Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Question on Tang Safety Rugers

CLB, I prefer the tang safety M77s to the later Rugers for a few reasons.

1) Convenience of the tang safety.
2) Barrel and action finish...love that deep blue.
3) Great looking wood and finish.
4) Un-common cartridges

Owned 23 M77s.

Have the rifles required tweaking for accuracy? Yes, but not all.
Have some of the rifles been sent to Ruger for inspection and rework? Yes, one.
Did I have a rifle with a lousy barrel? No.
Were some of the hunting rifles exceptionaly accurate. Yes, five.

Currently own 7 tang safety M77s. Are they for sale? No.

I have 3 tang safety Rugers in 257 Roberts
2 Ultra Lights, and a regular M77R, they all shoot great.
I shoot 100 grain Partitions in Ultra Lights, and 115 grain Ballistic Tips in the M-77R.

I have owned a number of tang-safety Rugers 77's, and even though the Mark II's are good rifles, a little more consistently and consistently light, I still tend to prefer the original.

Only one of them had a bad barrel. This was a 7x57 that really sucked, to put it mildly. It would shoot into 1-1/2" or so for the first few shots, then would spray them. I finally slugged the barrel and found that the TIGHT spots measured .287"--and there were several loose spots. I had it rebarreled.

The others have all shot pretty darn well. Right now I have a .220 Swift sporter that will shoot five shots of about any 50-55 grain bullet into 3/4" or less. My first tang-safety was a .30-06 that would be three of just about any bullet into an inch, and some loads around 1/2".

One of the the things that ruined the accuracy of many tang safety Rugers is the magazine box pushing up on the center of the action. Free float the magazine box and only have the center screw fingernail tight.

I always managed to get the triggers down to a very light weight(1 lb) on the tang safety Rugers.

If you got your ruger tang safety to shoot less than 1/2" groups day in and day out with out freefloating the mag box and having a loose center screw, consider it an act of God.

First centerfire was a tang in .270, shot patterns of 3-4 inches but it managed to kill alot of stuff for me. I got an itch for elk and was convinced they were bullet proof so I Pacnor rebarreled to a .35 whelen. Super smooth action and a great trigger that is easy to adjust. I have kick myself I did not just rebarrel to another .270.

With the lug in the action I have seriously considered making it a switch barrel, .270 and a .35Whelen would cover a lot of ground.

Thanks for the information so far guys. I'll be adding one or two tangs to the mix soon. I really want one in 257 Roberts and I have my eye on a fine looking Tang in .270 win also.

I'm keeping my eye out for some good looking wood patterns as I'd like to keep them in the original stocks and simply float the barrel and do a bedding and trigger job.

There is still one Ultralight stock left for a short-action tang-safety Ruger (http://www.mcmillanusa.com/mcmillan-specials-ruger.php). I just received my Ruger 284Win back from McMillan with the next-to-last ultralight stock.

I'm curious as to the type of bedding pillar used in your Ultralight stock. Did you install the notched Brownells bedding pillar (http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=357/Product/RUGER_reg__77_M77_reg__MARK_II_BEDDING_PILLARS) on the angled action screw?

I have one in 25-06. Bought it brand new when I was a sophmore in high school, w/ money made cutting firewood. It's got the heavier taper barrel on it, so it tends to not go on longer hunts w/ me, but I did pack it into the high country one year when my dad got his Bighorn tag. Shoots just about everything I've tried in it under an inch, and will stack 100gr NBT's into 3/8", according to the old target I have here in my notebook.
I also have an older 22-250 that has seen who know's how many owners, but it still shoots good and spends a lot of time bumping around in my truck waiting for a stupid coyote to cross my path.

PJF,

I talked to McMillan several years ago and they said they quit making the ultralight. Wonder where that one came from?

The first ultralight I bought was custom inletted to my 284. I dropped off the rifle and later picked up the package. They recommended that I wouldn't need to bed the rifle. It has been 16 yrs now and it still shoots great without any bedding.

The second ultralight ( 338 RCM) was bedded with 1 1/2" of barrel shank included in bedding but no pillars were used.

I just talked with McMillan, and they found the stock in inventory.
You're correct they no longer make that stock.
It's on it's way to my home as we speak. :-)
Thanks for the heads up on it PJF.

Wildcat composites also offer stocks for the tang safetys and will go as light as the Mcmillan edge.

Just looked at Wildcat Composites website. No mention of tang safety versions only Mark I.

http://www.wildcatcomposites.com/ruger.html

the bottom rifle in that link is a tang safety.

The .30-06 I bought in 1980 was a 4 MOA rifle. My friends .243 was about the same.

While McMillan discontinued production of the Ruger M77 Ultralight stock years ago, they continued to keep an inventory of them. I purchased my Ultralight last year and apparently �Bitman� just purchased the last one yesterday.

How many inch-pounds of torque do you apply to the action screws of your Ruger Winchester 284 in McMillan Ultralight stock?

I'm planning to take off the stock to see how well the action and pillars were glass-bedded. I need to know the torque values to replace the stock. Do you use the Ruger-recommended 95 inch-pounds of torque for the diagonal screw?

I currently own 3 tang-safety M77s: M77R in 7x57, M77ST in 7x57, and M77RS in 35 Whelen. I have owned many others in other calibers. I also currently own M77MkIIs in 7x57 and 6.5x55. The most accurate rifle I ever shot was a box stock M77R in 243. They are excellent rifles, but there are a few things I would have done differently were I making the decisions at Ruger. These are:

- One-piece bottom metal instead of two-piece;
- Two action screws instead of three;
- Better trigger release;
- Better forend-barrel bedding.

For many years Ruger M77 rifles were less expensive to buy than Remington, Winchester, and some others. They were and are a lot of rifle for the money. I was the first in my neighborhood to own and shoot Rugers. Some guys don't like the idea of a cast receiver and other parts, thinking they can't possibly be as strong as forged parts, but the Ruger rifles have been proven to be rock-solid.

Have they?

I've certianly never had any strength or reliability problems with the Ruger rifles I own, and I don't recall hearing anything either except for accuracy issues.

I bought my Ruger M77 Ultralight .30-06 new in the mid-80's. I always took it on my Colorado elk hunting trips, and it produced six elk kills and the same number of mule deer without ever losing an animal. Every year, however, in pre-season shooting practice the groups would get bigger and bigger, out to about 4", and I was losing confidence in the rifle. I even swapped it for a heavy, much longer Sako one year, and was totally dissatisfied with its carrying qualities. After missing the last two Colorado hunting seasons due to knee problems and subsequently having both knees replaced, I decided to use or dispose of the Ruger this year. To start, I had the gunsmith lighten the trigger and install a Limbsaver recoil pad. Next, I purchased some of the new Wipeout barrel cleaning foam, and following the directions, found that the rifle had a tremendous amount of copper fouling which I eliminated. I purchased some of the Federal Fusion 165 gr.loads which had gotten excellent reviews and shot them this week along with my handloads. Eureka!!, the first sub MOA groups, and these with the Federal factory loads. I figure I'm now ready to go to Colorado four weeks from today with renewed confidence in my old rifle friend.