 80's. Put a 8X Leupold on it and still use it often. Hundreds of squirrels have hit the ground with it, and I would only take head shots. Great gun.

Especially if I were using something better than bulk packed Remington Thunderbolt, which is designed for informal plinking.

I was not aware of that, but I've never owned a 10/22 (yet)...

I also have a 541 - outshoots every other rimfire I've owned, including Kimber, CZ, Browning and Ruger.

50 yds dealing with wind gusts:

You have made it clear in the past that you don't like sub-forums because you don't get the attention you want in them.

Yeah, I'm sure I said that.

Could it be I said something along the lines of "The main forum is viewed by more members and thus generates more discussion?"

Picked mine up decades back when my 10/22's were doing nice patterns. Had to shim the bolt on mine (like 0.007"), but it does well with the old Win Power Points and bit better with the high-end target stuff. It's an easy trigger to tone down as well. Only so so with cheaper fodder as one gets fliers that are well beyond shooter error. Fortunately, I have 7 or 8 bricks of Power Points left, as I've not seen any on the shelves in years. Over the years its impressed lot of folks out in our Belding Ground Squirrel fields.

We have a pair of them…..both SS with Laminate stock! I installed Gentry triggers in both…..as the factory trigger pull was “beyond” bad!

They are pretty darn impressive with their ability to shoot the “bulk bucket” type ammo! memtb

The 77/17 HMR is where it's at.... and the 17 mocker is no slouch, either.

I just got through doing the same with my 77/22. Bought it new in '94 and haven't really shot it much in the past couple of decades. Some friends of mine have gotten into the 22rf matches around here and are spending big bucks on rifles, scopes, and match ammo. Well, I ain't gonna spend that kinda of money on a 22, but I did want to see how my 77/22 stacked up against what they were doing. I started out with Federal milk carton bulk ammo that is likely comparable with the Remington you are shooting. My results were about the same...most shots landing in a nice cluster with 1 to 3 fliers opening the group. I was using the old Pentax rimfire scope that has been on it for many years.

My friends told me I could get better results with very few fliers just by getting better ammo. Because I really wanted to see what the old boy would do, I bought a brick of moderately priced SK Standard Plus to try. I also mounted a GPO 4X16X44i scope that I'd just bought for a Model 7 Remington but had not gotten around to installing. The weather said Monday morning was going to be very calm wind-wise, so I went over to my range and shot it a pretty good bit. Three 25 yd groups averaged exactly 0.25", four 50 yd groups averaged 0.64", and six 100 yd groups averaged 1.31". All groups were 5 shot. There were no fliers in the 25 and 50 yd groups, but the 100 yd groups were hard to understand. Two of them were right at 0.85" and the other 4 were all around 1.5" but still no glaring fliers.

All in all, I'm tickled with the results. The 77/22 is not a target rifle, but it will hold it's own under most circumstances. Try some quality ammo in yours, it will give you a new appreciation for it. My main problem now is that I don't want to go back to bulk ammo and a rimfire scope.....

My next range trip with it will be with some CCI Mini Mags. Should be more consistent.