ruger action ok?????

chad44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2011
Messages
148
Location
Colorado
I've got a ruger mark II in 243 win. I recently have been thinking of re-barreling it and building a better rifle out of this action. Is this a decent action in your opinions? and what barrels/stocks/trigger are good for this set up. Not wanting to spend a lot either:D
 
Stock, Boyds. Barrel cheap A&B or ER Shaw. Gunsmith who works for beer, or on a Ruger AT ALL, Good Luck Charlie!!! Not hating on Ruger, I like the action and the way it functions and all that. But when I tried to find a smith to work on one a few years ago....no dice. At least, no dice for people who had a good and verifiable reputation, which to me means way more than a cheap $ price for "Work Done"

Lots of luck, if you find a smith and he does good work, Please post back! I really would love to hear about it!

Gary
P.S. I do NOT endorse either of those barrels!!! You said Cheap, they are cheap.
 
I've got a ruger mark II in 243 win. I recently have been thinking of re-barreling it and building a better rifle out of this action. Is this a decent action in your opinions? and what barrels/stocks/trigger are good for this set up. Not wanting to spend a lot either:D


Just going through Midway usa's inventory, any of the Boyd's stocks and Bell and Carlson. Definitely look into some trigger work. Depending on the stock you get, you may need to get the action bedded. One of the Timney triggers would definitely help improve trigger pull over the stock. Barrels are up to you. There are a lot out there. Brux, Lilja, Lothar Walther, Douglas, and Hart are all great choices. Just pick one and see if it hits the budget. I would suggest the Lothar Walther. They break in easy, and so far it is accurate with multiple loads.

Ruger actions are commonly built on, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. They are a sturdy action and can be tuned, so that is not an issue I would concern yourself with. A good gun smith can help ya out.

Tank
 
I have a Ruger 77 MkII that just came back from having a new Krieger barrel fitted. It was NOT cheap, but Krieger appears to have done some very nice work. Sadly, Krieger has since changed their policy on which actions they will fit a barrel to and the Ruger actions are no longer on the list.

I have not fired the rifle yet, so I cannot comment on its performance or whether or not the money spent was worth it. I have put some handloads together and am still working on the bedding. I am waiting for some decent weather to put it through its paces.

I have about $1500 in the rifle (including the purchase price of the rifle), not counting optics. Most of the money I have in the rifle has been spent on the barrel. I currently have the rifle in a factory laminated stock that I bought from Midway USA. I could have kept the original walnut stock and saved some money, but I had different plans when I ditched the original stock.

If you wish to economize, here is my advice:

1. Order a contoured chrome moly barrel blank. One can be ordered from various sources online. A contoured blank will cost you about $90 at the low end for an Adams & Bennett to about $400 at the high end for a Hart or Krieger.

2. When you have your barrel blank in hand, strip the action and the bolt and send them both to Mark Skaggs. Have him true the action face, lap the bolt lugs, thread/chamber/install the barrel. He has put barrels on several of my rifles. He does good work at a fair price. If desired, you can also have Mark apply a bake-on finish while he has your rifle for the action and barrel work. The barrel and action work will cost you about $150 and the bake-on finish will cost you about $100.

OR

3. Once the barrel and action are together, you can do the metal finishing yourself. Alternatively, you should have little difficulty finding someone to do the metal finish work for you since the action type will have little or no bearing on finding someone to do this sort of work.

4a. Assuming you have not had an overly large barrel contour installed, order the correct pillars from Brownells and pillar bed the action into the factory stock. My ruger has a #4 contour barrel installed and there was easily enough material in the factory stock to accommodate it once the barrel channel was opened up.

OR

4b. Select a stock that fits your budget (Stocky's and Midway are two good sources). If the stock has a bedding block, skim bed the action. If it does not have a bedding block, pillar bed it.

5. Replace the trigger, if desired.

If you go with an A&B barrel and don't replace the stock or the trigger, you should be able to have your build together for about $450ish. Cost goes up from there.

Personally, I like the Ruger Mk II actions. They have some great, classic features (3 position safety, claw extractor, box ejector) and can be had at a reasonable price. Of course, they are not at the top of the list among competition shooters, but I don't see that as the only measure of a rifle/action. For a rifle that is meant to be used afield, I think the Ruger is just as good as any other non-custom action.

Shoot, enjoy, and let us know how your build turned out!
 
benchracer,

Good to know there are a few smiths who do good work on a Ruger. Marked this thread for future use. One of the reasons I do not currently own a Ruger was because of my experience when I was researching a buy and had those smiths say "Not no, but HELL NO!" to a Ruger. Man you woulda thought I was asking them to rebarrel an old type 38 Arisaka!

Thanks for the heads up,
Gary
 
diriel:

I am glad to know that you found the information that I posted to be of use.

I must admit to being mystified as to why a smith would be so adamant about refusing to work on a Ruger 77 Mk II action. There seems to me to be very little about it that would set it apart from other actions in terms of service or modifications. The ruger actions use the same action wrench that is used for mauser actions and generally have many of the same features. The barrel threads are the same as a Winchester model 70. Like a mauser, the most critical part of fitting a barrel is to ensure that the face of the receiver is square to the action and that the threads are cut square to the action. Again, nothing special there. I don't get it...

The only thing that I can think of that would potentially be a headache is the angled front action screw. I could see that making a bedding job a little more complicated. However, that is a problem that can easily be solved with Ruger specific bedding pillars and a drill press.

Overall, it seems to me that any smith who can work on a mauser and a Winchester model 70 should be able to do the same work on a Ruger. Still, I wouldn't want to take my rifle to someone who isn't comfortable working on it.
 
I know a smith that loves working and building off of the Number 1 actions. He built a 220 Swift AI for my dad. We have yet to get it out and shoot it. Some day!:rolleyes:

Tank
 
I have a ruger m77 mark 2 in a 220 swift that I just shipped off to pac nor to get a new barrel. It cost 580 for barrel, chamber, squaring, lapping lugs and fitting. I had them do the same to a 270 win in a mr-7 action and that rifle shoot great out to 800+ yds with a good hand load. Hope this helps
 
I think #1 and 77 work is completely different they have virtually nothing in common.

I think you will find some of the resistance to guys wanting to build on them are:

The actions are cast and may machine a little different than "normal"

There are less after market triggers, bases, rings and so on...rem is like a small block chevy with every aftermarket part on the planet available.

The bolt to action tolerances are not as good as some other makers and may be harder to correct.

the claw extractors put pressure on the case head and can cant cases that don't perfectly fit the chamber. That is more of a problem if your shooting factory ammo.

With less demand for blueprinting them a lot of smiths may not have the jigs make up to true them and will not recoup that time/cost in doing a couple a year.

If your talking the older tang safety models you get into more bedding/stock problems. I like those better than the mark II's but they are just not going to be a 1000 yard gun without a LOT more work.

This is obviously just my .0000002 cents so......
 
Warning! This thread is more than 14 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top