Ruger 77/50 barrel

Never got to use my muzzleloader last year because I filled all of my tags during our regular bow season so I let my brother take it out. He missed a deer with it and said that he cleaned it and oiled it when done. By clean and oil apparently he meant wiping it with a reminder oil rag and throwing it in his porch closet. I picked it up the other day planning to try my Lee c430-310 bullets in some sabots. Much to my surprise the "cleaned" rifle now has a pitted barrel. Anyone know where I can find a new barrel for a 77/50? I tried Ruger but they don't stock parts for these anymore. Any of you guys ever rebarrel a muzzle loader? I'm thinking I may be able to find a cheapo break action, cut off the breech end, thread the barrel, cut the threads for my breech. I hope anyways. I looked for about 2 years for a very good specimen and really loved the rifle.

If the barrel is really NG, try contacting Bob Hoyt 717-642-6696 to check out getting it relined. He's done a lot of good work for N-SSA (North South Skirmish Assoc.) people. Call early mornings or evenings. Let the phone ring. Good luck.
Bob

In the meantime I would continue looking, one is bound to turn up eventually.
Keep searching the internet on a regular basis and checking all of the gun auction sites that you can find.

I can find the whole rifle but not having luck with just the barrel. What would you say minimum barrel length for a muzzle loader should be. This was 22: from the factory but I may go a little shorter. I like how light and handy it is. Especially compared to my 13lb 26" barreled 700 in 260 rem.

Have you tried calling McGowen? They make ML barrels for the Savage MLII guns, perhaps they also will make one for the Ruger. Might end up pretty close to a used ML in cost though.

I don't think that there are very many .50 cal. inline muzzle loaders with barrels under 22".

If you can replace the rifle, then experiment with a lighter profile barrel on your old gun,
shorten the barrel by only 1 inch, or keep/sell it for parts.

You can change the caliber and/or rate of twist on your old gun with another barrel or barrel work.
it can be lathed down to shave off some weight and turned into an "ultra lite".
If you turned it into a round ball gun or a small game type of rifle, it could be a highly desirable modification for some people.
Those are just some examples.

Or as suggested call Bob Hoyt /fast /reasonable /and makes great shooters out of trashed barrels (REALLY)

If my brother did that to one of my guns, a good solid punch to his nose and upper lip would make me feel a bit better :)

My younger brother is a 3rd don black belt. I don't punch him any more.

It's the same action (almost) as any other Ruger pistol caliber model 77. Any decent gunsmith can fit a barrel to it. Green Mountain make 50 Cal barrel blanks as do lots of other barrel makers. It's really not a big deal and you could even change the caliber or twist rate if you so desired. The only difference is threading it for the breechplug instead of cutting a chamber.