Real world accuracy of Ruger tang safety rifles

[wch]

I had a 1976 M77 in .257 Roberts. Loved the gun, but just could not get it to group decently and finally sold it so it could be someone else's headache. Tried factory and several reloads with bullets from 87 to 120 grains, all of which put 5 shots in about 4" or worse at 100 yards. Finally settled on the old Nosler 120 gr. solid base bullet loaded out as long as possible and got it down to about 2.5" average for five shots. Don't recall the numbers exactly, but the chamber had a lot of freebore and the closer I could get to the lands the better, but never as good as I hoped since I wanted to use this for deer and varmints. Decided I just got unlucky and got one of Ruger's "bad barrels" and used the money for a Remington .35 Whelen. I'm very happy that I made the trade.

I, too, had one in 257 Roberts that was inaccurate, so I had a 'smith rechamber it to 257 Roberts AI, replaced the trigger with a Basix, and now it shoots very well with 100 gr Sirras seated out to max.

[Lloyd Smale]

the inaccuracy ive seen kind of runs by the calibers too. Just about every 257 rob, 757, 7 mag and 338 tang safety gun ive owned or shot stunk and every 280, 2506, 243 and 250 sav did just fine. Funny thing is that im sure ruger started with the same barrels when they put together 250s and 257s and the same barrels when they do 757s 7mags and 280s. All i can figure is theres got to be something wrong with the way there reamers they used then in those calibers or some drunk that set them up.

[softpoint]

I've owned a number of them over the years, too, and I gave up on them long before the current crop of their rifles were being made. I liked the "feel" of the 77's, smoothness of the actions, looks, But, while almost all of them were accurate enough to hunt with, they weren't very interesting in the accuracy department ,to say the least.
What I call a 1inch rifle and what others call it may be different, too. Before I give a rifle that endorsement, it has to shoot 20 rounds of ammo, in 5shot groups that average no more than 1 inch. And I own a number of rifles that just won't do that. That aside, however, like others, I suspected the barrel quality of the early Rugers. Most of my Remington 700's shoot well. Not all of them right out of the box, but of those that didn't, I could glass bed them and then they would shoot. Many 700's need to be bedded. Bedding just wouldn't fix the Rugers I had that wouldn't shoot.
Not every Ruger suffered this, I had a friend that had an early flatbolt Ruger in .22/250 that claimed his rifle would shoot an inch. That gun had a pencil thin barrel, too. I figured he was pulling my leg, so I told him to bring it over one day. We shot some loads that I developed for my Remington 40x in his Ruger. We shot 4, 5 shot groups very slowly out of the thin barrel that averaged 1 1/16 inch, with three of the groups going around 7/8inch and one group going a little over an inch. That is a rare Ruger in my experience.

[softpoint]

the inaccuracy ive seen kind of runs by the calibers too. Just about every 257 rob, 757, 7 mag and 338 tang safety gun ive owned or shot stunk and every 280, 2506, 243 and 250 sav did just fine. Funny thing is that im sure ruger started with the same barrels when they put together 250s and 257s and the same barrels when they do 757s 7mags and 280s. All i can figure is theres got to be something wrong with the way there reamers they used then in those calibers or some drunk that set them up.

My experience mirrors that, Lloyd, I will add that 77's in .220 Swift were usually pretty good. Doesn't make sense.

[TXGunNut]

I only have one M77 and the safety is on the bolt, suits this M70 fan just fine! It's a butt-ugly stainless/composite 30-06 and it needed a Timney trigger and several hours of bolt-cycling to make it useable. Stock was making way too much barrel contact for my way of thinking but I knew Rugers often liked a cozy, even snug fit. Added a decent scope and it was ready to go hunting. I bought it when a friend was closing up shop and I decided this NIB rifle would make a good rainy day hunting rifle. Most of my rifles stay cased up when the weather gets bad, this old girl keeps me from sittting around camp when the weather gets ugly.
Here's the funny part: it's quick-shouldering, has a smoth action, delightful trigger, and shoots five of my M70's favorite loads into 1.5 inches, oftentimes a bit less. It's a backup rifle that I don't mind uncasing, may not be much to look at but gets high marks for git-r-done.

