i have watched this thread for a couple of days and i'm going to throw my 2 cents in. the 2 M77's i have are good working rifles, but they could be better than they are. my ss/lam 30-06
had a horrible trigger but a trigger job fixed that problem. the recoil pad is a sorry excuse for it's purpose. most any gun bought today needs it's trigger tuned to some degree and that's fine. luckily i have not needed to send a gun back to ruger for any repairs. i believe that if they were to throw away custom parts from my gun and put their junk in my gun i would probaly file a suit in small claims court for the cost of "refixing" my gun. it would be cheaper for them to pay for that than to fly a lawyer across country,room,board,and billabe hours. any opinions on this tactic?

I have had two good model 77s but I have had two bad handguns.

Between my son and I, we have 5 M77's. Comparing them to the last M700 and M70 I bought, there will be more M77's! The M700 .223 wouldn't slip the extractor over the rim of the case without breaking the case rim off. Took it out to see if maybe something was behind it, nothing. Changed it out to a new one. No change. Caught up to a Rem. Rep. at a store opening and he wouldn't even listen. Said he'd never heard of such a thing and walked off. finally took a grinder to the extractor and took quite a bit off to get it to work without ruining my brass.
Bought a M70 a year or so ago. Sent it to the smith for a trigger job. Got a phone call saying "this thing is a piece of $hit!"
All of the M77's I've worked with have been under MOA. I have bedded each of them and reworked the triggers, same as the other brands. A couple of them are very accurate, and the rest will beat 1" easily with favored loads. I know most around here like Big Green, but they kind of soured me with that last one.

Sounds like all they did was "bring it up to Mini-30 STANDARDS", so it now performs as Ruger intended!!

quote:

Originally posted by buckshot:
Looking things over, it's scary to see that commentary is more than 3:1 against Ruger. Now that can't be good in anybody's book. I sure do hope somebody at corperate sees this.

I'll speak up for Ruger. I've only owned one that was a turkey - and it was a Mini-30! This one would shoot 1" groups, but to a different spot on the target from one day to the next! I tried everything I could think of, including steel-bedding it like a National Match M1. Nothing stopped the wandering zero.

I've owned an M77 (tang safety) 7X57 and a No. 1A 7x57. Both have been 1 MOA rifles out of the box, as has my No. 1B 7mm Rem. Mag and 1V .25/'06. Had the same performance from a No. 3 .30/40 Krag. My 1H .375 H&H will shoot into 1.25" and so will my 1S .45/70. I've also owned a Blackhawk .44 Mag., one in .357, one in .45 Colt, and one of the first Single Six's.
Never had a problem with any of those Rugers excpt for the Mini 30. (Never sent any back in to Ruger for repairs, either!!)


About the only guns I ever bought new that caused any problem were that Mini-30 and a .45 Colt New Frontier single action that shot patterns rather than groups - it had a .451" groove diameter, but the chamber mouths were .456". No wonder it shot like shit!!

Just my two cents as I haven't had to use Ruger customer service before. My Mk 77 all weather in 30-06 shoots right at MOA out of the box. I haven't had any work done on it but that trigger is definitely "lawyer inspired". I imagine some day I will have that cleaned up and see if the already reasonable accuracy improves slightly.. As it is a hunting rifle I'm not complaining about the accuracy at all...

Ken....

Hey Steve, If they replaced the barrel and it's a crappy barrel there isn't a lot you can do. Lap it to clean it up, and check the crown. And if it's still terrible, maybe pay me to take it.

I've thought of doing something like a Grendel on a mini. Nate

Oh, For you Ruger bashers, I've had equally poor results buying Rems and Winchesters as well. I now own only one Rem I can think of, and Two M70's, and one of those is the dredded CRPF! I have several tang saftied M77's.

quote:

Oh, For you Ruger bashers,

Bashing would involve badmouthing a product that we have no experance with. I prefer the term Ruger veterans.

darn fine doner actions... Keep the ruger bashing up.. that drives 50 bucks off the rifle when I need a doner!!

jeffe

I wish more of the 'Ruger Bashing' would filter Downunder.... might drive the used prices down...

