Ruger 77/44

[BABore]

Anyone have one of these? I might have the option on one. How restrictive is the rotary magazine for OAL? Any idea on the bbl twist, chamber, or throat? Looks like Ruger only made these for a couple years.

[Scrounger]

I had one, never did shoot it. Still cursing myself for selling it. I did shoot a Ruger 96/44 (???) for awhile. Magazine was a pain in the ---, accuracy was a joke.

[dubber123]

My nephew picked one up a few years ago, and if I recall, I tried a dummy Lee 310 RF in it, and it fit and fed perfectly from the magazine. This is a pretty big boolit, with a WFN profile. If you want, I can try to get ahold of one of his mags and get you some real #'s.

The only load I worked up for his was with Speers 270 gr. Gold Dots, and it shot around 5/8" for 5 at 50 yards.

[lathesmith]

I think that 77/44 is a great idea. I believe they were even avaiable for a short time in Stainless, but you had to move fast for one of these; they didn't last long.

I have a 99/44, and with Speer 240 gr JSP's and a stiff charge of 296 it shoots cloverleafs at 25 or 30 yds, which is good enough for my useage. I have a few plinker loads, around 900fps with 240swc's or RN's that are also quite accurate. I haven't tried it with stout loads and lead bullets though, that might be a whole different ballgame. Maybe someday...
lathesmith

[Three44s]

The Speer 270 Gold dot for a J-word is quite a slug!

I don't have any rifles in .44 and have been thinking on rectifying that situation myself.

Three 44s

[felix]

Nose cannot exceed 0.310 when boolit crimped in crimp groove. Consider that 0.010 excess only as tolerance from recoil effects from a badly crimped boolit and not to be construed as a design criteria. Boolit design should not exceed a 0.300 nose. The angle of attack from the magazine appears somewhat flexible as to boolit ogive dimensions. Still, I would be leary of exceeding the 70% meplat at 0.300 when the body is sized at 0.433 because that is where I feel case friction (only) when coming from the magazine. My particular lever gun took about 500-750 rounds of high antimony - low tin boolits to make that hard (4140) barrel shoot to my accuracy requirements. I am sure the gun when scoped will now cloverleaf at 50 with the LBT 250 grainers, and with the Keiths. ... felix

[Dr. A]

I've shot one in stainless. Thank heavens it was not my gun. My older Ruger auto easily beats it in accuracy. Mine does not have a scope and this stainless one did. Shotgun patterns were the norm. It did better with j-word bullets.

[dbldblu]

I have one. The chamber is on the sloppy side which makes it tempermental. It shoots best with the Lee 310 and will do consistant 1" groups at 50 yards. Sometimes it will do a little better. The Lee 310 seated to oal of 1.625" feeds just fine. It will do minute of deer with a 245 grain and would be a fine short range deer rifle.

When I say the chamber is sloppy, I mean that they ran the full body diameter reamer in an extra 1/8" or so to make room for the bullet. This leaves it with no support.

[felix]

The freebore is terrible, I know. But so are the new cowboy-caliber guns from everyone else. How about a total throat of 0.35 in my 41 mag Marlin with a 0.410 wadcutter boolit? Or, 0.20 in the same gun with a 0.433 wadcutter booit? Nothing but lawyer trash. ... felix

[Newtire]

I have one of the Ruger Deerfield's (auto) and the best I could do was 1 1/2" at 50 yds. It's not bad though when you think about the fact that you are going to be hunting something bigger than squirrels with it anyway. It's a real handy little carbine.

The magazine doesn't allow you to seat out to touch the rifling. I was able to use the Ranch Dog 285 grain seated to 1.620".

I crimped the Lee 310 gr into the top crimp groove & got good functioning.

I used the Lyman 429244 crimped over the top band & held in place with the Lee fact crimp die.

It's not a tack driver for me but will put the first round about an inch to the left & the rest all together.

Not to steal the thread but can anyone recall what thing(s) cause that?

I put a funky rubber recoil pad on the thing to keep it from slipping on the ground & that seems to make it more comfortable to shoot in a t-shirt using those big Lee 310 grainers. I know I know--wussing out these days.