Ruger 77/22H Loses Zero

M

M14

New member
My Ruger 77/22 in .22 Hornet keeps losing (shifting) zero. It's done it with 2 different scopes & mounts. I've free floated the barrel & shimmed the bolt. The gun groups well, the groups just aren't where I zeroed it after a few months. Anyone have an idea other than trade it? My only thought was to glass bed it.
 
I doubt that the rifle is shifting zero. The general rule is that rifles don't, scopes do. What might be happening is that the rifle shoots to a different point with a cold barrel than with a hot one. I've got one .243 that is notorious for shifting POI as the barrel heats. If you adjust the scope after a long session, then let the barrel cool for several months, the rifle might have settled back to it's "cold bore" state and the POI will have shifted.
 
I've never owned a wood stocked rifle that wouldn't do that to at least some extent. Get it perfectly zeroed and 3-4 months later you shoot it and it still shoots good 1" or so groups. They just strike the target in a slightly different spot. Most of the time it would not be enough to cause a miss at close to moderate ranges, but sometimes it could be 2-3" from where it was last zeroed.

Free floating and glass bedding help to reduce the effect, but you will never get some wood stocks to completely stop this. If you live in an area where the climate is fairly stable it is less of a problem. But in other places where temperature, humidity, and altitude can vary a lot, or if you travel to other parts of the country wood will do this. I stopped using wood on my go-to rifles over 30 years ago.
 
FWIW, on my hunting rifles, I always zero for the first shot from a cold/clean bore - the way I start every day's hunt.

Some zero from a cold/dirty bore - YMMV.

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We haven't experienced POI shift in pillar-bedded, free-floated, wood-stocked rifles. However, we've found rifles that were thought to be free-floated, but the forend warped over time so the barrel was touching, at least on firing.

A sixteenth of an inch barrel/forend gap is minimal...more is better.
 
does your 77-22H have a laminated or Walnut stock ??? mine is laminated, & after I switched barrels ( nothing to do with shooting quality... I switched to a heavy fast twist barrel ), mine holds POI
 
My 77/22H has the laminated stock. When I said I free floated the barrel, I actually floated about 2 inches at the foreend tip. Originally there was a a lot of foreend pressure at the tip. Maybe I should float the entire barrel.

Cork
 
IMO, the barrel should be floated up to about 4-5 inches in front of the chamber, unless it's a light weight hunter in a magnum caliber... should be able to slide a dollar bill unobstructed to within a couple inches of the chamber
 
How tight are the action screws? The front (under the chamber) should be very (95 in lbs) tight, the rear should be hand tight and the center screw tightened and then turned back 1/8 turn. It is critical that the front screw is very tight as it holds the receiver in place. This information comes direct from Rugar.
 
My 77/22H has only 2 action screws. The front one is the "main" action screw. The rear one is behind the trigger guard & screws into the rear of the receiver. I alway crank the front screw down tight. I then crank down the rear one. Perhaps a lighter touch on the rear one is in order. Thanks for your input.

Cork
 
It might be the stock. I bought a stainless Ruger Hawkeye that shot great and then started shooting very poor groups. I finally swapped out the plastic stock (went with Hogue) and the scope and it started shooting great. Well, that plastic stock just sat around gathering dust until I decided that I'd put it on my short action Ruger MkII. Not immediately, but in fairly short order, that Ruger started shooting loose groups. I thought it might be the scope on that rifle, but I swapped out the scope with one I knew I could trust but the rifle kept shooting ugly groups. So...I figured that I might as well put the old stock back on it (wood stock) and it shot like a champion again. It had to be that evil flimsy plastic stock that came on the Hawkeye. And don't anybody get on the screw torque bandwagon. I did all that stuff and it didn't help. The evil stock is now gathering dust and anybody that wants to drive over here and get it (central Texas) can have it.
 
My experience with full size 77s has been that they seem to shoot better with forend pressure. My business partner maintained it was due to the angled bedding system.
 
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