M77 setups? What are you running ?

[Covelo-NdN]

Hello the highroad,

This messages to start a discussion on a Ruger model 77 hunting rifle set up. If you have one please reply on what type of set up your running including optics, rings, ( slings, recoil pad, caps, ammunition, load data etc. groups?

I'm planning on helping a friend set up a (basic?) model 77 I don't believe it's a Hawkeye? (Pardon my rhetoric I only viewed the rifle once.)

I know it's a Ruger, model 77, chambered in a 30-06. My friend loves the rifle in right now has sort of a older BSA or Bushnell target looking 50+ mm objective style scope! scope that definitely needs some updating and since his money burning in his pocket he's asked me to help.

So can you please chime in the highroad and provide any information on what type of setups you guys are running on your model 77? I don't own one and cannot really based any information from a personal standpoint however love opinions and options for those to handle the type of gun daily or have taken game with if you know what I mean thank you and God bless.

 

[WestKentucky]

Price range and use are key. That kinda sets the limits on where we can start tossing around suggestions.

 

[Covelo-NdN]

Thanks westKentucky

Price range for the building probably be somewhere between three to $600. I wasn't really looking for prices more or less practicality and use your ability and what people have already done that they're liking in what they've done that they didn't like and things of that nature

 

[Malamute]

Theres a couple things I've found that I like quite a lot on the 77's I've had. A Pachmayr decellerator pad, properly mounted for length of pull and with the toe set about 1/8" in from square off the top of the comb.

Leupold VXII or VXIII 2-7 or 3-9 scope. I like the Boone and Crocket reticle in the VXIII line. In any event a duplex reticle. 2-7 is really plenty of scope, and at 2x is good for very close range use very quickly.

Standard Ruger factory rings, the lowest that work with the scope. Theyve been as close to perfect in fitting me as I've found. I throw the gun up and the image appears right where the object of my interest is. Ruger stocks fit me very well. I can throw it up and track running rabbits easily through the scope.

I've set a couple up with good iron sights for backup. I had a gunsmith solder and screw a Williams Shorty ramp with Sourdough blade for the front (the Sourdoughs arent easy to find any more. I like the Redfields best so far) and I had a receiver sight set up on a couple. On one I inletted under the buttplate for the sight slide after sighting it in so it was always with the gun if the scope got crashed hard. I dont recall what sight I used, probably a Lyman 57, but it may have been for a round side and been milled flat for the Ruger to mount on the right of the receiver. The Lymans have a push button release, which makes it easy to put on or take off the sight when needed. I figured I could take off the butt plate screws with my swiss army knife to get the sight slide if needed in the field.

 

[stiab]

I agree with Malamute, and have two 77s set up for hunting, both 30-06. One is the standard rifle with Ruger rings and older (same as rifle) Redfield 3x9. Other one is shown below, carbine with factory rings, now wearing a 2x7 Redfield. I use the Action brand leather recoil pads on all my rifles. They are highly functional, and look real classy in leather, come in several sizes and lace up. Can't go wrong with the 77, great rifles. I have another Ruger that I'm happy with, it is the Hawkeye in .358.

 

[witchhunter]

Malamute nailed it. That's my setup since 1973, when mine was new. Decelerator pad, Leupold 3.5-10, lapped ruger rings, tuned trigger and bedded stock. Mine has a Cabela's stretch sling on it.

 

[Jackal]

Slap on a 3-9x40 from a reputable company and our good to go.

 

[R.W.Dale]

A box stock 77mkII all weather with a 3x9x40 sightrton s1

3/4" groups with loads it DOESNT like. Any deer out to 300m I pretty much own.

 

[Jackal]

People say M77's arent accurate.... I havnt had one that wasnt.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

We have a tang safety model Ruger M77 in .243 Win. It has the standard Ruger rings and a Leupold VX1 3-9x40 scope.

This is the only pic I have of the rifle. I texted this pic to my wife the first time I took it hunting. I had traded for it because she couldn't handle the recoil of my '06 and I wanted something she was more comfortable with.
I tried to get her to go hunting that morning and she didn't want to go so I told her I was going to kill a deer with her rifle. I shot this doe only 30 minutes after I sat down.

It is wearing a POS Walmart Bushnell in the pic, but it has the VX1 on it now.



Here's a group I shot with it and my handloads.
This load was backing out the primers on account of the light load, so I upped it 1 grain and switched to a magnum primer. It is just as accurate and the primers are staying fully seated now.

 

[TIMC]

I just finished a Ruger 77 Mark II in .243. I changed the factory stock out for a Houge cammo stock, added new bottom metal with 10 round detachable mag, Timney trigger and Doctor Optic 3x9 scope.

 

[SC Shooter]

I have a M77 Mark II with a Nikkon Pro-Staff scope in .223 Rem. It's my favorite varmint gun, as it's spot on accurate at 100 to 150 yards. I even harvested a small hog with it. This is one of my long favorite guns in my safe.

 

[jmr40]

There have been 3 generations of the 77. The first had a tang safety and a claw extractor, but it was pushfeed with a button ejector. Made 1968-1992. At the time Ruger did not make their own barrels. They bought from vendors. Accuracy was all over the place depending on the barrel. Some rifles were near match grade, others shot very poor.

