Alrighty, been making peace with the 77/44 and it looks like it is going to shoot! It is a very nice looking rifle.Ranch Dog in ‹ The Ammo ‹ Rifle Reloading < What Rifle Reloading Did You Do Today? wrote:Started on the Ruger 77/44 yesterday with a barrel slug and chamber pounding. Ruger is using a slightly longer chamber/throat than the SAAMI spec with a longer cartridge fitting and feeding through the magazine so that is a win. The 18" barrel has a .420" bore and a .430" groove so will be using my TLC432-275-RF at it's designed diameter.
This is a really cute little rifle but I can see why it was discontinued. Despite my desire to want one real bad it has a couple of issues that I'm sure others see:Then there is the bolt shimming possibilities and heavy trigger pull but I'm ready for them with the shim kit and Basix Trigger replacement. I need to shoot this rifle before I lose interest in it as the scope stuff absolutely wore me out trying to figure it out.
- The Ruger scope rings & mounts are ridiculous especially on this super short action. I ended up using the Burris bases that give you space between the fore and aft mounts.
- Associated with the rings and integrated mount comes a really short bolt handle that has little room for the eye bell of a scope. I thought my Zastava M85 Min-Mauser bad, Pfft!
- The struggle to get the magazine out of the well. Holy cow! So far it is a two handed wrestling match!
The bolt took a .003" shim to tighten up as many users suggested. Fresh out of the rifle, I could actually pull on both ends of the bolt and bend it because of the play between the two bolt halves.
I did not get the Basix trigger installed, I can't removed the stock to receiver screw. This is the screw that passes through the brass insert in the stock. It just isn't going to happen. This one has me really scratching my head as I've never not been able to remove a screw. I've had a number of firearms brought to me with this issue and not one has stood up to me. This little rifle has. I'm actually afraid that I'm going to crack the stock if I go any further. If Ruger will pay the shipping, I think I'm going to let them take care of it. I had a similar problem on my Mini-30, busted the head off of a screw and they ended up making me pay for the shipping, both ways, and repair because I damaged the rifle. This has become an screw vs. a trigger issue.
Now back to the trigger, it measures 6 lbs on a scale but at the bench feels like 3! Really strange, total surprize every time it goes off. Very little travel, I like it. I think that I will check with Basix to see if I can return the unopened package for a refund.
The stock does needs to come off as I need to be able to clean the unexposed barrel surface. The rifle had a lot of surface rust on it. The kind of rust that you cannot see until you rub the surface with a paper towel. I also want to look at the barrel to stock contact. It is tight which is fine as long as it is uniform but I think from the initial shooting it needs to be relieved.
I have the rifle sighted in at 100 yards with my TLC432-275-RF but the MOA performance is not as good, yet as either my Marlin 1894P or Rossi 92. It needs a bit more shooting to get near what they produce. The Ruger shot a 2.810 MOA group during the chronograph session. I'm using 25-grains of H110 vs. my normal Lil'Gun, still have over 3 lbs of H110 that I need to shoot up.
The stats beyond MOA were:
- Average velocity: 1850 FPS
- ES: 57 FPS
- SD: 17.20 FPS
The Ruger will get it's chance at Lil'Gun and the 94P and Rossi are going to go back to H110 as well until it is gone. That ought to end their snickering at the 77-44 as they are the ones sitting there with the higher twist rates! The ruger is a 1:20, the Rossi 1:30, and the Marlin 1:38.
Also will let the Ruger choose which of my three bullets it likes best; my 250, 275, or 300 grain. They all have the same out of case profile, the body lengths are adding the weight. My 1894P likes the 300, the Rossi likes all of them so my hope is that the 250 or 275 is agreeable with the Ruger so that I have a 44 Mag for each bullet.