Custom Rifle?

24 February 2009, 14:09

sgt. mac

Custom Rifle?

At what piont can I stop calling my rifle a Ruger and start calling it a custom? After two broken/factory replaced, stocks, A timminey trigger, vias muzzle break, with the current stock custom bedded and floated. Can I stop calling my M77 .338 winnie a ruger?

24 February 2009, 16:27

cobra

quote:
Originally posted by sgt. mac:
At what piont can I stop calling my rifle a Ruger and start calling it a custom? After two broken/factory replaced, stocks, A timminey trigger, vias muzzle break, with the current stock custom bedded and floated. Can I stop calling my M77 .338 winnie a ruger?

If it does what you want it to, what does it matter?

24 February 2009, 18:19

sgt. mac

I am still trying to get it to shoot without blowing out its stock. First one went 60 rounds and the second went 80. I only have 40 through the third. This was a brand new rifle when I bought it, and it turned me off to Ruger forever.

24 February 2009, 18:31

Dr. Lou

If you didn't want a Ruger why did you buy one? To make it a custom you probably need to start by putting a custom barrel on it.

24 February 2009, 18:44

sgt. mac

I wasn't aware of how their quality went downhill. I was real happy with the purchase until I started shooting it. Groups were terrible with premium ammo, stocks kept splitting out just behind the bolt. Things like that really turn a person off to a brand.

24 February 2009, 18:59

Doc

Dump it and buy something else. I've never had a problem with the 3 Rugers I've owned: 2 MK II 77s and a Super Redhawk.

24 February 2009, 19:07

sgt. mac

Maybe I am just being bullheaded, but I really want to see this thing shoot well and hold up. I have thought about dumping it quite often but something always stops me.

24 February 2009, 19:15

LBGuy

are you shooting the ruger in a "lead sled" or something similar? seems i have read about folks having that issue when shooting big recoilers out of lead sleds.

24 February 2009, 20:00

bartsche

quote:
Originally posted by sgt. mac:
Maybe I am just being bullheaded, but I really want to see this thing shoot well and hold up. .

Ever so often I get bullheaded like that also. Try having a 3/32" steel plate, as long and deep as possible, mounted tightly behind the recoil lug and hog out just a little clearance in the contact area that is cracking.

roger

24 February 2009, 20:56

Stonecreek

quote:
Originally posted by bartsche: Try having a 3/32" steel plate, as long and deep as possible, mounted tightly behind the recoil lug and hog out just a little clearance in the contact area that is cracking. roger

Good advice.

People automatically react to a split in the tang area by trying to reinforce the stock at the tang and tighten the tang screw. This is exactly what you DON'T want to do. Split stocks at the tang come from some of the recoil being absorbed by the tang. It should all be transmitted throught he recoil lug. The tang attachement is only to keep the axis of the barreled action in alignment with the stock, not to absorb recoil.

The Ruger 77 has a cleverly angled forward recoil screw that draws the action both downward and rearward. If the recoil lug bedding is not properly done, then the result of drawing the action rearward as the forward action screw is tightened also pulls the tang against the rear wood. This is one reason that the Ruger 77 needs a little extra clearance at the tang.

25 February 2009, 00:12

BigB

I bought a 300 win mag model 70 in 1972 that went thru 2 factory stocks. They were replaced for free. After the last one broke I had a gunsmith put on a Fajen stock and glass bed the rifle. It has held up now since 1980 and I use the rifle every year, this year to shoot 2 deer.

Just send it to a smith and get it bedded and hopefully it will be good thereafter.

BigB

25 February 2009, 03:36

sgt. mac

Thanks for the replies. I have used a sled before and told Ruger about it when I sent the rifle back in. Ruger was real good about replacing the stocks and thier findings were too little clearance at the tang. The third and current stock was bedded at the factory.

25 February 2009, 04:08

ted thorn

I have heard that the lead slead is bad news.

25 February 2009, 04:10

fredj338

Nope, modified, but not custom.

25 February 2009, 04:45

30378

If you ever shoot or own a true custom, you will instantly understand your current rifle will always be called a Ruger.

