Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger 77 MK1 questions

If it's what you want, and it's what you believe in -- then it's what you should buy...

Dennis

If you can't unload a gun with the safety off without shooting yourself in the foot then you shouldn't have a gun..

Amen to that

My dad has a 1897 Winchester and they never even thought about a safety for those. Its all between the ears.

On the gun this one had a red pad, the bolt was workable with the safety on, it appeared to not have ever had any major working over, and it seemed to have a nice trim stock relative to some of the later 77'S I've handled. It was most definitely not free floated and didn't appear to have been bedded. Which hopefully means its not somebody's ugly step child they tossed to the curb because they couldn't get it to shoot. I'm going to go tomorrow and offer $325 cash and see if they bite. If not I'll walk away The big gunshow at home is coming up in another couple months if all else fails.

Just some added info on the M77. In late 1984 at serial number 79-50000 a modification was made so the bolt could be opened while the safety was on.

Doesn't do anything for the first 16 years of production, but it's been that way for the last 25 years.

The bolt is workable with safety 'on', but did not have the safety warning on the barrel?

Oh and one other thing for the cold chamber dudes, why would you care if the bolt is locked if the chamber is cold? Never mind, don't want to start that topic this close to Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone...

If it's a pre-warning gun, i.e. manufactured prior to 1978, and the safety now allows the bolt to be operated while activated, it's quite possible the rifle was returned to Ruger for service in the past and was updated.

Was that a factory recall by any chance?

Nope. A previous owner may have returned it for whatever reason and Ruger, being the litigiously-sensitive organization they are, added the latest safety features.

Anybody know if this mod is esily reversable?? The .270 I referenced earlier is actually a red pad made in 1990. Would like it to function as a pre-warning if possible.

I just left the Ruger site and no recall for the tang safety is there, you're correct. I did e-mail to find what they would say....geez, the rifle is 37 years old!!

And still shoots 1/2" (yes, don't argue with me) 100 yards groups!!

Why?

Probably not easily.

+1 to "not easily."

Actually, it's not that difficult technically - if you have the parts but they were never available from Ruger. However, if you had say, a varmint rifle with the locking safety and a big game rifle without...

The tang safety rotates a link that's captured by a "tab" that rises through a slot in the receiver to fit into a groove on the bolt body locking the bolt closed. When Ruger changed over to the new system they simply replaced the tab and link to accept a "c" clip instead, with no tab to raise. But, they also stopped machining the slot in the receiver and at some point further in production, the groove in the bolt body. They simply didn't need them anymore.

So, if you had the parts you could swap them between rifles, providing you knew how to adjust the trigger fucntions, etc. The slot in the receiver could be made without too much trouble, but the kicker is the slot under the bolt root. If it's not there you are out of luck.

Same with the Rem. 700. They first removed the tab from the safety lever. Later, the slots went away. Depending on when your rifle was made, you could easily swap safety levers (provided you had one!) and have have the bolt lock again. Current production 700's are without the slots.

Flannelman �

You will be hard pressed to find a better tool than a good M77 Ruger with the slide safety.

As noted above there have been some problems with the barrels. Ruger outsourced the barrels for years until they bought a hammer forging machine and started making their own. That said, many barrels were just fine. There are three M77�s in my safe, a 1982 7mm RM, a 1984 .30-06 and a 1989 .257 Roberts. All shoot VERY well.

With regard to the trigger, the M77 triggers are easily worked on. A simple polishing job can help and a real trigger job can make them excellent. They are also easily replaced.

The safety �issue� is more a matter of preference than anything else.

Push Feed versus Controlled Round Feed is another preference issue. My M77 MKII�s are CRF, the M77�s PF. The CRF�s are nice at the range where I load rounds singly and use the CRF to extract the fired brass without flinging brass or using two hands. Hardly a big deal.

One thing I do to all my rifles is float the barrel, regardless of manufacturer. While this helps eliminate changes in POI due to changes in the stock due to temperature or humidity, it can � in theory � increase group size slightly. I�ve posted pictures of my Ruger targets often enough I won�t do so here, but will say that my slide safety M77�s have all shot sub-caliber 3-shot groups with handloads. Under an inch is common as dirt.

On the plus side you get a one-piece bolt and, IMHO, the strongest scope mounting system available. You also get a company that stands behind their products. While I�ve never sent a rifle back to Ruger, my hunting buddy and I have both sent revolvers back. Both revolvers were purchased used. His was an older three screwBalckhawk that was returned for the safety upgrade, mine had a bent basepin (the pin through the cylinder). In both cases Ruger made the repairs free of charge and even paid for the return shipping.

When it comes time to thin the herd, my slide-safety M77�s will likely be the last to go.

Ruger did/does have a trigger safety advisory for the M77 1968 to 1991.

http://www.ruger.com/pdf/m77.pdf

Because I prefer the bolt to be locked when the rifle is on safe. From the sound of responses it appears as if the mod is dependent both on the receiver configuration and availability of old parts. Thanks yall.