Ruger M77 308 shooting cast ?????

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

What am I going to have to look out for with a Ruger and cast boolits? Is there any known problems/situations that Ruger's have with cast boolits. This rifle shoots J bullets just fine, but I want to get over to the silver side for boolits with this gun.

[Ben]

Once the bore is 100% clean of copper.....By that I mean, Hoppes in the bore soaking overnight with no blue/green drip out the muzzle end of the barrel. Once the barrel is clean and free of copper, it should be no different than any other .308 Win.

Do you already have some .30 cal. molds for your rifle ?

Ben

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

No, I don't have any molds as of yet for it. I'm going to slug the bore and then proceed from there for the correct diameter boolit. I do have some commercial flat nosed 150 grainers that I was thinking of trying just for kicks ( no GC's on those so velocities will have to be lower).

I was mostly concerned with the throat, as I've heard the H&R 's have some pretty long and sharp throats, and was just curious if Ruger has done something dumb like that.

[Ben]

I know nothing of throat problems with Rugers. It shouldn't be any harder to make it shoot well with cast bullets than it would be with any other factory rifle.

Good luck with your rifle . If you run into any snags, speak up, there are plenty of people here that can and will help you out.

Best to you,
Ben

[versifier]

If you have already been loading jacketed in it, then you already have some data about the weight range to start in. Does it like 110 or 125gr? Or does it prefer 150-180gr like most of them.

What does it "slug out" to? That tells you the size to go for, but you know that. :)

Do you want to hunt with it or target shoot? Varmint or deer? If it likes lighter bullets, then it has potential as a cast boolit varminter with either soupcans or even 55gr .22's in sabots. Mine isn't partial to them, but yours might be. Don't assume that the twist rate automatically determines exactly what will work. Many barrels defy logic and work great with lighter boolits. My .30-30 with the same 1in10 twist as my .308 really likes soupcans, and both do well as expected with 150-180gr boolits. Anything it likes will do for target shooting, but you want a good meplat for clean kills in anything from squirrels to moose. Some rifles even like 200-220gr - I haven't bothered with anything that heavy as Lee 170FN, RCBS 180FN, and Lyman 041's are enough for anything I want to hunt and do really well in both rifles.

BTW, I have found that Sweets does a much better job of removing copper than Hoppes, though it is harder to find.

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

Ben=

that is why I asked here, there is much in the way of knowledge dealing with these things. And thanks for one more person letting me know there is nothing wrong with the throats. The more votes the better.

versifier=

it really prefers 150 grainers. With those I can make things darned uncomfortable out at 1k yards. And that is with open sights on this rifle. The sights consisted of the factory front and a NECG peep on the back. Dusting a 24" concrete culvert on the third shot with crap loads (pulled fmj bullets and powder charge pulled out of a book) tends to make me real happy with this shooter. It isn't even a heavy barrel, just the standard weight with open sights.

[Bubba w/a 45/70]

And for what it is worth, I gave away my last partial bottle of sweets. I didn't use it enough and it started to congeal. I found that using the kroil and JB method works for me as well.

I used to use alot of sweets back when I shot AR's more....many years ago. Larger bores now make me smile more.