25 February 2009, 19:09

Don Slater

I DISAGREE 30378. I have a custom 7mm-08 built
on a Ruger short action tang safety model.

Dennis Olson removed the tang and added a
Winchester style 3 position safety from Ed
LaPour, as well as a rifle basic sear from Brownell's. The all steel triggerguard is from
Brownell's too.

A new #1 contour from Douglas and a properly
fitted stock from Borden rifes makes it quite handy. Mac's shootin irons put a satin finish
black gunkote on all the metalwork, and CAS II
painted the stock.

An older set of Burris adjustable rings hold a Leupy 2.5X8X36 scope.

Yeah. I'd call it a custom! And as for the lack of controlled round feeding.....It isn't for dangerous game.

25 February 2009, 21:18

Stonecreek

quote:
Originally posted by ted thorn:
I have heard that the lead slead is bad news.

Anything that reduces recoil by adding to the mass of the gun via the stock will place more strain on the stock inletting. A mercury recoil reducer in the stock itself will increase that stress, but typically not to a damaging extent.

The problem with the lead sled (or anything similar) is that people often load it up too heavily in an attempt to absorb virtually all of the recoil. Such a recoil-abosorbing bench device is a great idea, so long as it is kept relatively free to move. In my experience, a total weight of around 15-20 lbs for the rest and anything weighting it is plenty. More weight will risk stock damage.

Since the Lead Sled is too light by itself to be sufficiently effective, users are instructed to weight it with one, or even TWO, 25 lb bags of shot (a costly way to buy weight these days!) I would recommend instead simply using a few 2 or 3-lb sandbags. You'll still cut the free recoil of a .375 H&H by more than half and you won't risk damaging your inletting.

For years I've used a homemade bench rest constructed of simply channel beam. Its bare weight with a sandbag for each the front and rear gun contact points is probably just short of 20 lbs and it absorbs all the recoil you need for the largest gun I own. I've never had any damage to any rifle in the last 15 years I've been using it.

25 February 2009, 23:03

fredj338

quote:
Originally posted by 30378:
If you ever shoot or own a true custom, you will instantly understand your current rifle will always be called a Ruger.

Yeah, I can't go there either. I have a M77 in a custom lam stock chambered in 338-06. I would call it custom, because the only thing factory is the action. This is true of any "csutom" M700 or M70 or M98.

25 February 2009, 23:45

Idaho Sharpshooter

30378,

if your gunsmith did not make the action and barrel from a chunk of steel, and cut the tree down himself; that is not a custom rifle. Would you not properly consider him a parts assembler?

Your definition would eradicate the term custom, since no actions/barrels/stocks are truly custom made. They are merely "acquired" from someone else and assembled by someone.

A custom rifle is one in which the customer selects the components and has an assembler put them together.

Gunsmiths (true definition) build firearms from scratch. It dates back in American at least to the 1600's when they made all of the parts themselves.

Hope this clears things up for you.

Rich
Buff Killer

26 February 2009, 00:29

Michael Robinson

With all the modifications you have made, I think it qualifies as a custom by now.

Let's put it this way: If it was a stock car, NASCAR would not let you race it.

01 April 2009, 03:14

Rae59

I am a little late on this one, but were you using a lead slead or something similar?

01 April 2009, 03:56

DuggaBoye

quote:
Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
30378,

if your gunsmith did not make the action and barrel from a chunk of steel, and cut the tree down himself; that is not a custom rifle. Would you not properly consider him a parts assembler?

Your definition would eradicate the term custom, since no actions/barrels/stocks are truly custom made. They are merely "acquired" from someone else and assembled by someone.

A custom rifle is one in which the customer selects the components and has an assembler put them together.

Gunsmiths (true definition) build firearms from scratch. It dates back in American at least to the 1600's when they made all of the parts themselves.

Hope this clears things up for you.

Rich
Buff Killer

Methinks you mean "Bespoke" not custom, for customization is: the process of modifying or building according to individual or personal specifications or preference.

(And in truth even Bespoke Guns are rarely made by a single person. In fact few if any of the most famous gunsmiths EVER made AlL components of a single gun, even in the early times of which you spoke.)