Hey guys, it's been a while since I posted on the walls here. Just thought I'd share my little experience today. I was out shooting with my brother. I was using my deer(and larger) hunting rifle, a .300 Win Mag Ruger. It is the all weather kind, synthetic stock, sport taper stainless barrel. We were shooting across the valley on his property, a distance found by laser range finder to be 303 yards(perfect huh?!). I was well under moa all day at that distance. I did not measure any of the groups, but I would estimate the best to be well under 2", 1.5" would be a closer estimate. So much for the story that Rugers aren't shooters!! Sorry for the long post, just sharing my excitement!

The comments I've read about Ruger accuracy have been mixed....some pro and some con...

My complaint with them has been....bad triggers, safety failure, bolt latch failure, floor plate functioning, stock warping, poor feeding, and a service department that quickly and at no cost sends you replacement parts just like the ones you already have that don't work!

Yeah, I often hear mixed reviews on them too(accuracy wise). Very inconsistent in the past, but I seem to have picked one of the shooters(at least so far). The shots start walking after 2 or 3 shots fairly close(I can only assume due to the barrel temp, warms up pretty quick). The triggers aren't the best stock, true, but with a little work mine has been improved a lot. As for the rest, I have not experienced any of them yet, hopefully I won't! I suppose I should keep a watch on them though, thanks for the heads up.

Mine works fine and so has my daughters. I shot the best group I've ever shot a week or so ago with a 270 win stainless synthetic(mine). So far no problems. My brother bought one in 7mm remington magnum at the same time. Before then I had never seen a problem with them. His first few shots went into a small group but the third or fourth hung up. We had to beat on the bolt handle to get it open. He's had the problem with factory ammo and handloads. Looking at the brass it leaves scuff marks right in front of the belt on the case. He hasn't took it to the gunsmith but we think the chamber is tight. The rifle is really accurate but rounds keep hanging up. What's weird is a couple won't hang or get scuffed then one will hang up so hard it takes a cleaning rod to knock it out. Anyone seen this?

I haven't had any problems like that with my .300 WM. I'd say I've put 35 or 40 rounds down range(Pitifully low I know) through it. Most have been factory Winchester Silver Tip(180 gr), maybe 10 or so handloads(which I think may be a tad hot, guess I should invest in a Hornady manual and be done with it) and haven't had any problems. Like I said my shots from 4 or so on if fired in quick(3-4 min total) succession will walk off a bit, but the barrel becomes real warm then. No scuffed up or hanging brass though.

All of my Ruger model 77s both mark I and II will shoot 1" or less at one 100 yards and most at 200 yards.i have shot lots of cloverr leafs at 100 yards.My best group so far is 3/4"at 200 yards with facorty 225 gr.I think the medium heavy barrels are the 300 win mag ,338 win mag and 264 win mag are alot more accurate.I shot a 3/8" group with my 264 win mag with 155 gr Lapula mega tips.i love Ruger model 77s.I think my 243 ruger 77 mark I is the least accurate but it needs to be bedded it still shots an 1.5" group.

What are you considering a "medium heavy" barrel? My rifle is the M77 Mark II, all weather. I am guessing this doesn't fall into the medium heavy category does it??

Just shot my LH SS Ruger MK2 06 Laminate stock
2nd 3 shot group at 100 yard less than .5".

The 338s,300,264 s and 25-06 all have 24" medium heavy barrels.The recoil on the 338 win mag has less recoil and a more straight back kick than most 338s I have shot.My ruger model 77s are more accurare than my stainless model 70 winchester with a boss.I have outshot lots of custom rifles with my rugers both stainless and blued.i think its hard to beat the rugers for the money.