In 1992 Ruger went to the 77 MK-2. They were making their own barrels by now and the rifles were true Controlled round feed instead of pushfeed. The stock design is slightly different and not interchangeable. Accuracy was better, but the triggers are often rough. They can be worked over or replaced.

The Hawkeye came in 2006. It has a much better trigger. All other changes were purely cosmetic. Slight differences in the finish etc.

I no longer own one, but have owned multiple versions of all 3 generations. Out of the box the Hawkeye's tend to be the most accurate simply because of the better trigger. The MK-2 can be just as accurate, but may need some work. The original tang safety models are a crap shoot. Some are great, others not so much. All of them tend to be among the most rugged, reliable rifles made with acceptable hunting accuracy with most. Around 1 MOA or slightly more is typical. If you are wanting .5 MOA the odds are against you. Some will do it,but they are not as common as other brands.

I'd use the Ruger factory rings with a 3-9X40 scope of my choice. It is hard to go wrong with a Leupold VX-2 for the money. I prefer low's, but they come with mediums and they'll work.

Some targets at 100 and 200 yards from the Hawkeye 308 I used to own. this is pretty good, but this is the most accurate Ruger I owned. The others were acceptable, just not quite this good.

 

[sappyg]

Here's mine. Factory low mount rings. Old Redfield 1 3/4-5x scope. No idea when or where I got the leather sling. The trigger was obnoxious and a factory Hawkeye trigger spring replaced the ruined original spring after a failed attempt to improve the weight.

 

[WestKentucky]

I don't even have pics of the one I had. It was a mess though, so I picked it up for less than a hundred bucks. It was a .243 win. Had a broken stock glued and stapled back together, a bent barrel, and a Simmons scope, not to mention the 8 or 10 layers of krylon.

I put a new stock on, cut the bend out of the end of the barrel and had it crowned and iron sights reinstalled. I ran see through rings for it because I just happened to already have them from the previous owner, set my iron sights for 50 yards and put on a Tasco pronghorn fixed power scope...3 or 4 power... and set the scope for 150 yards intending for it to be my coyote gun. The stock didn't fit me well, but it fit my neighbors wife really well and they let me make a hundred bucks off of them. That setup worked really well, and had I kept it I would have bought a better scope.

 

[chicharrones]

I just finished a Ruger 77 Mark II in .243. I change the factory stock out for a Houge cammo stock, adde new bottom metal with 10 round detachable mag, Timney trigger and Doctor Optic 3z9 scope.

Very nice Ruger, TIMC.

 

[TIMC]

Thank you!

 

[chicharrones]

This isn't quite up to the requirements of the OP, but you can see the relationship of the scope to the Ruger rifle. An older Nikon Prostaff 2-7x32 with Ruger low mounts (#3 & #4). Plenty of room for scope caps, but I just use a rubber "bikini" cover.

The sling/strap is one of those common quick adjust nylon jobs @ 1-1/4" wide. I've been hooked on those quick adjust types for a long time.

 

[dubbleA]

Here is my 270 Win with Zeiss 4.5x14x44 in Ruger supplied rings.

 

[wombat13]

Mine is a Hawkeye, stainless steel/laminate, left-handed in .300WM. It would have been .338WM, but Ruger didn't offer the .338WM left-handed. I used the Ruger rings that came with the rifle to mount a Leupold VX-II in 3-9X40.

The most accurate factory ammo I tried was 180 gr. Federal Fusions which shoot about 1 MOA at 100 yards. My best hand load is a 165 gr. TSX which will put four consecutive rounds touching.

 

[wombat13]

Here is my 270 Win with Zeiss 4.5x14x44 in Ruger supplied rings.

That's a pretty rifle! I'd be reluctant to carry it in the field.

 

[crazysccrmd]

Mine is an old tang safety in 250 Savage with Ruger rings and an equally old Redfield 4x scope. Nice, simple and reliable.

 

[David4516]

Mine is a newer (I bought it new in 2008) M77 MKII I think I got one of the last ones before they all became Hawkeyes. It's the basic blue steel / wood stock version, in .280 Remington. I used the Ruger rings that came with it to mount a Leupold VX1 3-9x40 scope (glossy finish). I think I paid $10 for a basic nylon sling, and another $10 for one of those elastic things that goes over the stock to carry extra rounds.

I am happy with the rifle, it's pretty accurate (it likes my hand loads, 160gr boat tail bullet with IMR-4350 powder) will shoot groups at 100 yards I can cover with a quarter. It will probably shoot better than that, in the hands of a more experienced shooter. I've not gone hunting in the last few years (hoping to change that maybe this year) but when I do hunt this is one of two guns I take depending on the terrain (M77 for open areas, lever action .30-30 for brushy areas).

 

[sappyg]

Nice rifle David.
I use to use a cartridge carrier like yours on the stock of my Ruger. After a while I decided to just carry any extra ammo in my pocket if I felt the need. I've only ran the gun dry once in the field (that was a hell of a day and an unusual circumstance).

 

[Mr. Rowdy]

My Gunsite Scout. Great rifle. 3/4 MOA is no problem.