30 year old M77 Mk1 Score!

Sweet Shooter

New member
I just wanted to share this photo of my new M77. It's a thirty year old 30-06 I caved and got it for my Deer and Elk tags this year (I was going to use my bow or revolver). I picked it up for $425.00 It's been carried around a bit, but I don't think shot much. The throat looks pretty clean and rifling is very strong. It actually came with a scope installed for that price but the scope was bent and pretty rough.

I'm very impressed with how sturdy and well made this model is. It has a very sweet trigger and shoots right to the sights.

-SS-
 
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I've bought two of those over the past several years, both in .25-06, and both are wonderful shooters. Evidently, they were shot little and stored much. I'm always on the lookout for a good used Ruger, especially the tang-safety versions. If you surf the intertubes, you'll find that they don't shoot very well, but if you actually sit down with the rifle and some good loads, you find that they shoot very, very well.

I have no complaints with my tang-safety Rugers. Neither do the sons that I passed them along to.
 
Nice! The one thing I don't love about my MK2 is there are no iron sights. I prefer optics, but it's nice to know that your rifle has a backup sighting system, if your optics crap out or get damaged, lost, stolen, etc.
 
Sweet!!!!!

I have two older ones with the tang safety and a new 77-22 that has yet to go to the range. . .soon though.
 
Been over two years ago, but found a pair of Ruger Tang Safety rifles in a Gander mountain used rifle rack one day. Both were what I call featherweight rifles, short thin barrels. One was a 270win and other a 7mm Mag. Should have bought both of them, but chose the $210 270 tang safety. The 7mm mag was $240 and it had a 3-9 Leupold scope on it. Both rifles had been well used by previous owner(s), but exterior metal of barrel and receiver and bores were good.

I would have the .270 one I bought rebarreled to 7x57 mauser with an inexpensive Midway A&B barrel after a fair amount of time at range trying to get a decent 100 yd group with the rifle. Accuracy was OK enough for say deer hunting, but forget about anything close to a one inch group.

Rifle is now pretty darn accurate, use it in my private shooting clubs monthly target competition. May never win the competition with the rifle, but I sure do surprise the gents with much more costly custom rifles. A Ruger action seems to be fairly of low opinion by them to build a custom rifle with.
 
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FWIW, your Ruger is a (model) M-77RS.................

IMHO the Mark I/tang-safety M-77's are the best of the beast - especially since their triggers are adjustable.




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I have a tang safety M77 that looks just like yours minus the sights, chambered 6mm rem. My dad gave it to me as my first deer rifle when I was 10. I killed my first deer with it the following season. I still have the rifle and still shoot it occasionally. It has always been very accurate, and I personally prefer the old tang safety to the MKII/Hawkeye. But they are all good rifles
 
Cool, thanks for the feed back. I did drift the sights a bit to get it on, but at 100 yards the first three shots printed within an inch and a half of each other. couple inches high, couple inches left. Iron sights remember. as I drifted the sights I was amazed at how precisely that reflected on the target. I think it's going to be a very accurate rifle. I'm not interested in scoping it with the kind of performance I saw with the irons. I'm seeing some good 30-06 ammo prices too!
-SS-
 
sweet shooter

that is a "Dandy"!! Cherish that one !! One of my Buds from years back had
a 77 Mk1 in 257 Rob that would shoot 3 shots touching all day long,(with scope)
Sweet rifles those Mk1's, Congrats on that find ! :cool:
 
It's a sweetheart for sure. On Saturday my youngest son and I went out to the desert and I was able to hit clays at 100 yards off hand/free standing with iron sights. It swings almost like a shotgun. All I have to do is figure out how to stop the punishing "whack" to the shoulder. Maybe wear more than a tee shirt?
-SS-
 
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