I'll be the first to admit, I am not the most learned person when it comes to these things, but I'm young yet, I have time to learn right? But from what I see so far, for the money the Ruger's seem real hard to beat. Thanks for informing me about the medium heavy barrel issue! Anything else you'd like to share?

hi
i have a ruger all weather in 3006 . it is built 2004 according ruger's data. when i made break in the first 3 shot made a same hole in the seize of a dime. the distance was 40 yds and ammo was norma jaktmatch 150 grain and it will put many brand of ammo under 1 moa at hundrerd yds. i was impressed by ruger's accuracy. frankly i don't know how much the quality of ammo is important for accuracy,but i usually use norma and lapua and sako which are all very good ammo.my old husky in 6,5x55 do the same too
yes

My LH MKII, 300win,all weather is also a tack driver,I did replace the trigger but that is a common thing on other rifles too. I can shoot 2in groups at 300yds all day, I have 7-800 rounds through it.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
The comments I've read about Ruger accuracy have been mixed....some pro and some con...

My complaint with them has been....bad triggers, safety failure, bolt latch failure, floor plate functioning, stock warping, poor feeding, and a service department that quickly and at no cost sends you replacement parts just like the ones you already have that don't work!

Agreed! To many bad experiences with Ruger to ever waist money on another one.

I love the way Rugers handle as hunting rifles but I've owned only two a .338 and a .22 lr. The .338 mag had a very heavy scruchy trigger that shot well enough for the intended purpose, moose inside 150 yrd.s. I sold because the moose huntt went away and I hated the recoil. The guy who bought it replace the trigger and it shot very well. The .22 was short-barreled stainless 77/22. It shot O.K. before the trigger was replaced, and terrificly with a replacement trigger. The accuracy of the little gun amazes the .22 target shooters at my range. I'd like to try the new Hawkeye with the improved trigger design.

I've had a lot of good shooting Rugers, shot a 3/4 in. group with the .416 this morning. This is pretty much a standard for it, the good ones go under 1/2. I've never had one with a feeding problem, the triggers are crap, but easily fixed. I can fix the trigger on a MkII as quick as adjusting a Rem 700 trigger. Steve4102, hope your problems with Ruger isn't based on a Mini14-Mini30, that is a whole nuther ball game.

I bought two of them back to back about five years ago. Both rifles were new, one would do 4-5" groups @100yds. A lot of time and effort was spent trying to get it to shoot better with no results. That one was traded back to the store for another that shot 6" groups @100yds. I did nothing to it and it was traded off at the next gunshow. If you have one that'll shoot I'm happy for you but I'll never own another Ruger boltgun.

Terry

I have owned quite a few rugers.
I had a MK1 in 300 win that was great, another MK1 I bought a while back in .308 that was in like new condiditon but was an awfull shooter. Thats ok cause I got a good trade out of it.
My 2 currant rugers are a MK2 ultra light in .257 Roberts, that was not good out of the box,But is now about as good a medium rage deer rifle as one could ask for. 100 Grain partitions at about 3100 and 1/2 to3/4 inch groups.
My other is a #1 A in 7X57, it shoots great too !
I will be getting a new hawkeye when the time is right.
...tj3006

Luck seems to be on my side with Ruger accuracy and quality. The only one that was a piece of poop was a Mini 14.

One .257 varmint tange safe,has been moa since 1972. Last year it started to develope a stiff triger condition. That was after 25 years and more than an estimated 9000 rounds. Three recent acquisitions, all laminated varmint are shooting better than I can; less than MOA. These are a .223 ( 4 years old), a 22-250 a (1 1/2years old), and a .243 (4 years old). I can't say the same for Savage rifles purchased in the last three years. roger

Well where do these stories of inaccurate Rugers all come from?? I know when I first got mine a lot of people did the"oh...a Ruger..". Looks like I'm not the only one happy with mine!

Accuracy worries/stories I BELIEVE stem from Rugers of yesteryear when they sourced barrels of suspect quality and consistency, but they have for many years now been making their own barrels and actually have been approached by other companies to produce barrels for them, according to a rep I spoke with at the 07 SHOT SHOW-at the Ruger booth.

I would say to anyone who has not tried a more recent mfg rifle, to not judge w/o trying.

Triggers on ALL american rifles mfg now and some outside US need help to varying degrees, that is why there are aftermarket triggers, and gunsmiths who tune factory ones.

quote:

Triggers on ALL american rifles mfg now and some outside US need help to varying degrees, that is why there are aftermarket triggers, and gunsmiths who tune factory ones.

