It's been over 30 years since I had a Ruger bolt action rifle. The last one was a heavy barrel .25-06 that wouldn't group under 2" to save my life. That made me very wary when hitting the "buy it now" on this one. So how come nobody over the past 30 years told me they were this good? (or someone probably did and I just wasn't listening )

Have had the lefty SS short action Model 77 .308 for a few weeks now, long enough to get to know it. By all accounts I shouldn't like it as much as I do.

That stock is just weird. Why couldn't they put a normal salt and pepper laminate on it instead of this funky green-black-brown combo? But after living with it a while the combination is becoming "interesting".

The forearm shape is great but the pistol grip is all wrong for me - too flat on the sides, no swell at the bottom at all, too short, yada, yada. The rifle is heavy - just 2 ounces shy of 8 pounds with the Ruger rings and a Leupold VX-II 3-9X40. It could probably shed about 2 pounds with someone else's rings. But the weight keeps the recoil down and helps it hold steady, and even at 8 pounds it balances very well so it doesn't feel overly heavy.

But the main thing is - it shoots. Boy, does it shoot! Had it glass bedded and free floated and the smith worked on the trigger so it breaks really cleanly at a very consistent 3 pounds. the action is smoothing up and I've figured out I have to put a tad downward pressure on the bolt handle to keep it from binding.

The proof is in the pictures. Both groups below are the load it loves, Winchester cases, Fed 210, 47.5 grs. RL-15 and a Hornady 150 Spire Point seated .030" off the lands. It averages 2817 fps which is just perfect, it can take more without strain but I like it right where it is.

Two weeks ago working up loads - 7 shots, blustery windy day, wind shifting from 8 to 12 o'clock and gusting from from 2-3 to 15 mph. The flyer is my fault but those other 6 went into .570"



Today - another cold and windy day but it was steady at 9 o'clock and a pretty constant 15 mph. These were for sight-in, three shots into .404". two of those shots are right on top of each other.



And here it is. The ringer was the result of practice this morning, all shots at 200 yards, most from kneeling with a few from offhand. You can see the wind pushed most shots to the 3 o'clock side but the weight and steadiness of the rifle was a real help.


(Just noticed but that stock does camouflage nicely against my muddy ol' weedy back yard.)

To say I like this rifle is an understatement. Despite all the stuff that's "wrong" about it I really, really like it.

Damned if I'm not having a heck of time deciding whether to get another one. Don't need another .308, got two already so it'd have to be a rebarrel, but I'm thinking with that 2.9" magazine box I could be the first kid on my block with a left hand, stainless steel short action M77 in .257 Roberts. Somebody please talk me out of this...

I'd do it if I was you and had your money.

Nice looking rifle. I'm really sold on these newer Rugers. The one's I've had even from a few years back all shoot. Can't imagine someone not having two or three.

Good shootin'. It is clear you got that Ruger performing well and your enthusiasm is not lost on those of us who own Ruger 77s that do the same. Like your idea of a .257 Bob.

I own a LH SS laminate hawkeye in .270 win, .25-06 and .300 win mag. I almost jumped on the limited run of .308's but I'm tapped out on funds right now.

They are definitely good shooters. I bedded the 25-06 and will eventually bed the other 2, although I'm not sure they need it. I need trigger work on 2 of them, the .270 is perfect as-is.

For the most part, I think since Ruger started making their own barrels ( in the early nineties I think ) accuracy has been a lot better. They won't compete on the lightweight circuit, but they are tough as nails. I like the few that I have.

Most of the Ruger's I have is their Target rifle version and they sure enough are shooters. Haven't had a bad one yet.

They's good rifles. Have a few myself and all shoot more than well enough. Some ridiculously well.

Very nice rifle w/ extraordinary results! I really like the color of that stock, personally.

Sounds like a great idea on the Bob! Do it up!

its the result of cold hammer forging.

All of my LH Ruger,s SS shoot well. Some better than others take a little to get them just right, and they all need to be bedded IMHO. I prefer the LH SS MK 2 06 to a LH SS Win 70 06 I owned.

You've already got one of those All Weather Hawkeye's in 308 so you know what he's talking about..... . You probably already sold it off though didn't you.......

Very nice rifle and very nice shooting... I've got a righty SS/walnut 308 Hawkeye that does the same thing...........great rifles. I got rid of a new winchester model 70 fwt 308 and kept the hawkeye if that tells you something....About time you listened up......

No he doesn't.



Yes he did.

Dan Dan Dan,,,,,what are we going to do with you.... I like all of my Rugers, they are the work rifles in the family...... . Even the tang safety 300 win mag was shooting awesome yesterday.......

I wont be without one.

