Ruger 77 44mag

[Blammer]

Ok got my NEW bolt gun today!

It's a Ruger 77 44mag bolt action with a 4 shot rotary magazine. 18.5" barrel, 3 position safety.
Stainless on black laminate stock. Has a mediocer (sp?) rubber butt plate.
Rings came with it per usual.

So I cleaned the barrel, looked down it, it's a hammer forged barrel, as you can see the hammer marks in it. I then oiled the brl and then grabbed a 240gr pure lead slug, one from a manufacturer, gave it a smack with my 2 pound hammer to make it fat. It fattened up from .430 to .439 easily.

I then oiled the boolit, dropped it in the chamber, grabbed my brass rod and pounded it through. It came out at .430 x .421. I then used a LFN I had, smacked it again with the hammer to fatten it up and then slugged just the throat. .431 throat.

Plopped a scope on it, 2.5x8 I think, then commenced to loading ammo for it.

I discovered that the rotary magazine will only let you have an OAL of 1.650 and the max amount of boolit you can have above the case is .375 for it to still work in the magazine.

I loaded up a variety of boolits. Some 280gr LFN's, seated deep, of course, some RCBS 44 245's, had to seat them a bit deeper than the crimp groove too, some Lyman 429244GC's, same deal as with the RCBS's and some round nose flat point boolits, cowboy action ones.

They all feed really slick from the magazine and eject nicely. (loaded rounds that is)

I also loaded some 44 FWC's and they won't feed through the mag unless I seat them a tad shorter, but chamber nicely. I'll have to give them a go for sure.

I've also got about 40 or so 240gr speer gold dot HP's I'm going to shoot up first. According to a few, this will 'smooth up' the barrel.

Hopefully I'll get to the range and break it in tomorrow.

[BABore]

I was considering one of these a few years back and the magazine/OAL thing drove me away.

[Blammer]

I put it on the scale today, 6.5 pounds. I like it so far.

[Themoose]

A Ruger 77/44 is one of my two Indiana "Deer Rifles"(has to be a pistol caliber) the other is a Rem. 788.... I like both a lot... just received a LBT mold for them.... cast .433 280 Gr LFN.. I lapped out a sizer die to .432 as Veral suggested.. I didn't trust my own measurements and sent slugs and fired brass from each rifle to LBT for Veral to set me up correctly. I haven't fire lapped the barrels yet, but hope to get to the range this week to start the grand experiment... I too am frustrated by the limited length that the magazines allow... I did tweak mine a little by thinning one with a dremel tool... yet to see how it performs. So far I've only shot 240 jacket HP's out of them, but decided to go 100% cast for them. I've got some air cooled and some water quenched bullets cast... just have to get my act together. Good luck with your rifle... I think you will enjoy it.

TheMoose

[Blammer]

I too have a 280gr LBT from Veral, I'm suspecting these beasts will have to really be seated deep to fit in the mag.

[sagacious]

I bought a new 77/44 several years ago. Love it! It's a quite versatile shooting iron.

Mine shoots great with both cast and jacketed. I size to .431", and get no leading with W231, 2400, and W296 loads. I often shoot the LEE 430-310-RF (top crimp groove), and the carbine barrel lets W296 reach impressive velocities. 240jhp's really move, and the 200gr Lyman pointed 429303 can be driven to really loopy velocities with even sub-max loads (I don't load FOR high velocity, just reporting on what the chrony shows).

You're right, the recoil pad is not as soft as it could be. I'm used to it, and shoot heavy loads in shirtsleeves, but I can easily see that some would not like it with the heavier loads.

I was initally ambivalent about the rotary mag. I definitely like it now, as it's fast and easy to load though the breech and without removing the mag itself-- and one cannot use the pointed Lyman 429303 in a tubular magazine.

Enjoy, and good shooting.

[BarryinIN]

I bought one used early last year just for the heck of it, but have enjoyed working with it.
It is not record-breaker, but shoots pretty well with bullets of the right size (I use a .431 size die). It really likes the Ranch Dog 265.

The magazine length has not been a problem for me yet. That RD 265 was the heaviest bullet mould I had for a while, and they are fine in it.
I got an older NEI mould in the SSK TC design that is supposed to make a 310 grainer, but they run in the 330s from wheelweights. That's a loooong bullet, but only around .350 extends out of the case and it feeds fine. There isn't a whole lot of powder room left, though.

From what I can see- If it fits in the magazine, it will feed. Besides more typical bullets, I have a Lee Wadcutter and the Lyman 429105 that has a flat semicircle nose, and they feed fine.

I'm not a big pistol caliber carbine fan, but this one has impressed me. The power to size ratio is great. It's the size of a .22, lighter than a lever, and smaller/lighter than my Steyr Scout. Yet it can throw a big bullet pretty hard.

[Blammer]

Just got back from the range.

50 rounds of 24gr of 2400 behind the Speer Gold Dot 210gr bullet to smooth it out. Was punching a one inch ragged hole at 25 yds, but these wouldn't group at 100 yds. so it was plinking stuff anyways.

Shot it till the barrel was hot, let cool then proceeded to shoot it that way again. I like it!

