Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing What would you do?

I have a Ruger M77 MkII in .260 Remington with a walnut stock. I'm considering removing the pressure point and glass-bedding it to free-float the barrel. It shoots okay as is - 1 1/2" groups at 100 yds, but I swapped it out into a Hogue Overmold with aluminum pillars that free float the barrel and it shot better, less finicky and the good loads were MOA or better. What would you do in this situation?

Free float and glass bed. You might want to get the action pillar bedded first though.

Do it.

While you are at it, Piller Bed the wood stock.

I am sure that you are aware that some of these M77 Mark II's--WILL NOT SHOOT- without the pressure point. Spent a lot of time and money on a 7mm mag stainless, only to end up going back into an original configuration stock-- just to achieve an 1 1/2" group. Guess maybe thats why most of "go to guns" are made by Weatherby or Sako. Not knocking the Rugers--got a bunch of them, just don't think they are the format to build a tack driver on. IMHO.

I'll second that. Just do it. Your initial test at free floating showed marked improvement over a pressure point so it seems to be a no brainer. A true rifle looney would do it. You don't have a hair on your ass if ya don't... (that ought to do it)

Might think about keeping it in the Houge stock...

Not telling you what to do. But what would I do?

- First, I'd not automatically assume that the rifle responded well to losing the barrel pressure point, I'd consider it may have responded well because the Hogue pillars eliminated any binding caused by the wood stock at the receiver when torqued.

- Second, I'd consider that the rifle may respond even better with having a non-binding receiver fit to the stock when torqued in combination with a barrel pressure point.

- Third, what I know is that a standard Ruger walnut stock has a very flimsy forend w/out a pressure point that may create all sorts of issues if floated incorrectly. Therefore, I like to isolate binding from the receiver in its stock inlet from the barrel pressure point to pin point what is truly yielding the best response. I want to confirm that the lack of this pressure pad is worthy of the float above and beyond proper action fit in the stock.

What do I do? Old school Ruger 101:

Find a torque setting that eliminates any binding of the mag box so that it does not act like a fulcrum. Use this as a test to see if binding is a problem. What torque? I have found that something in the neighborhood of 35in-lb on the front screw/25in-lb on the rear screw/15in-lb on the middle screw is about a snug as I can get on most factory CNC inelt Ruger wood stocks before binding starts. Some may go a bit higher, some need to go a bit lower. Once I confirm a stress free torque, put it on paper with the best load and see how she responds. Many have gone from pie plate to tiny groups with this alone. If this is the case, proper bedding of the action is my route.

If I see even more room for improvement, I use shim stock at the lug mortise area to temporarily relieve the barrel of the pressure point while using the same torque method to keep the action stress free. If she comes alive, well then proper bedding of the action in addition with floating the forend is my route. What I add to this equation is that I take the added steps of stiffening the forend with added material inletted into the channel. This eliminates the floppy forend when floated.

If I were to go this far on a walnut Ruger stock, I'd go ahead and eliminating the wood between the bottom metal and action at the action screws. I'd either make pillars from the bedding material with a pour, or I'd install aluminum pillars.

Back to the top, just about every match barrel I've worked with universally responded well to floating to some degree. But, not every factory barrel has responded well to floating to some degree. I've seen a number of factory barrels respond with greater consistency with a pressure point. In that case, you can go one step further and experiment with the amount of pressure measured in pounds that gives the best results.

That's what I'd do. Regardless what you do, at least you know you can fall back on the Hogue.

Best:)

Sounds like GaryVA has it all figured out.

First thing you will probably have to do is buy a good Craftsman Inch Lbs torque wrench and a driver bit to turn the screws.

Gary - where do you get Gunsmith blades for a torque wrench.

Isn't the screws on the gun different then a regular old machine screw? It was my understanding that you never use regular screw drivers on gun screws.

Duquensebeer
You may want to understand what you are talking about before replying...



No fair editing your post after replies there douchebeer.

Brownells


You don't use regular screwdrivers only so you don't dork up the screw slot. Mechanic's screwdrivers have a tapered blade. Gunsmithing screwdrivers have parallel sides.