Guys have any of you heard of any accuracy issue with the 77/22 Magnum? I am considering buying one and this thread got me wondering about their rimfires...

My 77/22 22 mag is a very accuarate rifle with just about every load I have tried in it. it normally does around an inch at 100 yards. I have a Burris 4x - 12x rimfire/airgun scope with adjustable objective on it. out to 150 yards it is pure death

The Ruger 77/22 Hornet is not as bad as people make out.
The .22 Hornet is a hard caliber to get to group. Over the years I have had 5. With the exception of my current 77/22 Hornet I had got better results with reduced loads. 1 1/2 down to 3/4 of an inch, for me was average. I use 2400 in my magnum handguns so I said, "what the heck, I'll try it in the hornet". My first load of 9.7 grains of 2400 with a 45 grain bullet came in CONSISTANTLY at 5/16 of an inch at 100 yards.

If ever in this world was there a piece of crap produced, then the Ruger 22 Hornet is it. It has about the worst reputation of any rifle eve produced...That is a shame because its a beatiful little rifle and the idea behind it was a good and sound...the rest is history, it ain't no good for the most part and has problems caused by cheap production designing from the get go....I had one, that was enough for me...95% of them won't shoot and cannot be made to shoot.

Jack Belk wrote a scathing article on them for Varmint magazine some time back....he completely rebuilt one (got it from me) and after becomming familair with its design he said it was close to worthless....

The main problem with Ruger rifles now is the �lawyer� trigger that Ruger now installs on all their rifles. Thankfully that is an easy fix. I have 77/22�s in .22 lr, .22 WMR and .22 Hornet and all have Timney triggers and ALL are very accurate. I have done nothing else to the rimfire versions except mount scopes. I did do a bedding job on the Hornet but accuracy was very good before hand. Ruger rifles are not fancy BUT are solid, dependable rifles that will give you years of shooting pleasure. Lawdog

Ray hit the nail on the head. The Ruger .22 Hornet is a piece of shit. period. That said, I have a 77/22 magnum that is accurate beyond belief.

There's some truth in all of the above posts (even the pathological liars mess up every once and a while say something accurate ).

People who have had good luck with the 77/22 series (the minority) like them. People like me, who have been lucky enough to build or buy a nicely reworked one (new trigger, K-Hornet barrel, bedding job) like their own but wouldn't trust another. And People who have been burned by them cuss them incessantly.

They are nicely proportioned and slick looking little rifles that sometimes work well, sometimes can be made to work great, and mostly provide their owners with frustration. That said, they are much nicer in style and handling qualities than the CZ, which is said to shoot well but is a somewhat crude chunk of iron and wood with some quirky features like a very low comb, very high scope mounting, and unappealling magazine protrusion.

I've got a Liberty No. 3 in .30/40 which has been a 1 MOA rifle right out of the box, and still is. It even shot the Rem. factory 180-grain Corelokt load well!

There for a while I thought the fables about 77/22 Hornets were true, but I had to purchase one anyhow just to see the stories were true. The triggers are crap, but that can we delt with by installing after market units.

LilGun didn't do magic in my rifle, H4227 did OK, but it wasn't until I tried 2400 coupled with Fed 100 primers and the 35 grain V-max bullet did the rifle show its potential. With the 2400 load, this rifle is a solid day in day out 1/2 MOA performer. It may have been an easier road to this level of accuracy by going with a CZ 527, but sometime the fun is in the challenge. My 77/22 Mag also shoots the Rem V-max load into groups small enough to scare sage rats out beyond 150 yards.

I have had a Ruger M77 for 7 years now. It does not shoot factory ammo well, nor H4227. However, after adding a Timney spring and sear kit, loading 13grs Lilgun ahead of small pistol primers and placing a 45gr softpoint on top (loaded with Lee Collet Dies), this rifle shoots 3/4". 11.7gr of Lilgun with a Sierra 52gr HPBTM shoots slightly better. A friend bought the same rifle, and with my handloads, shoots almost as well as mine.
In a nutshell, I love mine.
Fred in Colorado

Stonecreek,

quote:

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People who have had good luck with the 77/22 series (the minority) like them.

