Ruger 77V, Is it any good?

Z

zeke mccune

Member
Hi Gang:

I was looking at a used Ruger 77V in .220 Swift at a gun store. I had a 77V in 25-06 and the barrel was trash from the get go! The bore was .259 and was made by Wilson Barrels in the 70's. It would not shoot well so I sold it. I imagine that I will have to re barrel the Swift to get it to shoot.

Is the Ruger action worth putting a new barrel on or should I forget about the Ruger?

TIA,

Zeke
 
Ruger 77V

Zeke
We sold allot of Ruger 77's in the shop I worked in. I always thought they were the best gun for the money. The 220 Swift would not be my choice in the Ruger. I would look for a .243 in the Varmint model. Looking at current listing on Ruger calibers I would also consider the .223. Change to a Timney trigger and a bipod. For scope a 12x will do you just fine.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
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The rifle is only as good as the shooter in most cases....and alot of things can help. Eliminate one at a time.
Unless your a barrel guru and can look down the tube with a Hawkeye and be confident in your apprasial (sp), I would look for other villains. There are sooooooo many things that can help a factory rifle, that I will not try to get into. Good luck

Jeff Schopper
 
Rugers really depend on when they were made and luck. Early flatbolt rifles came with Douglas barrels and were very accurate. When they switched barrel suppliers in the middle seventies they became risky. You might get a good one but you had a much better chance for good accuracy with a Remington or Winchester. A Ruger action wouldn't be my first choice for an accurate rifle.
 
I had a 6 BR barrel put on an early Ruger 77 that I've had since '72, and it looks like it's going to work well (long story I don't want to get into here). It's always been an accurate rifle, but I think a lot of people try to treat them like Rem 700's and Win 70's. They can't be bedded like any other action due to the angled from guard screw, and the action screws have to be tightened with some care. The front screw has to be TIGHT, the rear screw has to be tightened just enough so that the tang doesn't deflect (put a finger over the tang as the rear screw is tightened and when you feel it just deflect it's plenty tight. The middle screw just needs to be there to keep the front of the trigger guard from rattling around, and the floorplate to close and latch.

Bedding a Ruger 77 can't generally be done the same as with the vertical screw actions either. In my experience the barrel has to be supported at the forend with some paper shims and the front guard screw HAS to be used to pull the rear of the recoil lug against its abutment. Without the shims under the barrel the guard screw will pull the barrel down and the tang up.

They may not be top of the line for benchrest shooting or any other form of competition, but they're plenty accurate enough for a live varmint rifle.
 
Can Rugers Shoot.

I have a Ruger 77 MK2 220 swift and it is easily the most accurate and consistent rifle I have ever owned. With the right ammo my rifle consistently groups better than 1/2 minute of angle for five shot groups with loads made on a regular reloading press. Barrel is the "target grey" stainless variety produced in the late 1980s. Scope is a 6.5 to 20x40 Leupold VX111.:D
 
"Is the Ruger action worth putting a new barrel on or should I forget about the Ruger?"




It wouldn't be to me.



I would.
 
Ruger .308 Varmint

For years I have heard shooters throw Ruger bolt rifles under the bus. Most of the talkers were turnips that never got near a Range. Two reasons I feel this way. I sold Rugers for 25 years in my friends shop and two I listened to these once a year hunters at the local range.

Don't paint me as a factory rep for Ruger but our shop like most shops had to sell a quality rifle that WalMart and Gemco weren't selling them cheaper than we could buy them. So my boss decided to sell the complete line of Ruger, high end Winchesters, and Brownings. These guns you didn't find in your chain stores. We stocked Remington but mainly used ones, we ordered what we didn't have. Savage wasn't a competitor in the gun stores in the 70's-80's.

What I liked about Ruger was the value for a good rifle. Consider you got a set of rings, a good shaped stock, a good selection of calibers, an adjustable trigger, and a good hunting accuracy rifle. On the Varmint models you got some good calibers my favorites being the .223 and .243 and a good accurate barrel.

Saying all this I'm jumping on a Ruger .308 Varmint. The gun is my smiths. The reason I'm buying the gun is because I have been looking for a .30 cal bench gun for my Cast bullet shooting. I have shot Cast since 1963. I have 10 molds in .30 cal and want a dedicted Cast gun. When I'm not shooting NBRSA I shoot Cast. I will shoot the gun with jacketed first to see what kind of barrel I have then settle into my Cast. Life's short why not enjoy it.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
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I think it really depends on the price of the gun.
And your right some of those barrels were pretty crapy. I still have the original barrel on my 25-06 77V and it is as rough as a COB but it shoots ok.
You can clean it for a week and then after 5 rounds it is coppered up again. Even after it is cleaned you can feel roughness when you run a patch through mine.
But like I said mine shoot fine and since I already own the gun I will put a barrel on it when I get around to it.
 
