It is my understanding the the Mark II variant with the three position safety is a CRF. The Mark I tang safety is a push feed with a Mauser style extractor.
Posts: 714 | Location: Sorexcuse, NY | Registered: 14 February 2002
Tang safety model is definitely push feed. My 77MkII, on the other hand, has a split personality - if the cartdridge in the magazine is on the right side, it's CRF - rim slides behind the extractor as it leaves the mag. The cartridge on the left side doesn't engage the extractor until about about 1" from chambering. So maybe it's a 'controlled push feed'? Frankly, I don't care - this rifle is the most reliable and accurate rifle I've owned, and so far I haven't felt the need to shoot it upside down. It also gets used in some potentially dangerous situations, but I acknowledge that I've never been hunting seriously dangerous (ie something that could easily kill me!) game. Not many lions, leopards elephants, etc., in OZ!! Mind you, a charging pig gets the adrenalin pumping, and this gun has never failed to feed.
Posts: 1275 | Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Registered: 02 May 2002
The original 77 mk11 was also pushfeed, but can be converted to CRF. I had a 338 converted after I gave the gunsmith a controlled feed mk11 to examine. Mark
Posts: 277 | Location: melbourne, australia | Registered: 19 October 2002
Mark is correct. I bought a Ruger M77 MK-II in 1994, and this rifle's bolt had a "claw" extractor, but the bolt's face had a full rim around its edge, much like a Remington rifle. Then I read in a gun magazine that Ruger was converting the "semi-CRF' rifles like mine to true CRF. I sent the rifle to Ruger, along a small fee, and a few weeks later I received it with a CRF bolt installed. They also returned the original push-feed bolt. Best of all, both bolts work are well as always, except that one allows for the case's rim to slip between the bolt's face and the extractor as soon as it moves out of the magazine, while the other won't because the rim around the bottom of bolt's face is in the way.
Push-feed M77 MK-II rifles can be converted to CRF. It requires grinding of the feed rails, and also several bolt modifications. For example, the lower portion of the rim around the face must be removed, the lower portion of one of the locking lugs must also be removed, as well as a very small portion of the inner surface of the extractor. This work creates an opening on the lower portion of the bolt's face that is "just" wide enough to allow a case's rim to slip between the face and the extractor without binding. The feed-rails modification requires careful work, too, since the steel that is removed can't be placed back.
Remove your rifle's bolt, and look at its face. If the rim around the bolt's face goes all the way around the face like a Remington's, then your Ruger is a push-feed. Keep in mind that for it to be CRF, most of the lower portion of the rim should not protrude as much as the upper half portion of the rim. If it does, then the case's rim can't travel straight up and slip under the extrator.
Posts: 2448 | Location: Alaska | Registered: 25 May 2002