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Actually they are the ones in the majority. They just go around praising them like the few that have had bad luck do. Lawdog

Randy at Conneticut Precision Chambering does a good job at accurizing the Ruger 77/22hornet.
I think the biggest gains are from him tightening up the two piece bolt.

Anyone can may a good rifle shoot poorly.
No one can get a poor rifle to shoot accurately.

It's not the caliber. I think it's Ruger. I know a couple of guys who have CZs in .22 Hornet and both are thrilled with them.
Brno made their reputation in N. America with the .22 Hornet. They changed their name a couple years ago to CZ. It's still the Brno manufacturer. I've got some stationery that contains both letterheads, that's how I know. The Hornet is a finicky litle beggar, but once you have the load it likes you're home free. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

My problem with the CZ is it's .223 bore. Not .224 like Ruger uses in both the 77/22 and the No.1. Lawdog

I too had awfull luck w my Ruger 77/22 Hornet. It was nice to look at, and hold, but shot badly. Had my local gunsmith work the lawyer's trigger, pillar bed the action, and free float the barrel, but it still threw fliers regularly. Finally I sent it to CPC, where they rechambered it to the K variant, lapped the bore, and most importantly tightened the bolt. It will now shoot 3/4 moa at 100 yards, for roughly 20 rounds, after a good barrel scrubbing. It seems that the slop inherent in the 2 piece ruger bolt was to blame. CPC fits a sleeve within the bolt assembly that scabs the two sections together, and replaced the existing pin w an oversized one. It worked for my gun, but not all 77/22's respond; some have oversized bolt rail receiver dimensions, which negates the work done to stiffen the bolt slop. Anyway, sounds like the 77/22 Hornet remains a gamble, unless you are committed to owning one, and therefore, spending the money to get it to shoot well. All that said, I love mine.

Sorry, just noticed I wrote 3/4 MOA. It will actually shoot 1/2 MOA, but only for about 20 rounds or so, out of a clean barrel. It seems to me that this barrel and/or cartridge foul quickly, or is 20 rounds about normal, to the rest of you. The rest of my larger caliber rifles seem to go farther after cleaning. What kind of cleaning/accuracy testing rituals do the rest of you use? How many groups do you fire before using copper solvent and a brush? By the way, I usually shoot Hornady 35 grain V-Max factory loads, and have not yet begun reloading for it.

The 77/22 Hornet that I had was indeed a very piss poor shooting rifle. I tried every accurizing technique and trick known to man on that rifle to no avail. Dozens of different load combos didn't do a thing in that rifle. I sold it. I recently acquired a prewar Savage Sporter in 22 Hornet that is bone stock. With 12.5-13gr of LilGun and 35gr VMax's it's a very accurate little rifle. It produces small groups, the Ruger was always good for a 2-3 inch pattern.

Take your Hornets and have them rechambered to "K-Hornets", use the saame loads and your groups will shrink! Better yet, take your Hornets and trade them for something else!! This ought to get the natives stirred up!!! GHD

Too much is made out of .001 difference in bullet dia. My Ruger #1 in 22Hornet shot great(.75-.5 -5shot groups) with either .224 or .223 dia. bullets. So does my CZ Hornet (if it does have a .223 bore). I have never been able to tell the difference in either. For that matter I have several thousand Speer 45gr. bullets that mike .2228 and they still shoot a 5shot group of less then .5 out of a Hart barreled 223 of mine.

I firmly believe that no matter what gun a person is using, that they will not shoot well unless they have faith in it!

It's like setting out to do something and you have "I can't already imbedded in your head!
So, if you don't have faith in your Hornet, regardless of who made it, then you won't be able to shoot a decent group with it!
I have a Ruger 77/22 Hornet that hasn't had any of the fancy stuff done to it and I can shoot the Winchester factory ammo into 1 1/4 inch groups and my reloads with 45 grain Hornady spire point into an inch!

