I know some of the old Ruger tang safety 77's had barrels that were made by Douglas. Are there any marking on these barrels to indicate they were indeed made by Douglas?
Does anyone know who else made barrels for these rifles back then? How can they be identified?

Bobby, I had never heard that. What I heard is that they were "Wilson ??" and the best $7 barrel you could buy. One of the reasons for the early Rugers to be so inaccurate.

[ 08-01-2003, 00:51: Message edited by: Customstox ]

Although I don't know who made the barrel, My son has a 77 Ruger (6m/m Rem), made in 1975 that shoots extremely well, Best group to date was .322.
Stepchild

I know they outsourced their early barrels, but Douglas? Certainly not the barrel on mine. It had a jug choke in the muzzle end, and indeed shot like a shotgun. Those early Rugers do not have a good rep for barrels.

Now it wears a proper Lilja and shoots one-holers if I do my share.

I'll try to dig up the information I found on early Ruger barrels, but I'm sure that Douglas was one of the original producers of at least some of the barrels used. Not so surprising since Bob Brownell himself designed the original stock. It seems Ruger had the right idea in the beginning, but somehow got sidetracked with the barrels at some point.
I found this info on the web and it may be wrong, but I've found it several places and read some in reputable magazines.

I wonder what the experince of others has been with the very early "flatbolt" Rugers ?

I purchased a slightly used 77 flatbolt in 7mm mag back in 1971 and it has been an exceedingly accurate and consistent rifle. General fit and finsh also look alot better than the 77 s from several years later......

Have also heard that the early run of Swifts from when Bill Ruger resurrected the .220 used Douglas barrels.........?

Stockmaker was Len Brownell of Wyoming fame, Bob Brownell is the gun parts and tool supplier in Montezuma, Iowa. There is also another Brownell in Ca. that makes checkering tools and I don't think any are related.
Bob

Thanks for the info. I guess this is how things get all scrwed up. But, I had read all of this in articles and on the web. I'm glad to get the skinny on the whole situation. I hope someone can come up with some definitive info on the barrels.

The story I heard on the tang safety M77's was that they all had Wilson barrels, hence the rep for spotty accuracy. The word was that the early Number 1's all had Douglas barrels and had a reputation as being real shooters.

I had a tang safety VT in .308. It was definately "accuracy challenged".

And just to add to the anecdotes, I bought a Ruger "roundtop" M-77 in 30-06 in 1978 (the tang-safetied pushfeed without integral Ruger scope bases), and was lucky enough to get a 1/2 MOA grouper.

The only Ruger M-77 I ever had dissatisfaction with was a 270 Win. Ultralight with a pencilthin barrel. It would shoot groups the size of Elmer's hat. I guess I have been very lucky.

Any more info would be appreciated.

[ 08-02-2003, 07:13: Message edited by: DagaRon ]

The authorized history of Ruger by R. L. Wilson,
Ruger & His Guns , is not very helpful.

Page 89 shows that the Ruger No.1 used Douglas barrels from inception in 1966 until "circa 1973." After that they were Wilson Arms Co. barrels until Ruger started making their own hammer forged barrels. And when that was is a big secret?

No specifics on the M77 could be found by me.

[ 08-03-2003, 03:01: Message edited by: DagaRon ]