Do all Ruger M77's have the claw extractor?

Like Kraigwy, never seen a Ruger M77 that does not have the claw. Early Ruger M77's were pseudo control feed. The bolt face was configured that the action was in fact a push feed. The claw snapped over the cartridge rim on bolt close down. These older actions are still floating around, but I don't know if they made any left hand versions. I would avoid one of them as the snap over extractor is going to fatigue fracture at some round count, and I don't know if anyone makes replacements. They have been out of production for decades.

I like the later controlled feed models, the barrels are better than the early M77's, the action is well designed and durable. Bedding is more difficult than M70 or Rem700 action due to the crazy angled front guard screw. Ruger should drop as the recoil lug width around that screw is insignificant and I found that my action slide around. Had to glass bed the action as groups moved left and right with factory bedding.

I had no idea that Ruger was making a lefty, as I am a righty.
 
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Bill Ruger refused to build left hand actions. As I recall he had to die before a left hand 77 came out. It would be the latter version, so the OP should be good to go.
 
They all have the claw extractor. Pre-1991 rifles with the tang safety were simply known as model 77's and had the claw extractor, but used a button type ejector and were push-feed.

When the 77 MK-II came out in 1991 they went to the blade style ejector, but a handful of the 1st run were still pushfeed. This was easily modified after purchase and Ruger started modifying all of their rifles to true controlled round feed very early in the MK-II era. A MK-II with pushfeed is a pretty rare rifle.

The newer Hawkeye's are basically the same as the MK-II with mostly cosmetic differences. The Hawkeye trigger is the same design as the MK-II, but is improved.
 
I would avoid one of them as the snap over extractor is going to fatigue fracture at some round count,
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Wouldn't this apply to ALL firearms that have a "snap over" extractor?

I see no reason to single out the M77 in this regard...

Extractors can, and do break. EVERYONE's can, and most likely everyone's designs have broken at some point.

I've seen new out of the box guns have extractors fail, and 100+ year old guns still working fine with all original parts.
 
I've worked on a ton of used-hard-and-putaway-wet tang safety '77's and I've never seen an extractor go bad. Plunger ejector, Bolt stop? Yes.
 
I should have said "controlled round feed" instead of "claw extractor".

In this case it's a customized rifle on gunbroker and the seller is not responding to my question. Ergo, time to move on.

Old school professional hunters in Africa would only use Mauser or pre '64 model 70 Winchesters for dangerous game with that claw extractor. Their acid test was to take a .458 loaded with soft nose and cycle it as fast as possible without turning the bolt down. If it didn't jam it was good to go.
 
Wouldn't this apply to ALL firearms that have a "snap over" extractor?
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In fact yes. In time all push feed extractors wear, or fatigue fracture. I have helped replace a push feed M70 extractor on the firing line. The match director happened to have Win extractors in his truck, and we all sat in a circle and removed the shooter's extractor, and fit a new one. With the M70 push feed, it slides out of the way. So what happens is wear, typically on the sharp end, and cases fall off the bolt face instead of clearing the receiver opening.

The Rem 700 extractors wear out all the time. Might as well stock up on replacements before factory extractors go out of production.

Claw extractors will fatigue fracture, especially if required to snap over a cartridge rim. This is very hard on an extractor. I had one break on a M1903, happened in rapid fire prone. Cartridge jumped in front of the extractor and instead of bending over the rim, the extractor broke. The M1903 extractor was designed with enough bevel to snap over a cartridge rim, but that extractor was old, and it broke. I recommend for all rifles with a claw extractor, to feed from the magazine. Do not require the extractor to bend across the cartridge rim. Back in the day, when pre 64 M70 extractors were out of production, it was difficult if not impossible to find a replacement. What some did, was to modify M1917 extractors, (with enough grinding) to fit a pre 64 bolt.

Anyway, I am leery of extractors, such as the push feed M77 extractors, as I know it will break, and then, where do you get a replacement?
 
on my 77 357 I found the extractor spring was so stiff it would not allow the incoming rd to move entirely up into feed position and would jam on the ramp. I shortened the spring..so far so good
 
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