Me & my tang safety Ruger M77

[pastorp]

Years ago when Ruger was mfg. the tang safety guns my wife bough me a regular M77 in 25-06. Nothing special about it at the time. It came with a clean barrel and Ruger rings. I mounted a leupold scope of that period mfg. and began reloading for it. At that time I was hunting on the same ranch I'm living on now. So we had a 300 yard range set up in the pasture in front of my friends trailer.

If his wife was at work, we would pull the kitchen table over to the front door and shoot off of it at 100,200,&300 yards. I settled on a 90gr hollow point varmit load and a 120 gr soft point load hunting load. I don't remember the power or load. But the bullets were Serria. Going on memory the varmint load shot into about 3/4" and the hunting load into about 1 & 1/4".

I took that Ruger to the southern Rockies when I moved west and killed a lot of jack rabbits and deer with it all with the same bullets. Guess I was young & dumb but the though the gun might not shoot never crossed my mind. I liked the rifle but since I'm not really a bolt action lover, I gradually hunted more with my favorite BLR and the Ruger slipped away on so long forgotten trade.

So all Ruger, tang safeties are not inaccurate.

[Lloyd Smale]

surely not all of them. As a matter of fact it seems to almost go by the caliber. Ive had good luck with 243, 250, 2506, and 280s. Pour luck with the  257 roberts, 7 mags, 338 mags and have heard horor storys about the 757. 06s and 270s and 300 win mags seem to be hit and miss. Two of the most accurate ive owned were a 280 and a 2506., Both i foolishly let go. If i could have one guy back of all the rifles ive sold through the years it would be that 280

[spruce]

There may be something to the caliber thing.  I've had only one tang safety model, a .280 Rem, and it was very accurate.
I sold it because I just HAD to have a No.1.  Still have the No. 1 so I guess it wasn't a "bad" decision, but kind of wish I'd sold something else and kept the M77 too.
 
Personally, I think the tang safety is handier for hunting than the wing safety.  But the gunwriters of the day brainwashed people into thinking they needed copies of the pre-64 Win M70, and Ruger figured they could sell more rifles by making the changes.

[Talltexanrancher]

Still have my old tang safety 77V in 280 (heavy barrel), and like its owner, it's now ugly and heavy   but 25+ years later it still shoots 115 and 130 Speer handloads like a dream...sub moa not an issue.  What's interesting is that mine will not shoot anything over 130 accurately and I have no explanation for that...and I worked at it.  Years ago I talked with someone at Ruger and they assured me it had the same twist as the "regular" 77 (1:9) so I don't get it.     

[roper]

Many years ago one of my favorite was heavy barrel M77 220 Swift and I've had few rebarreled over the years.

[oleman]

 I bought a M77 Mk.ll 7mm. Rem Mag new in 2003. After all my best efforts all I can get is 2.5 inch groups at 100 yds. I have never shot at or killed a deer at more than 60 yds anyway so I was more or less happy. About a year and a half ago a co-worker offered to sell me a tang safety M77 in .30/06. I told him I was not intrested. About a month later he brought it to work and told me he wanted me to have it and would sell it for $200.00. I have got to tell you guys of the eight centerfire rifles I own it is by far the most accurate, one inch or slightly under. It is the rifle I now use every time I hunt whitetails. I guess there are good ones and there are bad ones in every brand and chambering. Yes I did say $200.00. 

[gunnut69]

I also prefer the tang safety 77's. The 220 Swift's in the 77's have a reputation for great accuracy.. I have a 77 tang safety in 7mm Rem mag.. It really loves 160 grain bullets (or just close). The most accurate bullet was the Hornaday 162 boat tail but that bullet is much too soft for game so I changed to the 160n Nosler Partition. The rifle shoots well under an inch and kills like lightening..

[Dresden]

 recently bought a Ruger77 action rebarreled to 35 Whelen, every time I cock the gun the bolt pushes the safety on, Is this normal, and why?

[mcwoodduck]

recently bought a Ruger77 action rebarreled to 35 Whelen, every time I cock the gun the bolt pushes the safety on, Is this normal, and why?

Not normal on either of my Ruger M77's that have the tang safety.

[flintlock]

The only centerfire I have owned since 1980 is a tang safety Ruger M-77 in .243 caliber...It's been plenty accurate although a few years back I did trick it out a bit, so it's not really stock anymore....

[Dresden]

Thanks McWoodduck
time to grind

[mcwoodduck]

Thanks McWoodduck
time to grind

Before you grind, I would take the gun apart and see what is going on and if something is installed wrong that is causing it to go on. 

[Val]

I have three tang safety M77s, one in 243, 25-05 and .308. All three are very accurate shooters with my hand loads.

[Huffmanite]

About 4 years ago, I left a Houston area Gander Mtn store with a well used Ruger Tang Safety featherweight rifle in 270 for $210 plus tax.  Well, I do not hunt, just shoot paper, so had the rifle rebarreled to 7x57 mauser with an inexpensive Midway A&B heavy contour barrel.  Would replace the factory trigger sear, with a $45 Rifle Basix and altered the factory stock forend to make it more suitable to shooting rifle from a rest.  End result......its one of my more accurate rifles that I'm most likely to take to our ranges monthly varmit for score competition.  May never win the competition with the rifle, but sure have outshot a fair number of my fellow range members with my Ruger tang safety.

[Larry in SD]

recently bought a Ruger77 action rebarreled to 35 Whelen, every time I cock the gun the bolt pushes the safety on, Is this normal, and why?

I am thinking the safety is put in wrong. I did that once myself. I currently do not have a Ruger M77 Tang Safety around here to check. With the barreled action out of the stock you'll see a rod connecting the safety tab connected to the trigger. I have had that little rod fall off and ultimately the safety tab fall out. Yes it fits either way and I put mine together wrong one time.

Larry

[Graybeard]

Let's bring this one back up and see if folks might want to talk more about it.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive owned probably 20 77s through the years. Would love to have the money I wasted on load development on most of them. Ive had exactly 3 good ones. A tang safety 250sav RL a tang safety 280 and a blued walnut hawkeye in 2506. Right now the only one I have is a tang safety 250 savage rsi. Its a 2 inch gun but is cool enough to keep around for 100 yard deer shooting at camp. People bash the #1s but ive had hands down better luck with the #1s ive owned then the 77s.

[oldandslow]

I always loved the looks of the 77s but almost everything I ever read about then high lighted their poor accuracy. Several years ago I looked at a SS one and had to twist my arm pretty hard to hand it back to the salesman but the accuracy thing won out. I own a couple of #1s. The 22-250 is super accurate with my handloads and the 270 is pretty good.
The only rifle I own with sort of a tang safety is an early Savage Axis. It's a PITA to use but the rifle is very accurate so I keep it around although I really can't find a lot of like for it.