Ok - I have an older Ruger M77 .270 (tang safety). I bought is used (hadn't been shot much). I shot a box of factory loads through it before I bought it - 18 rds into a 2.5" circle at 100yds. Not great, but the price was right. I started reloading for it, and the accuracy was a little better - 1.5+/-" 5-shot groups. Here's a 4" group at 200yds:
5 shot 200yd group

If all 5 shots were all over the place, I wouldn't worry with it, but since 3 were through almost the same hole - I feel like this rifle has the capability of being an accurate rifle.

So, the stock had the bump at the front (pressure point on the barrel), and it wasn't bedded. I sanded the bump and some more of stock down (barrel is now floatingfrom chamber forward), and glass bedded the action. So I was starting to get excited about shooting it again.

Well, since the last time I loaded for it, I bought a modified Stoney Point case to measure the length to the lands - HOLY COW. A 130 gr BT barely stay in the neck of the cartridge - OAL (not length to ogive) was 3.54", which is 0.2" longer than SAAMI Max. So needless to say, this bullet, after loaded as lon as possible to still give plenty of neck-to-bullet contact, is jumping almost 1/4" to the lands.

Also, I have noticed that the cases expand slightly more than normal just above the case head - enough that they "stick" in the sleeve in my Redding Competition dies.

I have kinda thought about having a gunsmith recut the chamber and maybe truing the action. Then again, I've heard bad things about the old Ruger M77 barrels. But maybe they have all had the same problems in those barrels???

Any thoughts??? Anyone know any good gunsmiths in the Houston, TX area? Any that are friendly enough to maybe let me watch them do this just for my learning?

To quote one of the experts here "take it for a walk down gun show lane".

I wouldn't quit just yet. First, three shots in the same hole at 200 yards is GREAT!, the remaining two could be barrel heat build up. Try some very slow fired groups at 200. Second, just because you floated the barrel and bedded the action is no gurantee that you corrected anything, but it's the right "direction" to go. Third, older Rugers especially, were known to have looooong throats. Some shoot amazingly well like this, and some don't (like any other rifle). Thank goodness newer Rugers don't seem to suffer from this characteristic. I'd load normal length rounds, as I do for my 30/06 tang model Ruger 77 and it shoots like this:

So keep tinkering and you'll likely find a sweet spot.

I'm with Bobby, keep tinkering. Bear in mind it's a hunting, not a target (or varmint) rifle. It would be useful to know the order of shots - were the first 3 the ones that went into the one hole? Were the 4th and 5th shots the ones that opened the group up? How long did you wait between shots? I have had a few Ruger 77's, all but one were tang safety models, and all (like any other rifle) had to have handloads tuned to the gun. I know that there is a lot of stuff in the shooting mags about 'accuracy', but most of it is CRAP!!!!! Most shooters can't shoot that well anyway!! I can off the bench, and treasure my accuracy accreditation from the army, but I'll be buggered if I can do it in a hunting situation!! In addition, how often are you going to shoot more than 3 quick shots anyway?? In my MkII 270, after I had fiddled around a bit, I settled on the following loads - note these are apparently safe in my rifle, but no guarantees as to safety or accuracy - they are provided for information only, with no responsibility accepted or implied!! (Yeah, been thru the culpability bit!!). Use at your own risk, and at your own discretion!!!

110g Sierra Pro Hunter, 58.0g ADI 2209
110g Sierra Pro Hunter, 61.0g ADI 2213SC
130g Speer Spitzer Soft point, 59.0g ADI 2213SC
130g Speer Spitzer Boat Tail, 60.0g ADI 2213SC.

I worked these loads up 0.1g at a time, and found what seemed to be a 'sweet spot' - go 0.1 over, accuracy falls off, etc.

All these loads, IN MY RIFLE ONLY produce 3 shot, one hole groups, opening up to about 1" with 5 shots at 100yds. Best of all, they're at the same point of impact at 100, 200 and 300yds! Start shooting faster, the groups open up, but then I expect that from a hunting rifle. The barrel heats up real quick!! Even with feral erradication, the group opening up is not an issue - pigs and deer are just a little bit bigger than 2"! If I'm varminting, I use my 223! The most accurate rifle I ever owned was a tang safety 25-06 which put 10 shots into 1" at 100 yds, no matter how fast you put them thru the barrel!! If I had my time over, I would have gotten rid of my ex, before I sold that gun. The benfit of hindsight!!

Sorry, forgot to add that it's worth glass bedding the action. After that tweaking the action screws is also an issue - in mine, the front screw (nearest the barrel) is done REAL TIGHT!! The back screw (furthest from the barrel) tight, but not as tight as the front one, the midle screw is just snugged up, making sure that the floorplate is easily released.

OK, thanks for the replies.



As for the target, the 1st, 3rd and 4th shots were the ones touching. I let that rifle cool plenty between rounds - when it goes to the range, another rifle tags along to shoot in between shots because I let it cool so long. The same thing happened with the first box of shells through it - out of 18 shots, 12 were ~1", the other 6 shots were all around those 12 opening it up to 2". Because of all this, I think the bedding and floating might help - we'll see.



I will not sell it - I paid less than $200 for it. I want to tinker with it if I have to - I'll keep tinkering with loads for a while first. The way I see it, there's lots of opportunity to make it better, and I don't have alot invested in it. So, if it costs another $100 - $200 and I learn from it (the gunsmithing part), it's more than worth it to me even it the accuracy doesn't improve. Then my 12 year old will have a nice deer rifle - he's already shot it several times and likes it.



I have accurate rifles (i.e., Savages) - one that will shoot well under 0.5" groups with the right loads. I am not expecting this rifle to do the same, but 1" would be great. I agree with Rugeruser about the accuracy bit, but knowing the rifle is fairly accurate sure helps my confidence.



Again, thanks for the help!

Update: If anyone has any old M77 Rugers that won't shoot worth a flip and you want to get rid of them cheap, let me know .



Well, trip to the range yesterday with 10-20mph winds (straight downrange), yielded 5 groups (1 fouler, 1 3-shot group, 4 4-shot groups - 20 pieces of reloaded factory brass) all less than 1". The first pic was the worst group - 3 shots just under 1.0", and the second pic was the best group - 4 shots @ less than 0.7".



3 shot group



4 shot group



Looks like the bedding and floating shrunk the groups in half. Next I'm going to try some load development with longer bullets. Four of the groups had 3 holes real close or touching, and one "flyer" doubling or tripling the group size.



Thanks again for the replies.