Ruger M77 MKII extractor

[4296]

In the interest of seating my boolits to engage the rifling in my Ruger I would like to single feed it without using the magazine. In "BOLT ACTION RIFLES VOL 2" it is stated- " ...... the M77 bolt doesn't engage and control each cartridge as it emerges from the magazine box as in a Mauser rifle......thus each cartridge is simply pushed into the chamber......the head of the extractor is made thick enough to incorporate an angle on its face which can readily cam over the rim of the cartridge upon final closure......"
I would like to here of others experiences in chambering ammunition in their Ruger MK IIs.

[docone31]

Single feeding is all I do with mine.
For a long time.

[RedneckAlbertan]

Drop the cartridge in and close the bolt... It doesn't get much easier.

[waksupi]

Mausers are controlled round feed, the Ruger is a push feed. The advantage of the controlled round feed, is if a rhino knocks you upside down on reloading, you can still chamber a round. With the push feed, your cartridge falls out when the rifle is upside down, and you are in slightly more trouble, should you have let said rhino put you in this position.
If above mentioned situation does not commonly occur in your neighborhood, you may feel reasonably safe in single feeding your Ruger.

[GabbyM]

M77's may not qualify as a control round feed but the case head does come up under the claw when feed from the magazine. When you single feed them it pushes the case over to one side pretty hard.

Buddy and I both had M77- MKII- VT in 243. Using them off portable benches prairie dog shooting.
Stainless steel used in the Ruger barrels is very soft. Chambers on both rifles wore out of round to the point where a neck sized round would only chamber as oriented with its bulge to the left. This case bulge was visually apparent. Wasn't to much of a tragedy since being a 243 Win the bores were also shot out. Mine had about a 300 fps velocity drop from new with the same load. So I do mean shot out.
Round counts were between one thousand to 1,500 shots. Which is all you get from a 243 run hard so service life was not shortened by the chamber wear. With a blued steel barrel they may be harder but I'd not count on it. I know some of you are thinking stainless is harder than chrome molly steel. That's in general true but an alloy is what you make it. These two rifles were purchased in the mid 1990's . I just screwed an ER Shaw barrel on the Ruger and it's back to work if I ever get around to shooting it. The Ruger feeds flawlessly and has a good safety. My Rem M-700 243 lacks in both those categories. Especially in the feeding department.

I'd not lose any sleep over chamber wear but it's something to check before reloading another 500 rounds that are hard to chamber like I did. Bought a chamber sizing die which can be used on loaded ammo to size these leftovers to fire the new barrel chamber. It's all workable in the end.

Keep in mind that South Dakota and Colorado prairie is a dusty environment. This probably contributed to chamber wear. All I know is both rifles wore out on the same trip which was the third. So we're talking seven or eight days of shooting.

Again I'd say single feed it whenever it's handy and not to worry about any wear.