I then started on some of my cast boolits. Had some Beartooth 290gr .431 dia I shot with 14gr of 2400, after adjusting for drop on the scope (about 2 feet or so.. had to zero it anyways.) I shot a fairly respectable 1" tall by 2" wide group of 5. These were seated to magazine length.

I then shot some other stuff and it was starting to hit all over the place. I really wasn't concerned about groups and load work up at this point. I needed some empty brass first.

After about 50 more shots of various boolits and loads I determined I was tired and couldn't hit much, so packed up and went home.

Decided to clean the barrel and taaa daaa LOTS of leading. That probably accounted for my poor accuracy towards the end. Now I'm busy scrubbin that out and then will clean it really good from the copper of the first 50 shots, then get serious about some load work up.

So I've managed to shoot 100 rnds through a new gun the second day I've had it. Time to clean. Was lots of fun today, I think I am gonna really like this little light weight fast handling rifle.

[felix]

Those Ruger 44 mag rifle barrels are harder and tougher than expected for a typical barrel. I think they are using that steel formulation a few years ago (1998?) for the six shot 454 revolter cylinders which were required by the marketing department (instead of the five holes typical then). Therefore, do not expect that "pistol" gun (lever or bolt) to shoot well for a good thousand rounds of high antimony boolits. The accuracy will approximately double in that time, and should hold there for quite a while. ... felix

[EOD3]

I bought one of the 77/44 rifles several years ago. I had to send it back to Ruger for a little attention. When I took it to the range the first time, I tried the "fast followup shot" and the bolt came out in my hand about 2 times out of 3. It works fine now that they've "adjusted" it.

[Blammer]

I cranked off a magazine load full as fast as I could work the action and pull the trigger. I guess they got it fixed for good.

Finished loading up some 288gr LBT GC boolits with 13, 14, 15 and 16gr of 2400. Had to seat them to an OAL of 1.610 to get them to function in the chamber. I could have seated them longer for the magazine, but when I cycled one in the chamber, it was hard to close the bolt and when I tried to open the bolt, the round was "stuck". Boolit was jammed into the lands pretty good and took some muscle to get it out. So I seated it to "just kissing the lands".

This LBT is pretty much .430 dia all the way up the sides and all of the nose except about the last little bit where it ends to start the radius to the meplat. It's sharper and shorter than the Lee 310gr boolit.

I think the lyman 429640 will be next on the list to load and try.

[BarryinIN]

Interesting about the chambering trouble. Mine must be more generous because I haven't seen that, even with some fairly fat nosed bullets. From reading through this thread and others, it looks like there is some variation in the chambers of these (shocker).

Blammer, do I understand correct- Yours is a new, current production one, right?
I could see that it's chamber could be different still.

Also, FWIW, I have three magazines for mine and they vary a little. Two have "Ruger" molded into the bottom and one is smooth. The smooth one is about .010" shorter inside at the point I've measured. That's not much difference, but I guess might be enough.
The follower rotates around farther/higher on the smooth-bottomed one too.

[dbldblu]

Don't lose count when inserting cartridges into the magazine; the magazine breaks quite easily. Don't ask me how I know. The Lee 310 cast shoots well in mine. Anything 300 grain shoots well.

[Blammer]

It is a new rifle and a new one to me, I'm assuming it's of recent production, not sure of the exact year, my throat is .431 and the bore is .430.

The boolits are .4305 all the way up the side of the nose, so when it hits the rifling it, stops.

What I would like to find is an extended magazine release button to replace the current one.

[NHlever]

A couple of points. Ruger generally uses the same steel for all CF alloy barrels, 4140, or close to it so there is nothing special there. I'm not sure it's ever been tried, but aftermarket mag releases for the 10-22, or 77/22 might work with a little tinkering.

[Blammer]

some results.

Went to the range the other day.

Loaded some LBT 288gr GC boolits, AC WW's and used the same loads listed on the 50 yd target for the 100 yd results.

The 100 yd results just isn't up to snuff. I'm thinking the big meplat and almost wadcutter design is the cause of the accuracy falling off.



Here's the 100 yd target.

[EchoSixMike]

I've had good results (sub-2MOA@100yds) with 300gn TC's from a Magma mold and 320gn 70% ogivals from a Mountain Mold, cast from quenched WW+2% tin, propelled by healthy amounts of 296.

If you're using AC WW with healthy amounts of 2400, you might want to try a bit harder. S/F......Ken M

[Themoose]

Blammer,

Sounds like we're doing the same type project... I shot Fri... used LBT 280LFN GC...started with 21 gr. H110 and worked up in .5 gr increments...only loaded to 23.0 grs... both guns shot better with 23.0 Gr... next trip will try another series from 23.0-24.5 grs.... mine cast @ .433 using WW.. I only used AC but have some WC to try after I find which powder charge they like best.

[Blammer]

Echosixmike, I'm curious as to what a harder boolit will do for accuracy at 100 yds?

[JesterGrin_1]

DJ with all of the Boolit molds you have do you have the Ranch Dog 265GR RN/FP/GC that should work well. Also heard the Lee 310Gr works good to.