The trigger on my new Accumark is excellent and light years ahead of a Ruger trigger - even the Hawkeye trigger.

Raybass, yep I had a Winchster M70 (new pre-64) chambered in 7STW that did this very thing. This rifle was a CRF/mauser style extractor and after the third shot I bout had to stomp the bolt open with my foot. Don't know what caused this but suspect it was a mis-cut chamber. It was almost hunting season and I needed another rifle so my son could hunt with my 06, so I swapped it in on another. First and last Winny but it could happen with any brand.

Appearing regularly at our range here in west-central Oregon is one of those refugees from the land of fruits and nuts who give all other Kalifornians a bad name. You know the kind...biggest new pickup he can beg, borrow, or steal; big boat; $3,000 dollar rifles; and knows everything about everything. If you don't believe me, just ask him.

He loves to drop names of the famous gun people from the LA area he knows and, to hear him tell it, who he taught everything they know about shooting.

For lack of a better name, we'll call him "Bob".

Anyway, one of Bob's favorite lines is "Oh, a Ruger, they're all a POS."

One day last year I took one of my many Rugers to the range. It was an older, flat-bolt, tang-safety M77-RS .257 Roberts which I bought used locally for a song. For lack of a handy better (more powerful) scope, I had a Leupold 4-X on it.

As soon as I hauled it out of the case, Bob began proclaiming to one and all, "Oh, looky here, XXXX has one of those POS Rugers...must want to practice missing..." And he went on and on about their crappy barrels, lousy triggers, etc., etc.

I just sat down and shot a 5-shot group at 100 yards...it measured about 1/2" (just under, actually). So, of course out come all the exclamations about "shit-house luck", etc., from our friend and all-knowing mentor Bob.

After four consecutive 1/2" or slightly smaller groups, it is strangely quiet at my end of the line. It turns out Bob has moved to the other end of the line where he is telling people what crap Nosler is turning out these days, and how worthless leupold scopes really are......

So, one of the reasons I like Rugers is not only the accuracy I seem to be able to get from quite a number of them, but how peaceful they make the range when a certain kind of "expert" is there who would normally be filling my ear with wet buffalo pies.

Got a MKII all weather .300 WM a year ago. Winchester CT 180 grain factory loads shot fine off the sticks (no bench shooting yet), 2.5" groups.

I put some weight in the butt stock (.060 HDPE sheet sandwiching plumbing strap, two 2" bolt/nut things with another plumbing strap near the ends, all wrapped up with decoy weight "rope" and expoxied, probably 1.5 pounds...then screwed to the factory holes where the old rock hard butt pad used to be screwed to) and a slip on LimbSaver.

Then I bought good old remington 150 grain corlock factory loads and it shoots 1 - 1.5" groups off the Harris bi-pod sticks.

Mine's of the new variety and the trigger is great.

I'm still hoping this turns into a good hunting rifle, its my first new one in 20 years.

My experience with Rugers have aways been good. I have experience with the M77 and the No 1. Accuracy of my rifles have been on par with other manufacturers. A friend has an old tang safety chambered in .270 Winchester and it shoots one ragged hole day in and day out.

The scope alignment with the Ruger integral bases is excellent which I think points to excellent QC.

The Ruger bolt action rifles I own are chambered in:

22 Long Rifle
22 Hornet
6.5X55 Swedish
264 Win Mag
7MM Rem Mag
300 Win Mag
338 Win Mag
350 Rem Mag
375 H&H Mag
416 Rigby
458 Lott

All of them shoot MOA or better (some much better) with various hand loads…

All but the 416 & 458 have had the sears replaced for a much lighter trigger pull…

Never followed any official barrel break in procedure, but all rifles shot better groups the more I shot them…

Tip hump bedded the 6.5X55…

6.5X55 to 350 Rem Mag all wear weaver K6 scopes mounted in lapped Ruger rings…

264 to 350 Rem Mag are all stainless M77MKII models. 264, 300, & 338 have medium heavy sporter weight barrels and are the best shooters of the bunch (1/2 MOA or better).

The 7MM has a very thin contour barrel and accuracy falls of when the barrel heats up.

