Any Ruger experts here. Is this rifle a m77 ultra light?
Check out what I found on GunBroker.com! https://www.gunbroker.com/item/829062047

looks to be.

Tang safety M77 UL.
I have one just like it.

Neil

Yep. That’s the only Rifle I’ve had in .308.

GREAT woods Rifle or rough terrain Rifle. Light, well balanced, mine shot very good.

Jerry

A 7/08 MKII Target Grey UL in walnut looks good....

There's a place I hunt where I usually borrow an ultralight tanger in 308. Great little rifle in the deer stand.

Absolutely a Ruger UL. Easiest way to tell. On a Ruger standard barrel, the caliber designation is stamped on the barrel shank. On the Ruger UL, the barrel shank is shorter than a standard barrel shank so the caliber designation is stamped on the barrel, about 3-4" forward of the shank. See picture 22.

Barrels can be cut and UL stocks added, but if the caliber stamp is on the shank it started life as a standard M77.

I see that Ruger made UL with the tang safety’s and the newer Mauser type bolt safety’s like the one’s on the Ruger MKII’s. Is one better or preferred over another ?

Old thread....but curious if the UL barrel contour is the same as a standard. I figured they were lighter, but the post a few up about cutting barrels had me wondering.

UL profile is thinner

Never seen an UL in target gray. Love that!

Me neither, That's a sharp rifle.

Patrick Swayze used a 308 Ruger UL in the flic Red Dawn. It was one of the rifles they took from the sporting goods store. The communist executed the store owner for letting them have it.
Director and co screen writer John Millius intentionally wrote the scene in to show how the yellow forms could be used against Americans.

Any preferred one?

I had a M77 Ultralight in 308 and it was the most miserably recoiling gun I've ever owned.
It got sent down the river.

I prefer the tang M77s over the later versions. I have 2 M77 RLs, as the ultralights were designated, one in 308 and one in 257 Rob. Both shoot right at an inch for 3 shoots, but more importantly, both put the first cold shot exactly where expected. Those thin barrels heat up fast and after three rounds, groups start spreading like a woman with no virtue. Never noticed the 308 to be unpleasant.

Let me know when you wish to send that one down the road. My favorite caliber in my favorite brand rifle.

My favorite is the tang safety RLS (Rifle, Lightweight, Sights).

Jim, I was offered a sum I couldn't refuse last fall. I loaned it to one of the hunters and he killed a nice goat at just over 400 yards with it. He missed several with his rifle, so I let him use it. The rest is history.......

Huntsman I didn’t think there would be a sum one couldn’t refuse on a rifle like that.

The RL(=UL), RLS, Frontier, Compact and RSI all share the same thinner contour with a shorter shank. I greatly prefer this contour. I like taking the stainless RSI rifles and dropping them in a synthetic RL stock to make a version that would look like a stainless RLS. I wish that Ruger would make them. Even better if they did one in .358W.

I had a MKII RL in .243 that was an excellent rifle. I still regret selling it.

Now I am on the hunt for a stainless Hawkeye RL in .223


This is a .308 that was a Lipseys RSI before I swapped stocks and now is one of my favorite treestand/brush guns.

I like

haverluk, that sounds interesting. Could you tell me where you source stocks for a 77RL?

Direct from Ruger. They go for like $70 with shipping

They are great little rifles. I have two (tang safety .250 and a MKII .308) and bought a third a year back but ended up rebarreling it with a 23 inch standard Ruger contour barrel. I have small hands and really like the thinned down stocks. The Hawkeye timber stocks also fit me better than the M77 and MKII stocks.

Have a tang safety one in 30-06 I used for deer hunting this year. It's a perfectly sized rifle for a small box blind, and light enough you can carry it all day and not be bothered.

Good info. Thx for sharing.

I have hunted with a 270. They are WORTH it.

I bought a tang safety ultralight in 6mm Rem for my son. I love the way it handles and the action is super slick, but it is very picky as to what it will shoot. Even with what it likes, it seems to want to be very clean (like needing to scrub the barrel after 10-15 shot if you want it to keep shooting good). Otherwise, it will put anything into 2.5" @ 100. I won't get rid of it. My boy has killed several deer with it. I thought about having a new barrel put on it and might at some point.