[DougGuy]

I have a tang safety pre-warning M77 in .308 that I got at a flea market in Virginia many years ago, traded an old .45 auto for it. Took it to the range and fired it, it would group the size of a grapefruit at 50yds.. I thought hmmm.. Got some work to do..

Changed the scope, it went to a tennis ball at 50. Lapped the locking lugs and handloaded some 168gr boattails in fired brass, went to a golf ball at 50. Took the lump out of the end of the stock and free floated the barrel, went back to tennis ball at 50.

So I thought well, if free floating is worse, maybe it likes full bedding. I had read some articles about pillar bedding and how putting metal pillars through the stock for the tang screw and action screw had helped accuracy, I read about bedding the entire action, so I got adventurous one Sunday afternoon and grabbed the bull by the horns.

After using various burrs and dremel tools I had a pretty good area inletted everywhere, I cut some large x-acto handles down and bored through them, put some grooves around them, and fitted them where the screws went through the wooden stock. I used some modeling clay to fill in the holes and build up an area where the safety rod would move without interference, and made it where the entire action would be able to lift vertically out of the epoxy bedding free and easy once it was bedded.

The Brownell's steel bed kit with stainless particles proved to be a winner for this job. After using the releasing agent on the action and barrel, I honeycombed the wooden ledge behind the recoil lug with a drill bit and started there packing the bedding into those holes, then applying it everywhere. I put the action together with the pillars I had made, and gently lowered it down into the wet bedding, suspending the muzzle with an overhead hanger, and resting the buttstock on the bench I threaded the screws into the action and watched as the epoxy started pushing out.

Just before I tightened the screws all the way, I tied a 100rd box of .45 Long Colt ammo to the front sling swivel and cranked the screws tight. After I got the bedding all cleaned up and the rifle re assembled, the stock had a constant upward pressure on the barrel the full length of the bedded stock from weighting down the front with the box of ammo on the sling swivel. It worked like a charm.

I also lapped the scope rings and bedded them to the action.

Next trip to the range had it grouping golfball sized at 100yds, where I began trying different bullet styles and different powders. After a good 2 dozen combinations, it showed a preference for 180gr plain base over 41.5gr of H4895.

The last thing I did was assemble a dummy round and close the bolt on it, then I set the seating die for that dummy round, took it out and went a half turn on the seating die to give about .030" of freejump. That took the groups below 1/2" @100 yds.

Once I got that far with it, I would set aside brass that the bullet seated in hard, set aside the soft ones, set aside the ones where the crimp marks were close to the end, set aside any that the bolt was hard to close on and set aside the easy ones. Out of 100 loaded rounds, I came away with about 30 that are real consistent.

From those, and under actual hunting conditions, walking the woods, I was able to lay prone on the ground and shoot a group that I could cover with a guitar pick at 200yds. That might not seem like a lot for a benchrest shooter, but for a hunting rifle that gets used in the woods, carried up and down treestands, in and out of a vehicle, I will gladly accept that. I have had some shots well in excess of 300yds and was able to register hits within 1/2" of point of aim, and the rifle stays zeroed extremely well season after season.

[Kull]

My first rifle was a tang safety M77 in 243 I received for my 13th birthday, feather weight model, I still have it.

I have no idea how many rounds I've put down range over the years but the thing has always been accurate. Very accurate really for all the abuse I've put it through hunting, packing it around in the truck as a teenager, dropping it a few times, etc, etc. I've read the reports about poor quality barrels, and all the comments about how to go about fixing poor accuracy. I guess I got lucky because I've never felt the need to mess with any of that. In my mind more than likely any modifications I did would make it worse. Only thing I've done, and this was just recently, was put a rifle basix sear in it. The trigger has always been like glass but heavy at around 6 pounds. New sear dropped that to 2 1/4, same glassy feel. It does have a nice scope these days in lapped rings, and I always follow Rugers procedure for tightening down the stock bolts.

