I have been told by a couple of people now that Ruger makes a M77 in 35 Whelen is this true or is it something from the past

A couple of years ago when I was searching for a .35 Whelen Ruger was making a non-catalog run of them, for Davidson's I believe. They were blued MkII's with the boat paddle synthetic stock.

I just did a search of Davidson's website and was unable to find them listed there.

Good Luck,
Bob

I had one for a while. It was a blue M-77 Mk II with sights in a boat-paddle stock. With 250-gr. bullets over a stiff charge of RL-15, it shot 1 MOA with a 4x Leupold scope, at a solid 2,550 fps. Federal factory ammo shot about 1 MOA, but Remington factory loads shot about 2.5 MOA.

Like most of them, mine had problems with misfires. There were a lot of posts about it just after the guns came out. Search here and on 24hourcampfire.com and you'll find plenty of stories. In some cases, guys sent them back to Ruger several times. The guns were with Ruger for a year in some cases and Ruger never really solved the problem. Ruger sent a lot of them back saying there was nothing wrong, and offered other guys a standard M-77 Mk II's in any other caliber. A few went for it, and with Ruger's customer service reputation, I can't say I blame them.

As for me, I had a very rare thing in my hands: a factory CRF 35 Whelen with a 22" barrel, iron sights and a synthetic stock. I worked in the gun business long enough to know that nothing works right out of the box, and I assumed that Ruger would jerk me around, so I took mine to Jim Cloward, a well-known riflemaker in western Washington. He installed a heavy-duty firing pin spring, which cured the misfire problem, and tuned the trigger. It was completely reliable after that, and it was a little easier to shoot well.

I think Ruger would sell a ton of them, especially if they'd get the misfire thing sorted out, and if they make them in stainless. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.


Okie John

I have seen a few rugers in the Whelen.
It seems to me if you just want a whelen, you might think about getting your hands on a 98 sporter, mabye an interarms or a military that has been converted to 30,06 has had the bolt bent and the drilling and tapping done, you see them for 200.00 at every gunshow round here, and then get a adams and bennet whelen barrel from midway for about 90 bucks. thats the route i waent and my whelen is a real good rifle.
I will be building a fancier one on remington 03-a3 one day. ...tj30,06.

Mine is buildt on a stainless Ruger M77MKII who started life as a 270 Win.
The smith put in a 22 Shilen ss barrel, did a trigger job, and the rig is a real tackdriver.
I shoot both 225 gr Speer and 250 Woodleighs and both perform well.

I also had some misfires, but traced that back to the new unfired Remington brass. The shoulder was set back to far for my chamber.
After fired once, the shoulder became right and everythig has been on tracks since.

This rifle is my go to rifle and is used for moose and red deer.
Light, rugged and accurate, it deliver a real punch in the recieving end.

Ruger had problems with a lot of the whelens and many 30/06's in this same time frame. They won't stand behind their product. They'll let you send your rifle back to them as many times as you're willing to pay shipping on it. The Rifle I have has been back twice just got it back the second time.

They claim nothing is wrong,however they changed out the firing pin and spring this last time. It spent close to a year with them this time. I called them 11 months in and they didn't have any record of it. My smith called them 2 weeks after that and they said they weren't finished with it. Amazingly within 3 days I got the rifle back. They were just fucking around trying to put off doing anything with it,until I and my smith complained.

I would imagine ruger had a whole run of actions that they used on this whelen run and they also had some of this same production run that were used on regular production,since the 06 uses the same length and bolt face. I've never heard of any .270's or 25/06's with this problem. But I've since talked to another person that had an 06 that was doing the same thing with a close serial number to the rifle I have.

I've since talked with a couple local hunters that have 7mags in M77 that have had similar problems with older mark II's. The more I've dealt with this ruger,the more people I've run into with similar problems with rugers and their dogshit service.

quote:

Originally posted by Arild Iversen:
Mine is buildt on a stainless Ruger M77MKII who started life as a 270 Win.
The smith put in a 22 Shilen ss barrel, did a trigger job, and the rig is a real tackdriver.
I shoot both 225 gr Speer and 250 Woodleighs and both perform well.

I also had some misfires, but traced that back to the new unfired Remington brass. The shoulder was set back to far for my chamber.
After fired once, the shoulder became right and everythig has been on tracks since.

This rifle is my go to rifle and is used for moose and red deer.
Light, rugged and accurate, it deliver a real punch in the recieving end.

I'm going through the same pains with my custom stainless Ruger M77 MKII. Fist trip at the range this week and three misfire with factory and handloads. My rifle was built with a tight chamber so it's not a headspace issue. I've read several posts on several forums and Remington brass keeps coming up as the usual suspect. I haven't tried once fired brass yet.

I picked one up a couple of years ago, used, but looking like new. Had several misfires with Remington factory ammo. I then reloaded some thinking that maybe I got a bad batch of Remington primers, same problem. One call to Wolfe gun springs for a new firing pin spring and I have over150 rounds down range with no problems. It shoots Speer 250 Hotcores into 7/8ths of an inch all day long with RL-15 at 2470 fps.

Thanks for all the info guys maybe i'll take a look at the remington 700CDL i know this rifle still comes in 35 whelen

quote:

Originally posted by Tanoose:
Thanks for all the info guys maybe i'll take a look at the remington 700CDL i know this rifle still comes in 35 whelen

The CDL is a very good rifle, you wouldn't be sorry.

The CDL is a nice rifle. Just bought one myself and I like it. Shoots good,recoil is very tolerable and it's purty. You won't be dissappointed.

quote:

Originally posted by Tanoose:
Thanks for all the info guys maybe i'll take a look at the remington 700CDL i know this rifle still comes in 35 whelen

The Ruger is a fine rifle - with a new firing pin spring. I prefer it to a Remington because I'm a CRF guy.


Okie John