After months of work and no free time I finally made time for me and spent the day Thursday at the range. One of the rifles I took with me was an early flat bolt Ruger M77 in .243. I've owned this rifle since the early '90's and per the S/N it was made around '69 or '70. Twenty years ago this was my ground hog rifle and it has always been the most accurate rifle I've ever owned. I still have a target i shot in about '93, 5 shots with one called flyer, the four shots, sans flyer, that counted measured .273, that was at 100 yards using my handload of an 85g Sierra HPBT, still the best shooting I've ever done. It's taken many, many whistle pigs over the years but I quit hunting awhile back, no time sadly.
I put a new scope on it and finally got it shooting back on target at 200 yards, it is just phenomenally accurate. I don't recall shaking so much some 25 years ago, but things happen..
Question is this: I seem to remember reading long ago that the first Ruger 77's left the factory fitted with either a McMillan or Shilen barrel as Ruger did not make thiers in-house at that time.
Does anyone know if this is true or who made the barrels at that time?
This is the one gun I will never sell (well, it and a slew of others when it comes down to it). I remember a hunt back in the mid '90s, I took a 'hog at a paced off 350 steps, I would guess it as around 325 yards give or take. With a forehead hold I popped him in the belly, gun was and has always been sited in at 200yards. Within 5 minutes we spotted another 'hog at just about 200 eating a piece of kudzu like nothing was happening. I bet a case of beer I could hit him in the tip of his nose and when we retrieved him the bullet had cut the base of his nostrils. I got the case even tho it wasn't quite the tip.
Anyway, old memories aside, anyone know who made these early barrels or if I'm just wrong on this.
RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

You are certainly correct that Ruger farmed out the barrels on earlier Model 77's, but I think it's a trade secret who made them. I've never seen it in print. Many such barrels didn't give very good accuracy, and I think that drove Ruger to in-house manufacture. The earlier M-77 had a rep for mediocre accuracy, compared to arch rivals Winchester and Remington, let alone Sako.

There may have been more than one barrel contractor. You seem to have lucked out.

BTW, custom stocker Lenard Brownell designed the M-77 stock, although I strongly suspect that Ruger insisted on the flatter bottom on the forearm, for cheaper production.

BTW, do you ever eat woodchucks? I've seen widely varying opinions about their quality as food. We don't have them down here. Jeff Cooper mentioned eating large marmots in Western states. But his father was president of a California wine and food society, and he probably had excellent culinary advice.

Seems as though I read that the M77s made between 1968 to 1973had bbls on them fitted at the factory that were made by Douglas.
1974 Ruger switched to Wilson Bbl Co as the suppier of the Model77 bbls. That stayed that way till the very early '90s , at that time Ruger began to mfg the bbls themselves for the M77.

I can not recall where I read that or where I got that info,but that is what I have recalled remembering over the years.

I hadn't thought about Douglas, I too know I read this somewhere but cant recall, maybe in an American Rifleman? I'll poke around in the old magazines.

No I never tried eating a ground hog but (Fair Warning: another story!!)

When I was young, like 10 or so, we were very poor. My family lived in Dickson County TN on an old farm that had gone fallow. We lived in a house that had no running water, no heat other than a wood stove, no air conditioning and very little food. When I got off the school bus my first chore was to walk down to my Great Grandfathers place, 'bout a mile or so, with plastic jugs and get water from his well, then come home and split wood etc.
We ate whatever we could get our hands on, I started hunting, alone, at that time and squirrel and rabbit was a real treat. Springtime brought poke salet and water cress, more times than I care to remember dinner was white beans over bread. We had an outhouse and two 'slop jars' in the backroom. We bathed in the creek but you couldn't drink the water.
One summer day I was out with my single shot .22 looking for something to bag for dinner and spotted a huge ground hog across an old field. I stalked him on my belly thru the tall grass to within about 75 yards, got up on my elbows, took aim and whistled. When he popped up, I popped him!
I was so excited, this thing was big and old, probably the Granddad of all the 'hogs in the area, grey hairs and scars on his muzzle. I spent a good half hour dragging him back home, I figured we'd eat for a week on this thing. When I got home I called my Granny out and showed her what I'd bagged. She took one look at that thing and said 'Yeeckk! I ain'ta eatin' that thing-he's nothing but gristle an fat. I hadda eat them durin' the depression and I aint eatin' that un. Git rid of it. If'n yer gonna pot a 'hog git the yung'uns, least they'r tender'.
Well I was heart broke, not to mentioned covered with chiggers from my crawl thru the weeds.
So, that was the one and only time I ever even tried to eat one.

I left home at 16 and never looked back for decades. Now I look back on those days with fondness. We were poor, but together. I miss them.

RD

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Got a Phd from Hard Knocks U

Ruger forum says Douglas from 68-73 and Wilson from 73-90

I bought a M77 in 6m/m Rem. I think maybe in the 70s. I don't know who made the barrel but it was the worst shooting rifle I have ever owned. I liked the safety and extractor so I had a Hart barrel put on it and now it shoots good. Larry

Which one? I'm on .net. But I visit .com. I guess I need to check the Collector forums on each for that sort of info?

I have a 1976 Ruger M77 in .30-06. What a tack driver! Thanks for the info on the barrels. I never knew that.

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Pack light and cinch tight.