Real word accuracy? Other than hunting I shoot for fun out to a 420 yards, 450 yards at the most. I don't do any competition shooting, but I don't exactly suck with a rifle. My M77 243 is a 1 MOA rifle in my hands. Honestly I think its a hair better than that, just not in my hands.

[nicholst55]

I bought a tang safety M77 .308 in 1981, and must have lucked out. I had access to a lot of free ammo at the time, and I shot that gun a lot. It will group right at 3/4-1" for five shots consistently. I used that rifle to shoot a whole bunch of central Texas whitetails, and other stuff, too. I gave that rifle to my oldest son, and he's killed a number of deer with it, too.

[birch]

I had a tang safety .270 ultralight. It would shoot one inch groups of three and three only. If I tried to shoot more than three shots without a 10 minute rest, I would get vertical stringing in a bad way. I think the rifle was designed for long deer drives and for that it was perfect. However, I tend to do more target shooting than deer hunting and I could never get over the stringing. It was a very accurate gun for three shots! I wouldnt spend money to buy another, but I wish I had that thing back. I am sure its light weight will do me well when I have trouble walking to the truck someday.

[yotatrd4x4]

Well I meant to get back to yall sooner. I took the gun out with about 5 different loads I had made up for it with 3 different bullets and the best she would do was around 3.5 inches at 100. Barrel was full length bed so I tried to float it from about 2 inches in front of the chamber. No change in groups but point of impact was more consistent instead of walking up and down which I figured it would be. I re bed the rifle with Devcon plasti steel and no change. I tried a pressure point at the end of the forend and that seemed to make it worse. Anyway after all that messing around a friend of mine who loves tang safety rifles wanted it for a rebarrel job. I guess maybe it had a not up to par barrel. Anyway he was generous and gave me $375 for the rifle and I also had a browns precision stock that he wanted too so he gave me another $375 for the stock and he pulled the barrel tossed out the old stock, had his smith fit a new 7mm rem mag barrel from douglas and had the browns stock inlet and bedded and painted and she now is a shooter. I would have done all that but money is tight for me so I just turned the money into a used but in great shape Ruger M77 375 Ruger Alaskan. It is a shooter for sure with 1.5 inch groups with my first 2 test loads. Im sure I can tweak them a little to squeeze it to and Inch or so. I do love rugers but the tang safetys seem to be great if you know what to look for but I just will leave them to you guys.

[chg]

I had a tang safety M77 .338 I bought in 1985 that wouldn't keep 3 shots on a 5X7" index card at 100 yards. I tried everything from 275 gr Speers to 200 gr (lightest available at the time) and nothing shot. Glassed the action, 1 1/2" full bedded up the barrel channel, then slowly full bedded an inch at a time for several more inches. Shot a bull elk up the Lochsa at about 30 yards with it and sold it to a guy headed to Alaska.

Have a round top M77 in 7X57 that shoots real well. It likes 150 gr Noslers and Sierras, 139 Hornady over IMR 4530. Will touch 3 shots at 100 yards using the 150 Sierras and come close with the 150 Noslers and 139 Hornadys. Also likes factory 175 gr Remingtons. Only bought one box of factory loads for it. This was due to leaving my ammo at home and the 175s were all that was available in the closest town. Not the best choice for hunting the Salmon River breaks but they did work. I found out how well they shot when sighting in with the 175s. The round top 7X57s were not known for their accuracy, this one was an exception and the reason I bought the .338 M77. The .338 was a dog.

[Coonazz]

I guess that I am one of the lucky ones who has a shooter. Pre-warning, tang safety, heavy barrel 308. I installed a Timney trigger soon after purchase. Loaded with IMR 4064 and Sierra 168 MK it consistently shoots under 1" @ 100. Last group @ 500 measured 4.12". Guess I'll be keeping this one.
John

[mpbarry1]

I made the wifes 257 into an ackley and it shoots 1.5 inches with 115 grain Sierras. does what i want it to do. which is to use up a lot of time forming cases. lol. it is a fun rifle w a pencil barrel. so after 3 shots it has to cool down when shooting for accuracy.