Does anyone know why Ruger puts lighter contour barrels in some chamberings but not others in the same model line up?

Matt V.

quote:

Originally posted by MLG:

quote:

Triggers on ALL american rifles mfg now and some outside US need help to varying degrees, that is why there are aftermarket triggers, and gunsmiths who tune factory ones.

The trigger on my new Accumark is excellent and light years ahead of a Ruger trigger - even the Hawkeye trigger.

With you on that one MLG... My smith worked wonders on my Ruger trigger but the Accumark trigger is still better....

As to the accuracy of my Ruger... It's an '06 77 Mk II and has always shot well... With the trigger job and a new recoil pad it consistently shoots sub MOA now... Before the work it was pretty much right at MOA give or take a little...

Ken....

I heard that they were so accurate the other manufacturers had them banned from competition...like hunter class and cast bullet assn Benchrest, and F Class in long range shooting.



Rich
DRSS

I currently have two, my wifes ultralight m77 mk II .308 that'll put 3 into just over 1/2", and my 350 rem mag, and it's first handload was 3 under 1/2". I just swapped scopes on the .308 this weekend and was re-zeroing by burning off some old Malasian milsurp in quick 3 shot groups, accuracy was ho-hum 1 1/2" to 2". Then when zeroed I ran some old Fed 165 gr premium loads through. Group was 3/4" with two bullets in the same hole.

I know rem 700's are so much more accurate, so I bought 2, a 221 fireball LVSF for my daughter, and a .243 ADL for myself.

I swapped stocks and bedded the .243. I put 2 boxes of factory 100 gr loads through the .243, then worked up loads with various powders and 75 gr V-max, 85 gr tsx and 100 gr sierras. I spent more time working up loads on that .243 than the 350 rem mag ruger, and the mdl 700 .243 was no more accurate. So I sold the .243. If it had printed 1/2" with no effort I would have kept it, but the 85 tsx groups were 1-2" for 3 shots, and the 75 V-max was at best 3/4".

Remington's might be a good choose to re-barrel due to the round action, but I don't buy for a minute the, they're so much more accurate out of the box. I'd also wager a Ruger M-77 w/ a good trigger, trued action and top notch barrel can hold it's own with a similarly re-worked remington. Most competition work is monkey see, monkey do, doesn't mean there aren't other actions out there that will work.

It is very weird that the 7 mm rem mag has a light contour barrel where as the 264 and 25-06 both have the medium heavy barrels.I have yet to see a medium heavy barrel which is inaccurate.I have 14 rugers in 243,264 ,338 and all except the 243 can shoot way under an inch.I need to bed the 243.The stainless 338 with laminated stock is awesome .It hardly kicks and is verry accurate.I have the safety on the markII 77s though.I can shoot my old mark I 338 win mag very fast and very accurately and get off the first shot at the blink of an eye.I have shot many running deer with it.I plan on making a Ruger mark I in 7 mm rem mag into a Ruger 416 .I think that will be an awesome rifle.I have never had a failure to feed with my rugers.My winchester model 70 stainless control round feed was a pos when I got it.It has to be almost be rebuilt to be used.I replaced the magazine the spring and follower.Its scope mounts were drilled crooked and the stainless finish stainled and rusted even before I went hunting.I have had three remington 700 all that would not feed worth a crap either.They were not nearly as accurate as the Rugers.My stainless 338 win mag Ruger beat my Winchester stainless model 70 with a boss on it.The rugers are tough as tanks too.Here in Alaska the ugly paddle stocks can be run over with a truck or 4 wheeler.The finish holds up good too.I do like the less glare of the new Hawkeye finish even better.Now they need to put their open sites back on.

My 7MM is one of the newer M77MKII that came out right after they dropped the skeletonized stocks. My brother’s is one of the older models and it has the med-heavy barrel. He only shoots factory loads and his rifle shoots about 1.5†groups with 175 grain Winchester power points. I special ordered my 300 & 7MM sight unseen and was really disappointed with the thin barrel on the 7…

Are the any other chamberings that Ruger tries to lighten up?