My brother had a Ruger 77/22 Hornet. It was a neat rifle, but accuracy wise and trigger pull wise, it sucked. I tried working up a load for him and everything was't all that good until I switched primers to small pistol primers. Groups tightened up a bit, to about an inch. Well, after all the work I did on it, he traded the thing off and got a CZ 527 in .221 Fireball and it is a tack-driving, sweetheart of a rifle. He has a Leupold 3x9x40 power on it and shoots nothing but factory loads with it. As far as the CZ having a .223 barrel instead of a .224, Mike at CZ did confirm that it has a .223 bore, but he said reloaders have been using .224 bullets with no ill effects. Those are his words, not mine, becuase I have no personal knowledge with the CZ hornet and reloads. Over the past couple of years though, the folks who bought them and shoot them have not complained about the difference to my knowledge. Tom Purdom, formally of Grants, N.M., now of Eudora, Ks

Wish I'd read this site before buying my 77/22 in .22 Hornet. So now that I know I'm not alone being frustrated trying to make it shoot, it looks like trigger work, K rechambering, and bolt tightening are starting points other than trading it off. Need to try LilGun and 2400 too. Any other suggestions?

"trigger work, K rechambering, and bolt tightening"

And it can go on and on. With these rifles it's dumping good money after bad. What, $400 for a new rifle plus another $200 maybe on top of that? If Ruger had built a quality rifle in the first place nobody would be bad mouthing their product.

quote:

"trigger work, K rechambering, and bolt tightening"

Trigger work is nothing big to worry about, easily handled and needs to be done on many rifles made today. Chambering to a K-Hornet isn't needed either. The regular .22 Hornet is accurate in it's own right. All 3 of ours(2 No. 1's and 1 77/22 VHZ) shoot under MOA all day. Bolt tightening I never had to have done on any of my M77's(18 total so far). All solid as can be and better than some bolts being made today. Lawdog

Thanks everyone! I think you all just saved me a bunch of money and frustration.

After getting the Ruger, I would like to know what the groups are like. Please return and let us know how it is going and what kind of groups you are getting. Thanks ... Tom Purdom

Appreciate all the advice. One thing that was not mentioned, and one that I'm considering, is sending it back to Ruger. I discussed with their rep yesterday and she advised me to ship it to their Newport NH service department. What do you think of that?

I find this thread interesting...

Why is the .22 Hornet M77 so bad in particular? It doesn't seem like other chamberings in the M77 get reports this bad. Anyone got a theory or am I missing something?

I think it has to do with design of the action itself, the bolt especially. The bolt body for the 77/22 Hornet is not one piece, it's a two piece mechanism that is somewhat "loose" in its design and function. Take a look at one and you'll see what I'm talking about. The trigger sucks , but that's pretty much standard on Ruger rifles. It's really too bad because they are really neat looking little rifles.

OK, I know the bolt body you're talking about, it's the one the .44 Mag M77/MkII has I believe. I suppose such a bolt could be less sturdy and not as conducive to accuracy as the one-piece bolt of the other centerfires.

Don't forget to try small pistol primers with the Lilgun powder. At 12 to 12.6gr of Lilgun, my Ruger shot about 2", at 12.8gr it shrunk to about 1" and at 13.0gr it is sub-MOA, with a 45gr bullet, and I get about 2850fps out of it.
Only mod has been a Timney spring and sear.

I agree with the guys above about the 2400. I tried several powders initially but found 2400 to give the best accuracy. My normal load was 9.6 grains with the Nosler 224 45 grain SB.

I have since gone to the remington 45gr Hp's and SP's and get just about the same accuracy, but at a much lower cost for the bullets.

G'day All. Sounds like most of the posts are right about the bolt arrangement on the 77/22. Good for rimfires, not so good for centrefires?
BTW maybe the BBL's that Ruger use have changed? I heard a rumour that they have changed suppliers? My No3 in 22 Hornet routinely shoots .80 MOA, as long as I don't screw up.
Just a thought?

Cheers, Dave.
Non Illegitium Carborundum