Please tell me you still have your pre 64 300 winny....

Go for the 257 Roberts. I bought a M77 tang safety recently and it shots great with my reloads of 100 gr Sierra PH's and IMR 3031 (right our of the Sierra Manual). I didn't really need this rifle but I got a good deal so I bought it or at least thats what I told my wife when she saw it hidden in the back of my car.

Ruger's accuracy definitely improved when they started making their own barrels.

An article in Precision Shooting a few years back, said the Ruger barrels are made on exactly the same hammer forging machinery used by Remington and Winchester.The machinery is "one source",out of Germany and there are not many in the US,although that might have changed by now.

Pretty fond of the MKII boat paddle model I have, I've handled a few of the new stainless laminate ones and liked them a lot. A lot of rifle for the money. Hope to add s few more to the spafe over the years.

"Things that make you go Hmmmm"...right there....

I've not had a bad Ruger myself. They are a good rifle from a great company, IMO.

However, I prefer to spend my time with others.

Jim, some of us have been telling you for years they are very good rifles, but you were not listening.

I really like the look of that gun too. It sure does shoot great, my LH 375 Ruger sure shoots well too.

Do they put good triggers in them now?

I don't consider an 8lb scoped rifle as being heavy. I am actually surprised your Ruger came in that light.

That would be a great rifle; you should do it. Just be warned that I have a LH blued Hawkeye in .260 Rem, so you wouldn't be the first if you went that way. Sorry.

Remington and winchester dont use CHF barrels that I am aware of. Maybe on 22's which is how ruger got started using them. The 10-22T madel had Steyr bbl.
Ruger owns thier machine. bought it in '93 I think, used from CZ when they upgraded. It cost ruger something like 9 million.
Think about the difference between a Japanese tanto and a CSA calvary saber. The hammering. the folding. The temering.
You cant take a piece of tubed carbon steel and drag a button thru it and get the same exact dimensions each time like you can hammering steel over a carbide mandrel.

I have been shooting Steyr's , almost exclusivly, since my forst one in 1998. They amazed me and I started learning about the CHF prosses.
Steyr, SAKO, A zoli, Blaser, Tikka, CZ....
When you hear thosenames does inaccurate ever come to mind?
Ruger barrels are very good. very fine examples of CHF and more smooth off the machine than the best handlapped remington.
But their trigger SUCKS. The last ruger I bought, AND I MEAN THE LAST, was a hawkeye SS.
I shot it beside a 1942 bring back, 100% factory configuaration K98 shooting Nazi stamped ammo.
The out shot the ruger by a large margin using iron sights against a burris 3-9 on the ruger.
The problem. The trigger was 75% the weight of the rifle. theres no way to pull 75% of the rifles weight in the trigger without disturbing sight picture.

here is the article the came out in PR mag...
Precision Shooting Magazine November 2005

The upper right hand group settled load development for my Ruger M77 SS 308. Came with a laminate stock but swapped Dad (Dave in WV) for a boat paddle one. Bolted it on and called this load the hunting one. 46.5gr of RL-15 and 150 gr Hornady SPs. R-P hulls and WLR primers.

Remington uses hammer forged barrels. And you're way off base about button rifled barrels. For example, a Douglas premium air gauge barrel has .0001", one ten thousandth, or less variation in diameter throughout its length.

Sorry to hear you had problems with your "last" Ruger due to a bad trigger (on a Hawkeye with the LC6 nonetheless).....but the trigger is one of the easiest things to fix on these rifles....Too bad they couldn't go back to the oldstyle adjustable trigger the M77R (tang safety) model had......My hawkeye 308 has a pretty sweet trigger after just replacing the spring and polishing the sear (I don't mean hone or file either, just polish)......Now the M77 MKII's had the worst triggers I've ever seen, you had to either hone to reduce sear engagement, change an angle or 2, polish, and change the spring or replace the whole unit to end up with a nice trigger..what a PITA they are......One thing about a Ruger M77 rifle though, is once you bed them, and refine the trigger they usually end up good shooters. My most recent cheap rifle find was an old tang safety model 77 (300 win mag) that I had cerekoted last week since I knew it was a good shooter (even though they are known to be inacurate sob's). I threw the scope back on the rifle (since I had the rings cerekoted too) and proceeded to check where the POI was so I could adjust the scope. With my last 5 cartridges I had loaded up from the last outing I let them fly and this is how the old girl did (180gr. winchester powerpoint load):



This is it after cerekoting:


The rifle is bedded with factory pressure point left in, trigger is great and action is slick as my winchester model 70's....Going back to the 308 Hawkeye like the OP first posted, mine shoots just as good as my 300 win mag tang safety shown above......maybe even a tad better

Yeah, Remington has been using hammer-forged barrels on their mass-production centerfires for years. The barrels on Rugers have been more consistent since they started making their own, but a lot of the barrels before then shot quite well too.