Been considering the Hawkeye in 223 Remington but would like to know the barrel contour before ordering? I like the new matte finish, always hated the extra glossy finish on the old rifles.

As an addendum to my last post I left one Ruger bolt action out. I bought a 30-06 M77MKII Express last year and have only shot it once with factory loads and iron sights and factory trigger. It did about 1.5†to 2.0 inches with Federal 180 grain game shocks….

Matt V.

The two that I owned were a .270 RSI and a SS/Lam .243. The RSI Never shot well and I worked with it quite a bit. It had a pencil thin wood wrapped 17" barrel and a bad trigger. Man I wanted this rifle to shoot good. I thought long and hard about this purchase before I had the dealer order it for me. It was a very pretty gun and at the time I thought perfect for the type hunting I was doing, but it just wouldn't shoot. I bedded the action then bedded the barrel channel. Then I sanded it clean and pressure bedded the barrel channel. I played with tightening the action screws and tried about 10 different load combinations. I even changed the scope. Consistant 4"-5" groups at 100 yards no matter what I did. I figured maybe I just got a bad one, it happens. I called Ruger and talked to them about it. They said try a different bullet weight. I told them if it wouldn't shoot a 130gr bullet it wasn't a .270. They said by my explanation it was with in factory specifications and there was no need to send it back. After that I traded it back in for the SS/Lam .243 The dealer had this one on the shelf and I had no love for the RSI after all the grief it had caused me so I traded even with him. I bought three boxes of factory .243 ammo in different weights and went back out to the range. 6" groups is what this one did! Everybody gets a bad rifle once or twice in their life, but two in a row? I'm starting to see a pattern here. I went home and threw the rifle in the closet and forgot about it. It was a waste of time and money. Maybe I just expect too much out of a rifle, I dunno. The next gunshow that was in town I traded the .243 off with some cash for a nice Winchester Classic LT .270 that turned out to be a real tac driver.

The whole thing cost me about $300 and a lot of lost time and grief. Here's the kicker though, about a year or so ago I bought one of the 580 series Mini-14's and it'll almost hang toe to toe with my AR15 accuracy wise! Everybody has had a bad Mini-14 and I get a tac driver. Go figure

Terry

My Scientific Wild-Ass Guess (SWAG) on the contour of Ruger barrels is that Ruger sees the .264 and .25-06 as light-duty varminters.

I have a Ruger m77mkII stainless laminate that is very accurate

Savages, Howas, Remingtons, etc., can be accurate too. But tacky is tacky and there ain't no fixing or making up for that.

Don't mean to ruffle any (or at least not too many) feathers, but as the fisherman used to say to the tuna, "Sorry, Charlie!" Rugers are derivative, imitative, cost cutting, investment cast, low rent substitutes for the rifles we really want. Don't get me wrong, they do have their place, but that is it.

For the connnoisseur, they lack any but the meagerest quantities of style and grace, and to the aficionado, those flaws are always fatal.

mrlexma,

I don't understand your post. What are you saying?

mrlexma

They are not stylish, but are hard core rough use hunting rifles in my opinion. You don't get much style and grace for under $500.

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
Savages, Howas, Remingtons, etc., can be accurate too. But tacky is tacky and there ain't no fixing or making up for that.

Don't mean to ruffle any (or at least not too many) feathers, but as the fisherman used to say to the tuna, "Sorry, Charlie!" Rugers are derivative, imitative, cost cutting, investment cast, low rent substitutes for the rifles we really want. Don't get me wrong, they do have their place, but that is it.

For the connnoisseur, they lack any but the meagerest quantities of style and grace, and to the aficionado, those flaws are always fatal.

However, they shoot straight and are relatively trouble-free.

TODAYwith 100 gr. sp. Mid South bulk bullets driven by 44.5 grs DP 85 in my Ruger varmint, the gong rang 6 for 6 at 600 yds. Not bad for a blind man with cheep bullets and surplus powder, What? Held a nice 4" 10 shot group at 300 yds.same ammo same POS rifle roger

4 Ruger rifles in my safe, all good shooters, all triggers replaced. Owned a shotgun and 2 handguns, too. I'd like to mention that their customer service is really first class. Great firm!