Ruger 77/44 suppressed thumper project

[Gtscotty]

Finally finished!

I've been mulling over the idea of a big bore carbine for suppressed shooting with heavy subs for a few years. The main idea was to put together a quiet package for plinking fun and short range deer hunting out to ~75 yds.

I looked a range of options including RARs in .450 BM, 1895s in 45-70, and ARs in .458 SOCOM, but kept coming back to the 77/44 for it's simplicity and economy/ease of volume shooting.

Well it has finally all come together, I got the stamp for my .45 can at the beginning of the month, and got my chopped and threaded 77/44 back from @MachIVshooter the week before last. I've taken it out a few times and so far I'm very happy with how it turned out!

Here are some pics in case anyone else is interested in this kind of stuff:

Running irons with the can in short configuration.


Scope mounted for load testing with the can in its long configuration.


With the can in short configuration, the report is not bad at all. With the can in long configuration, it's surprisingly quiet, I'd say a bit quieter to my ear than the same can in short configuration on my 9mm pistol.


Close-up of MachIVshooter's characteristically excellent work.


Some 100yd targets from the loads I tried this past weekend. Additional load testing to come, I think I can do a bit better with some work. I'm pretty happy, it's no precision rifle, but it is accurate enough for my intended uses.

 

[greyling22]

Nice. Cans really shine on non-semi auto firearms.

What pitch did you thread the barrel?

 

[Gtscotty]

Nice. Cans really shine on non-semi auto firearms.

What pitch did you thread the barrel?

I agree, I like shooting properly set up ARs suppressed, but bolt guns are my favorite.

I went with a 5/8x24 thread, I got in on the Rugged promotion where you could get $350 in free mounts, so I had a 5/8x24 DT mount already in hand. Also, I figured that would give me a bit more meat on the end of the barrel than the standard .45 thread, .578x28. Since Nick uses a threaded collar to provide a good shoulder for the can, your thread size is really only limited in that the major diameter needs to be a hair less than the barrel diameter at that point.

 

[MCMXI]

Awesome project there! I really like those Ruger 77 rifles and I wish they still made the 77/22 in .22LR. What velocity are you getting? I want to have @MachIVshooter thread my Marlin 1894s and 1895 to use with SilencerCo's Hybrid suppressor.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

Cool! Reminds me of the Silent Destroyer, only in a much more flexible configuration. Kudos!

 

[Gtscotty]

Awesome project there! I really like those Ruger 77 rifles and I wish they still made the 77/22 in .22LR. What velocity are you getting? I want to have @MachIVshooter thread my Marlin 1894s and 1895 to use with SilencerCo's Hybrid suppressor.

Thanks!
I actually talked to Nick about doing either a lever gun of some kind, or the 77/44. Neither were a problem for him, but I was just kind of drawn to the 77/44. I would like to have a threaded lever gun at some point, so I might be sending him a Marlin or Puma at some point down the road as well.

I didn't chrono the loads I tried last weekend, but here are the notes I took from my one session with the rifle prior to sending it out for shortening/threading:



Hopefully that's somewhat legible, I tested coated 240gr Keith style bullets, 305gr cast HPs from GT bullets, and 300gr Hornady XTPs. The powders used were Trailboss, CFE Pistol, Longshot and HP38.

The jacketed XTPs were much slower than the cast bullets with the same loads in the long barrel. I'm not sure whether the 2" shorter barrel would raise or lower velocities with heavy bullets and light charges, but I upped the loads on the XTPs and lowered them just a hair on the GTs.

Like I said, there's definitely more work to be done, I'm going to order 3-4 different heavy coated bullets to see if I can get a good load that's a little cleaner.

 

[greyling22]

This is my threaded lever gun. It is stupid fun with subsonics.


I built mine out of a 1976 marlin 1894c. Custom stocks I made, had a machinist thread the barrel, but I converted it from a barrel band to a hanger and shortened the mag tube myself. It's got a nice action job too. It runs fast enough I had to wrap the handle. It's wearing a liberty mystic x. Here it is in better lighting, but before i chopped it and with no can.

 

[Gtscotty]

I took my non-shooter dad and brother out to the range when they visited this past week, they both had the most fun with this rig. My dad mentioned several times how much more fun it was to shoot suppressed than not.

I loaded up some 300gr XTPs over 8.5gr of Longshot and we popped a few jugs of water and a brake rotor at 50yds. I was surprised to see big chunks knocked out of the hub area and the junction between the hub and the double thickness friction area, I would not have thought bullets this slow would do that kind of damage. I was also surprised at how vigorously the jugs exploded, one even had bits of lead and jacket in the bottom.

I had been planning on trying a little close range hunting and figured I'd need to use softer lead hollow points, but what I saw the other weekend leads me to believe that the XTPs might open up enough at these ~900 fps speeds to give a good wound track. Has anyone used these 300gr .429 XTPs for hunting? If so, what kind of velocities were you running, and how did they do?

 

[<*(((><]

Nick threaded my Win94 in .45LC, he does excellent work and is an awesome guy to deal with. Always wanted a suppressed lever and .45LC is sweet for that.