One thing I have noticed in the past few years is Ruger's barrels look like they've been lapped--not as much as a hand-lapped custom barrel, but enough to take remove some of the rougher spots. Or at least that's what they look like through my bore-scope. Some look absolutely perfect.

The triggers on the Mark II 77's and the slightly improved version on the Hawkeye may not be perfect out of the box, but they're really easy to fix. Even I can convert them to a safe, crisp 2-3 pound pull in about half an hour.

Usually any of the Ruger centerfire bolt-actions shoots better if the barrel's free-floated. I don't know why they don't just do that at the factory with all their models, but for some they don't.

A huntin' bud had that same experience with his new M77V in that cartridge, about 15-20 years ago. Finally gave up and had it rebarreled in 6mm-06. While I've seen a few tang safety M77s that weren't all that great, mine in 25-06 gets it done, but it took a few different loads to get it there. It loves 100gr Btips over 54grs of IMR 4831, just like all of my other 25-06s.

My impression over the last few years at our club's ranges, is that most are tickled with their new Rugers.

YEP

Some joker put the bolt handle on the wrong side of an otherwise very useful rifle.

Here's a neat little three shot, 100 yd. group shot out of my Ruger Hawkeye African 375 Ruger, with 300 gr. Barnes TSX bullets.

Well within 'minute of buffalo' accuracy.......

Never seen one of those. IMO it looks good, a lot better than the description of it. Nothing wrong with the way it shoots either.

I arranged for the FFL transfer on one of these today- now I just need to heal up from the two back surgeries I got the last two weeks in a row. I can't wait to get this Ruger tuned up; it's the first left bolt I've treated myself to.

There are still four left, if anyone (including Jim getting his second one) is interested.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=283682719

Awfully damn tempting...If I hadn't just bought a 45 i've been wanting for so long, I'd probably be all over one of those.

You still missing the orange dot mate!!!!

gus

Hey ol buddy. Yep, that's where it shot after I threw the scope back in the rings after the rifle and rings were cerekoted.....I'll try to tear up some orange for you this weekend at the rimfire competition I'm going to....wish me luck....

Hope you will like yours as much as I'm liking mine.

I've had that ad on "Watch This" for a while now. Still making up my mind - today it's about 70/30 in favor of getting another one.

Yours is nice Jim......you snagged a dang good one there....

Mate it looks great....... I still have my Hawkeye with the Hogue stock - is a tad heavy but shoots great out of the truck over a rest.

Gus

Update.

Went out yesterday working up some target loads with Sierra 125 grain Spitzers and IMR4895. 4 shot groups at 44, 45 and 46 grains, all very mild loads.

The morning was chilly and windy (gee, windy in Idaho in the spring - go figure!) but 46.0 grains shot the group shown below. That flyer is my signature, it wouldn't be a "Genuine Jim in Idaho" group without one $%&#! flyer. But three of those four shots went into .238", that's under 1/4 MOA. From a .308 sporter weight Ruger factory rifle and barrel. The other groups aren't quite as bug holey impressive but I sure wasn't unhappy with any of them.

Anyway - the rifle's performance yesterday finally knocked me off the fence. I went home and hit Buy It Now on a second one.

If I can resist shooting the donor the next great decision process will begin - .257 Roberts, .243 AI or something really exotic? I want to take advantage of the longer mag box so the front runners right now are the .257 Bob or a 6mm Remington, but that could change in five minutes.




Not trying to tempt anybody but he still has 4 left. Just sayin'...

6mm Rem - what a great little cartridge!

Go for it...

Lookin good, love it when the ol Ruger m77's shoot....Makes a lot of guys with high standards (not going to mention anyone ), realize maybe it was them and not their rifles with the deficiency problem.........I'd go with the 6mm rem too since I've been having a lot of fun with mine.....Great little round....

Are there any left? On Gun broker they say they are out, E mailed seller. Can,t let Jim corner the market.

I just read this whole thread. Didn't notice anyone mention this. Don't y'all remember the Winchester WinCam stocks?

I have a 12 ga & 9422M with the Win WinCam stocks.

They do CAMO very well.

Supposedly he has 4 left. This listing started with 5 but I reduced it by one.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=286192816

I'm a little curious whether this seller got some more in or what. He had a 12 day fixed price auction with five listed. I watched it as it came to a close Thursday night and he had sold three leaving two showing. Then Friday he re-listed with five again. I got one. Once you buy one of these fixed price Dutch auction deals they start a new listing with a different auction number.