I forgot about the tang 77 varmint 6mm that had a shortened 21" bull barrel. NO bedding or anything done, and it shot 1 hole for 5 shots.

Fed brass, H450, BR primers and a 95gr Hammett bullet.

Rugers of old had hit/miss barrel quality since they outsourced them, but this Ruger 6mm must have had a good one.

I guess the stock screws were torqued just right, as I hear that can affect accuracy a good bit on the Ruger's.

quote:

Originally posted by 6.5BR:I guess the stock screws were torqued just right, as I hear that can affect accuracy a good bit on the Ruger's.

You betcha - in my expereince, it's the single most common cause of problems with the Ruger...

Why is it that people seem to be compelled to tighten every screw to the max?

Rugeruser,

Don't you know that propper screw or for that matter bolt tightening procedure is to tighten until you twist the head off then back it off a quarter turn!

Sadly I have to admit to doing this ALL the time. Bad habit I guess. Fortunately I'm MUCH more careful on my guns!

I have no problem with my Mini 14. It shoots a group that is 2" at 100 yds. It always has shot good groups with those solid little 55 gr bullets.

I called Ruger yesterday about the status of my mini. The lady told me that it was evaluated by a tech, but she did not have any more info than that. I requested that she get the facts as to what if anything was done to the rifle and give me a call, she agreed. As they did not get back to me I called them. I was told that the rifle was at the "range" to be test fired on Monday and was scheduled to be shipped out on Monday.

I wanted to know what if anything was done in the way of repairs before it was sent to the range for test firing. I was also concerned that it was scheduled to be shipped out the same day as the test firing, not much time for any repairs. I got this run around, "I am sorry sir, but I do not have that info, we will send you that info along with the rifle". "No", I said, "you will find out what if anything was done to this piece of junk and DO NOT send it back to me with out fixing what you screwed up". I went around and around with this lady until she finally put me in touch with another lady. Same crap, " I don't have any idea as to what if anything was done to your rifle, that info will be sent to you along with your rifle". What a joke!

I was then directed to a third lady. I told her my story, she listened and gave a few "Oh My"s and a couple "I'm sorry sir" and even a "well that's not right". It ended with the famous, " I will check into this personally on Monday morning".

So, I am all set! All I have to do is sit back and wait for Ruger to put my mini back on target. Yea right, I won't hold my hand over my ass thats for sure!!

Did I mention "Ruger Sucks"?

I have recently sent my Ruger 77 Mk II back to Ruger, as anything I shoot in it shows signs of high pressure (pierced and extruded primers, and shiny extracter slot marks on brass). Loads that are well below max in a Mauser 96 are showing these pressure signs. I got the rifle back from Ruger about a week ago, and with the explanation that they had "adjusted the chamber". It shoots exactly as it did before sending it in, and I'm thinking about slugging the bore, as I'm out of ideas as to why it's showing such high pressures. The velocities are up about 200 fps also, so I did'nt believe that it was a headspace, or "chamber adjustment" problem. Ruger also told me that the rifle had been returned to them before, but didn't know why.
This is my first Ruger problem, but it just might be my last.
Woody

I have a Ruger Number 1, 45/70 Govt. (surprise!).

Stainless, laminated.

Ruger, New Super Blackhawk, 10.5" bbl. stainless, 44 mag.

Ruger Security Six, 38/357 mag.

Ruger Mark II Govt. Target.

Ruger Bearcat, 22 cal.

Ruger Single Six, 22 / 22 mag.

Ruger Mod. 94 I think. I sold it.

-- Never had any "issues." Ruger has serviced a gun or two for me. Always excellent service.

What I see in a lot of "gun forums" is people who can't be pleased no matter what. The umpteen zillion dollar custom gun with the space laser optics is always "a piece of shit" because it makes the owner somehow more status accrued.

I got one hell of a John Deere. You should let me drag you behind it, over the pastures and through the barn.