Sorry, forgot to mention that you will also have to take into consideration that it may take a few rounds for everything to settle down, and then check the tensions, etc. Also, if it's a new gun, it's going to need to settle in anyway - and I have had this experience with Wins and Rems.

Howdy fellows. I recently picked up a Ruger M77MkII rifle in 6.5x55. I mounted a Leupold 3-9 VarixII on it and worked up a load of
45 gr. of H4350 and a 140 gr. Hornady Interlock. My first groups after getting the scope dialed in averaged 0.75" for 3 shots. The first groups were fired from a cold barrel and the subsequent groups were fired after giving the gun 2-3 minutes to cool down.
Needless to say I was happy with the accuracy of this rifle considering the absolutely horrible trigger pull it had. I pulled the action out of the stock and worked the trigger down to a clean breaking 3 lbs. I then reassembled the rifle and headed out to the range to shoot some groups.
The first group was all over the map with a pattern of around 2". I checked the guard screws and gave them a little extra muscle and made sure the center screw was not too tight. I then fired two 3 shot groups on the same target resulting in two identical 1" groups nearly 3" apart horizontally.
I fired another three shots and put them into 0.5". I let the gun cool down and then fired another group. Another 2" group! Without letting the barrel cool down I fired another 3 shots and got a 0.70" group, THREE inches higher and to the right than the first group!

By now I am pulling out my hair. The gun seems to shoot better when hot which tells me something is wrong with the bedding. But why did it shoot good before I took it out of the stock? Do I have the guard screws too tight?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I had the same thing happen with My ruger 270 . It shot tight then taking it out of the stock a few times and back in it shot all over the place.

Its gotta be a bedding problem and sometings getting tweeked .

I floated the barrel and bedded just the rear tang and behind the front lug. Now it shoots 1/2 inch groups. My barrel had alot of pressure on it when I torked the screws.I think it even tweeked the reciever. Floating it worked.



Try some credit card shims under the front flat and a shim with a hole under the rear tang. see how it shoots . that should float your barrel but it might not. mine was still touching just a hair.

My MkII in 7Mag is the same way, no consistency day to day. I just had pillars installed and glass bedded. Haven't gotten out to shoot it yet but it better work or off comes it's head and it becomes a 375 Taylor.

Ya just gotta love them Rugers!

Gentlemen,

I've owned several Rugers over the past few years and had excellent accuracy with them, even out of the box. One thing that I did to my favorite 7mm was to replace that ugly "canoe paddle" stock with a Hogue overmolded stock, and not only was it more comfortable to shoot, it became incredibly accurate with a wide variety of loads.

I know where you're coming from!! Bloody frustrating! My 270 77MkII Laminated stock (with Leupold Vari-X 2 - 3-9x40) was just like that, until I floated the barrel, bedded the action (watch the screw tensions - in mine it's CRITICAL), and installed a Timney (all by myself!). Now, boringly reliable .5 to .75 groups with a variety of loads. believe it or not, in my rifle even .25 grains makes a huge difference to group size. As to action screw tensions, I've owned a number of 77's over the years, including the original models (I LOVE 'em all), front screw, real tight. Back screw, not quite so tight, but VERY firm, middle screw, just tight enough so you know the screw ain't gonna fall out. Play with this one, it's the one, that like Winchesters, pulls the action out of straight. When you get it right, DO NOT take the rifle apart, or you start again!!