Ruger M77 action-why don’t you see custom builds?

I have a Ruger M77 Mark II stainless with composite stock, chambered 7mm rem mag. It's been sitting in the safe for a decade and I was considering rebarreling it into something for competition use. Why do you never see custom builds off this action? Am I better off selling it as is and starting with a R700?

I'm not sure why you don't see any but I just sent a M77 MarkII in 22-250 to McGowen to be rebarreled in 6.5 Creed for my wife.

They are out there, you just need to find a smith comfortable with working on them and has the tooling to properly square/blueprint the action.

Everyone works on Remingtons because there just so many of them out there.

Cast action, short magazine boxes, virtually no aftermarket support, very few aftermarket stocks, very few aftermarket triggers, proprietary rings (unless you have a smith drill and tap the receiver, etc...

I like the old school M77 MKII rifles, but this is why you don't see many customs built off of them.

Custom Ruger are out there. Top is my 8 twist 22-250 and bottom is 338 Edge. Good enough shooters but neither are competition worthy or me for that matter ;-)

MudRunner2005 said:

Cast action, short magazine boxes, virtually no aftermarket support, very few aftermarket stocks, very few aftermarket triggers, proprietary rings (unless you have a smith drill and tap the receiver, etc...

I like the old school M77 MKII rifles, but this is why you don't see many customs built off of them.

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That might have been true at one point but there's a good bit of aftermarket support for the 77's now.

The actions are cast and then highly machined.

The Hawkeye series are a major step up from the old tang safety 77's.

The factory trigger on the Hawkeye is also the most easily modified trigger on the market today and the simplest design I've seen in fifty years. For those that want an aftermarket trigger there are quite a few out there today.

No the 77's will never have the options you have for the M 700 but there's more than plenty available.

MudRunner2005 said:

Cast action, short magazine boxes, virtually no aftermarket support, very few aftermarket stocks, very few aftermarket triggers, proprietary rings (unless you have a smith drill and tap the receiver, etc...

I like the old school M77 MKII rifles, but this is why you don't see many customs built off of them.

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^This, an elderly acquaintance years ago was bound and determined to have his old 77Tang rebarreled. He passed away having never found a smith willing to do the job. They all said the cast action would crack.

I have three M77 tang safety Rugers. Two are SA and one LA. All have had multiple barrels and the receivers have never cracked.

All three rifles have had their mag boxes lengthened. SA to 3.1" and LA to 3.4"
All are in McMillan stocks. The SA rifles are in the discontinued ultralight stock.
Two of the three have timney triggers.

Current chamberings:

1) SA 284 win
2) SA 6mm-284
3) LA 257 Weatherby

I have installed many barrels in these three actions myself. Might be one of the easiest to do as there is no bolt recess or extractor groove. Rem takeoffs can be easily turned down from 1.1" to 1" and rethreaded. Tang safety is fast and well positioned. These three rifles will be the last to go if I ever get in a mood to sell off some rifles.

I have built two .260 Rems and one .250 Savage on Ruger M77 actions and they are extremely accurate. Just as accurate as anything else I have built on. One of the .260s belongs to a friend of mine that when work allows and he is able to make it to our monthly match generally leaves with the first place finish.

It can definitely be done, as others have proven. I just think other platforms have more aftermarket options and a stronger following.

Dosh said:

^This, an elderly acquaintance years ago was bound and determined to have his old 77Tang rebarreled. He passed away having never found a smith willing to do the job. They all said the cast action would crack.

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I was never a fan of the tang safety 77's but I have yet to ever see one of the actions fail and I have seen several customs built on them, and more than a few that had been rebarreled. Sounds more like an excuse because they just had an affinity for other actions.

I've built three custom ruger m77s in the last three years. One was a 25-06 one a 30-06 and the third was a 223 remington. The 25-06 is a tang safety that got dropped muzzle first into the mud and forgotten about until the accuracy was ruined. It now has a nice Shilen barrel and timney trigger. The 30-06 was a light weight all weather, plastic stock, pencil barrel horrible 5 MOA rifle when I started. Now it has a pretty walnut stock heavy stainless barrel. The 223 was a varmint heavy barrel laminated stock that now wears a krieger barrel and rifle basix target trigger. All three were glass bedded free floated and All of them shoot half MOA.

Is the Ruger #1 action also cast? Just wondering, I have always liked Ruger rifles and own a few, a friends M77 Predator 6.5CM is the most accurate factory rifle I have ever seen.

catch 22 said:

Is the Ruger #1 action also cast? Just wondering, I have always liked Ruger rifles and own a few, a friends M77 Predator 6.5CM is the most accurate factory rifle I have ever seen.

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Yes it is cast as well. I just built a custom 250savage on one and there are several things that seem to make it problematic in the precision game. One is there is no way to ensure the bolt face is square with the rear of the barrel. Mine is canted a couple thousands and there is nothing, short of machining a whole new breach block, that can be done about it. Second is the method for attachment of the forend it makes it impossible to float the barrel. Third is the way the firing pin spring works it loads and unloads spring pressure off the hanger of the forend. This makes the whole forend vibrate when the trigger is pulled. Since there is no way to free float the barrel this is something that effects every shot. But they are very beautiful and my favorite rifle in appearance. If all you want out of a rifle is moa then it can be had with a ruger #1 but if you are wanting 1/4 moa it's best to go with a bolt action.