Ruger barrels are great.....

...most of them keep the action threads protected until you get the REAL barrel on them.
I have always liked Ruger 77s, especially the Mark II's.
I would never brag on factory barrel accuracy though. I would hazzard a guess that if I averaged all the FACTORY Ruger barrels it would be about 1.5 moa.
A mid 1970s 77R in .270 Win did close to half inch average, rare in my experience.
My present Ruger 77 MII is a .250 Savage Ackley Improved. It shoots as small a group as I can hold, about 3/8 at best. That's about the best I can hold.
That is because I fitted a chrome moly Shilen barrel. It now shoots as accurate as ANY rifle I've ever shot.
 
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Alaninga said:
...most of them keep the action threads protected until you get the REAL barrel on them.
I have always liked Ruger 77s, especially the Mark II's.
I would never brag on factory barrel accuracy though. I would hazzard a guess that if I averaged all the FACTORY Ruger barrels it would be about 1.5 moa.
A mid 1970s 77R in .270 Win did close to half inch average, rare in my experience.
My present Ruger 77 MII is a .250 Savage Ackley Improved. It shoots as small a group as I can hold, about 3/8 at best. That's about the best I can hold.
I fitted a chrome moly Shilen barrel that became available and it has shot as accurate as ANY rifle barrel I've shot.
Click to expand...

I've owned two or three 77's in the past, and my brother has a couple of them in .257 Roberts. The Roberts guns will shoot about 3/4" groups on a good day with Nosler BT's. I had two 6mm 77's, and it was a real crap shoot with them. Both guns had major bedding issues right out of the box. The 77V finally after a virtual rebuild (using the factory barrel) finally became a solid sub .50" gun (it started life as a three inch shooter). The other 6mm had the sporter weight barrel, and after a rebedding it was shooting right around 3/4" groups. They won't shoot with a Savage or a Remington on a good day.
gary
 
I bought a Ruger M77, 30-06 in 1973 in advance of an elk hunt in Montana. My first 3 shots on paper could be covered by a nickel. 4 years ago I gave that rifle to my grandson for a HS graduation present, but replaced the original 2x7 Leupold with a new 3x9 Leupold. We shot it together one day shortly thereafter with some Bulgarian mil, and my 3 shot group was .4". Did I get lucky? I don't know, but that gun can shoot.
Bob
 
Bob Hardy, I would guess that if you purchased it in 1973 you may have a Douglas barreled factory rifle.
 
Can you help?

murphy said:
I have a Ruger 77 MK2 220 swift and it is easily the most accurate and consistent rifle I have ever owned. With the right ammo my rifle consistently groups better than 1/2 minute of angle for five shot groups with loads made on a regular reloading press. Barrel is the "target grey" stainless variety produced in the late 1980s. Scope is a 6.5 to 20x40 Leupold VX111.:D
Click to expand...

I've got the "same" rifle as above (but don't know the year of mfg), and I can't consistently get 1/2 MOA, five-shot groups. Don't know if the gun is inherently not that accurate, or if it's the wind, or if I just haven't found the right recipe. The two best five-shot groups I had today were approx. 1.25 MOA @ 200 yds (if one shot was eliminated, a four-shot group would have been approx. .4 MOA -- and I don't remember which shot was the "flyer"), and approx. 1.37 MOA @ 100 yds (if one shot was eliminated, a four-shot group would have been approx. .87 MOA) -- all were 40 gr V-MAX bullets.

Any suggestions?
 
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On Ruger 77 guard screws I made an embarrassing discovery with my 6 BR barrelled ~'72 vintage 77's screws. The rifle was NOT shooting the way it was supposed to, and I'd thought that the screws were okay. After swapping scopes with no improvement in group size, I finally stood it up on the butt and checked the center and rear screws. Sure enough the rear screw was too tight and deflecting the tang down slightly. When the center and tang screws were backed off so that the action wasn't being bent, the groups improved dramatically.

Yesterday in gusting wind it shot on average better than it has, but not as well as it might if it were shot by someone with good eyes. Going to the eye Dr this afternoon, so maybe they'll be a little better if she sees something to work on. :)
 
I have a Shillen barrel for my 25-06 and intend to use it. For me I think the action is worth rebarreling. I think it is a good solid action with a really powerfull mauser style claw extractor. My stock barrel is not great but it will shoot good bullets under an inch just about all of the time and with the right bullets it will shoot under 3/4 and inch close to 1/2 and inch. So I expect a new better barrel to do just as well. Also mine has solid wood.
In all actuallity any factory rifle that shoots under an inch isn't all that bad.

Ted
 
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