His ad comes across as him being kind of demanding - "do it my way or piss off" - (I'm reminded of Bricktop) and his email reasponses are short and curt, but on the phone he was okay and was perfectly willing to read off the serial numbers he had so I could pick the one I wanted.

Some of us have been touting them for some time, got quite a bit of flack about it too.
I was checking the POI of a couple rifles this weekend, and dug out the old M77 Tang Saftey 250 Savage that I hadn't shot in a while. I had some 87 TNTs loaded with Big Game that I'd been wanting to sight it for. First 3 shot group out the gate went into a tight cluster, adjusted the scope as it started sprinkling rain and got everything put up. Really need to shoot that one some more, but that first group was under half an inch! Does real well with 75 Sierras, just wish it would do better with 100 grain deer bullets. I've worked and worked with different things, but always get flyers opening a group to 1 1/4" with the 100s.
I've got M77 MKIIs in 22-250 and 257 Roberts that are well below MOA and really like the looks of the MKIIs and Hawkeyes.
The only thing I have to complain about them is the weight. Nearly 9 pounds all up for these small caliber rifles seams more than a bit pudgy. Hear the Hawkeyes have dropped a half pound or so.

And now there are 3 left

Finally I can say I'm a ruger fan and know I am not alone!

Did someone say, "Camoflage"?

AFAIK Winchester brought this design out first. No big deal if NOT. Regardless I like it and have 2 and have looked for another of a particular caliber.





Sorry the second pic is a little blurry. I didn't have time to take other pics and choose.

Also where I live, I try to AVOID being seen OUTSIDE w/firearms.

Thank you! Did you tell him that Jim in Idaho sent you? I'm working on commission...

No. but getting more of the LH Ruger (Initial Public Offering) IPO
stock is getting expensive. But I waited a few days for the price to drop!

Now need to unload some RH rifles and a few LH.

I've been fiddling with a acquaintance's new Ruger rifle in 308 Winchester. Before any shooting, I pushed a couple of patches wet with Butch's through the bore. After a dry patch, I gave it a dozen strokes with a bronze brush loaded with Ballistol. After a couple of dry patches it was off to the range.

Twenty rounds of Remington match ammo were fired in the course of showing J the ropes about scope mounting, bore sighting, dialing for zero, dialing for distance, and helping a newbie to centerfires have a blast banging the 300 yard gong his first time out.

Last night I used Montana X-treme to patch/soak the bore. There was not a single hint of blue on any of the patches, including after an overnight soak.

I realize that's after only twenty shots, but I believe it to be an nice result from a brand new mass produced barrel. I don't have a bore scope to look inside, but as old Forrest might say in this situation: Smooth is as smooth does.

I haven't had a good one yet. You had to have all that work done to get it to shoot?????

I took a chance and bought an M77 Hawkeye in a 358 Win and I'm glad I did. It is a shooter and has become one of my primary rifles for hogs and deer and is my go to woods rifle for elk. It is one fun rifle to carry.

Nice shooting, but I noticed a few problems. First the bolt is on the wrong side; second its not a Remington.

All the carping people do about Rugers sometimes make me think I'm very lucky - every one I've purchased is a shooter. The best is my .22-250 VT, which has put 4 into .5" at 200 yards. But the others aren't bad...

My favorite rifle, a used M77 in .257 Roberts:


An even older 1982 M77 in 7mmRM, shot in winds gusting over 40MPH:


Here's a 2-shot scope check from a 1984 M77 .30-06:


And one from my MKII in .338WM built on a 1994 receiver with a used, factory barrel:


And this, fired from a 2003 MKII with an oiled bore, in .300WM:


Keep them I will.

You should play the lotto.

My fathers 6mm rem tang safety shoots like that with plain rem corelokts. He is always saying he would have rather had a 243, but with those groups can't justify changing.

I have been looking for a shooter .308 and this one fits the bill. It is at the top of my want list and you just made it worse. I love the bead blasted finish, the heavier dimensions, and I could get used to the color but it's a laminated stock so Oregon won't hurt it much.

We often load up the quads and head out in to the bush for our shooting sessions - so weather proof or as close as you can get to it is always a good thing. Hence my affliction to laminated stocks.

I have a sizable collection of wood stocked guns that all have been weatherized but new innovation turns my crank. I just love the concept of this rifle. It will do anything asked for my philosophy of use.

For me i will use it year round and one can reload for it in all kinds of directions, gotta love the .308 .

I want one, bad. Ahhh what can I sell ???

Do you not find it strange that the only gun you can get to shoot is a Rem

I have an opinion as to what your problem is