[Three44s]

Liberty M77V in .243 shoots .267" with handloads ......... it's a keeper, bought it brand new .......

Liked it so much I bought a 77 in '77 in .270 and though it killed everything I ever went after with it ...... I just never warmed up to the mediocre groups it put up.

Traded it off two years ago for a A-bolt w/Boss in .25-06 and it's lights out with every load I throw at it. ......... another keeper!


Three 44s

[300savage]

A 30-06 that creeps me out it shoots so well, pulled it off a pawn shop wall many years ago, someone did not know what they had.
A 338 that puts whatever I have put thru it into 1 to 1.5 inch at a hunnert, way good enough for what it is used for.
And now recently inherited a like new 7 mm rem that I haven't got a chance to wring out yet.
Love them old Rugers,

[EDG]

I have tang safety M77V in 6mm. It clearly has a barrel superior to the standard weight barrels. The bore appears to have been lapped. It shoots as well as any non benchrest rifle I have ever fired.
I also have one of the 7X57s that shoots most hand loads with 140 grain bullets in a mediocre fashion.
However it shoots 175 grain Federal RN factory ammo like a match rifle.

[brotherdarrell]

I thought I would add an update regarding my 25-06 that shoots most everything into 2" groups.

I had been discussing it with my gunsmith and we decided that there was nothing to loose by setting the barrel back and re-chambering it. Him having a reamer made it an easy decision. He also allowed me to most of the work with him looking over my shoulder occasionally while working on the lathe.

There was only one thing worth commenting on that occurred while doing the work. When taking the barrel off I had everything locked down in the barrel vise and was getting the action wrench set up. I had the handle at about 11:00 and was wiggling it to make sure it was positioned properly. During one of these wiggles the weight of the wrench caused the action to come loose. I am guessing less that ten pounds of pressure to break it loose. We both figured that this could not have been good for accuracy.

After getting it set back and re-chambered I have had it to the range twice. My 75 gr. sierra hp still shoot around an inch, Federal 117 gr speer groups around 1 1/4" for 5 shots and yesterday 100 gr. Nosler solid base gave me 4 shots a little over 1/2" with the fifth making it a one inch group @ 100 yards.

I am much happier with this rifle than I was before.

Darrell

[pietro]

.

BTW - I currently have a tang safety Ruger Model 77R, chambered to .250-3000 (.250 Savage), with which I was able to shoot a 1" 3-shot group @ 100yds, using Remington green box factory 100gr J-word boolits.



The hole @ 5:00 near the bull was my 2nd zeroing shot afer mounting the scope & boresighting it @ 100yds - After which I cranked in an inch more elevation before shooting the 3-shot group.




.

[Huffmanite]

Bought a well used Ruger Tang Safety feather weight 270, 3 or 4 years ago. Tried a fair number of various bullets/powders in my reloads, with no good luck. Played around with the bedding and etc. Oh, it'd been OK for deer hunting, but forget about having a decent (one inch) 3 or 4 shot 100 yd group with the rifle from benchrest.

Ended up having an inexpensive Midway A&B heavy barrel in 7x57 installed on the action. The old tang safety turned into a very decent shooter for me.

[BrassFinger]

I have a mid '71 "hollow bolt" M77 in .30-06 with it's original Redfield 4x scope. 22" barrel, which from what I've been able to research, is a Douglas barrel and those seem to be the ones that deliver the goods consistently. I've only owned it a year or so, but the previous owner(s) shot it very little and took care of it.

I've only shot cast through it with just a front sandbag rest and it will group under an inch at 50 yds and under 2" at 100. I am the limitation, not the gun. At 200 yds I start to have some issues due to the lack of magnification and a solid bench rest jig.

It really seems to love 165-SIL over 16.0 gr. of 2400 as well as 180-SP over 23.0 gr. of 4759. After 20 rounds the barrel gets pretty warm, but I see no evidence of stringing or other issues caused by it. The barrel is rather light, but it is a hunting rifle after all. I don't hunt, but she's still a sweetheart to shoot!

Chris