The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Hide > The Art of the Rifle: Bolt, Lever, and Pump Action

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old February 24, 2011, 09:03 PM   #1
seansean1444
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 28, 2010
Location: ithaca, new york (home of the ithaca shotguns!)
Posts: 395
Ruger M77 in .270?

anybody have any experience with these guns? i have a chance to buy one fairly inexpensive and would like to know what yardage i may be able to hit a 18 inch steel plate at with it. it would be used for range shooting and white tail hunting. also does the .270 kick bad? it would be nice to have a gun my little brother can shoot confortably besides the .22 or .410.
seansean1444 is offline  
Old February 24, 2011, 09:22 PM   #2
603Country
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 6, 2011
Location: Thornton, Texas
Posts: 3,995
My Dad has a Model 77 Ultra Lightweight in 270, and he loves it. I think the love is due mostly to the caliber and the real light weight. I wouldn't call it super accurate, with that slim barrel, but it's plenty accurate enough. He cleans the bore every couple of years (when I clean it for him). All that abuse over at least 20 years and it keeps doing the job for him. I have 3 Rugers (Hawkeye in 223, an old 77V in 220, and a compact in 260). I like them fine, but each one has needed some tweaking to get them to shoot great, and I'm not finished with the Hawkeye yet. I'd buy another Ruger. The 270 kicks pretty good (but not when you're hunting), and if you want to do some fancy shooting with it, you might want a good gunsmith to tweak it for you - but that depends on just how good you want it to shoot.
603Country is offline  
Old February 24, 2011, 09:33 PM   #3
GeauxTide
Senior Member
 
Join Date: April 20, 2009
Location: Helena, AL
Posts: 4,415
I've got a Ruger 77 SS Hawkeye in 280, which is also an '06 offspring. Mine shoots 140gr handloads under an inch at 100 yards. My rule of thumb for game hunting - the distance I can repeatedly place a bullet into 8 inches.
GeauxTide is offline  
Old February 24, 2011, 10:38 PM   #4
seansean1444
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 28, 2010
Location: ithaca, new york (home of the ithaca shotguns!)
Posts: 395
ya i will probably have a gun smith tweak it. if im going to have a gun i want to get the most out of it
seansean1444 is offline  
Old February 24, 2011, 11:37 PM   #5
warbirdlover
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 13, 2009
Location: central Wisconsin
Posts: 2,324
My brother has a sweet stainless Ruger 77 Hawkeye in a laminated stock (.270) and it is a tack hammer!! Beautiful gun too. Last time at the range we were getting 1/2" 3-shot groups out of it at 100 yards.

.270 doesn't kick bad. I've got one and it's a baby compared to my .300 Win Mag. And that isn't all that bad.
warbirdlover is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 01:57 AM   #6
trooper3385
Senior Member
 
Join Date: September 8, 2005
Location: South Texas
Posts: 814
Your dads gun might be a little more accurate if he had cleaned it more than every couple of years.
trooper3385 is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 02:17 AM   #7
Jseime
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 31, 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,775
I have a lefty/stainless/laminate M77 in .270 and it is a great gun. Shoots 130 grain hornady SST handloads about an inch at 100 yards. Never any trouble at all, it's plenty accurate for hunting and I love a nice solid controlled round feed action.
__________________
I love the smell of fresh shotgun in the morning.
Jseime is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 02:31 AM   #8
Ben Towe
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 6, 2009
Location: Middle Tennessee
Posts: 1,128
Rugers are great rifles. I am not a .270 fan as I think the recoil is worse than a .30-'06 without any great performance gains, but it is as good a performer as an '06.
__________________
'Merica: Back to back World War Champs
Ben Towe is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 02:33 AM   #9
FrankenMauser
Senior Member
 
Join Date: August 25, 2008
Location: In the valley above the plain
Posts: 13,400
My go-to rifle is a Ruger M77 Mk II in .270 Win (stainless/laminate).
They are great rifles.
Accuracy is excellent (provided the shooter is capable of living up to the rifle's abilities).
__________________
Don't even try it. It's even worse than the internet would lead you to believe.
FrankenMauser is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 11:02 AM   #10
bamaranger
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 9, 2009
Location: North Alabama
Posts: 8,273
comments

The Ruger M77 comes in two general configurations.

The early models have a tang safety and a semi adjustable trigger and are considered "push feed". The later models, marked M77 mark II or similar, have a 3way safety ala Mauser and Win 70 and are "controlled" feed.

Early models have a sort of bad rep for so-so accuracy once in a while, Ruger used a contractor for barrels and sometimes you can get a bad one. Mine, BTW, have always been good and I've never heard of one that wouldn't go Minute of Deer, although some I hear were pretty lame for a name centerfire.

The M77-II's have Ruger made barrels and are across the board good shooters. The stainless synthetic Rugers are pretty near indestructible and make great hard use rifles. I actually like their ugly boat paddle stock. I think you could drive a nail with it. Too, I have always liked the plain, classic lines of their wood stocked rifles, no white spacers, funky combs or cheek pieces.

As to the .270 as a youth rifle.....I dunno. My 15 yr old, who has shot a lot, prefers the .243 as it kicks less. The .270 has a rep as shootable, likely due to the lighter 130 gr slug used in it for years. But the ctg is based on the '06 case, and w/ a 150 gr slug, I can't tell the difference between '06 and .270. (felt recoil) . You don't mention your brothers age, but if he's still in the .22/.410 stage, I'd hold off introducing him to full bore .270 just yet maybe.

Regards to hitting an 18" circle at range? That's a loaded question. With the correct come ups (scope settings) light wind, and a fair shooter, accurate rifle and load, etc, it could be done to 1000 yds fairly consistently with a bullet (the 150?) that could stay supersonic that far. By comparison, Its brother, the '06 was shot as a match ctg, and still is, to 600 in ATC courses using iron sights in the Garand.

But the typical sport bolt rifle, zeroed, say, 3" high at 100 yds, will be off your 18" circle by 400 yards if the shooter uses a center hold, as there would only be 9" of target left for the shot to fall into. A high hold, (12 oclock) would likely pick up the bottom third of the disc to near 500. This sort of thing is easily figured, there are charts, tables and programs for it, this is just off the top of my head.
bamaranger is offline  
Old February 25, 2011, 08:10 PM   #11
Eagle0711
Senior Member
 
Join Date: August 25, 2010
Posts: 782
Hope that I can add a little to this discussion.
My son in law has a Ruger 77 in 30:06,and it's a really good rifle. Accurate and reliable. One reason is the screw at the recoil lug is slanted to give the right support in this critical area.

The 270 is one of the best cartriges made. As you know it's a 30:06 case necked down to 27 cal. The factory neck is .046" longer, but 30:06 can be necked down.

My father in law used a 270 with a 130 gr Rem. Core Lock bullet to get 26 deer in that many years., and with a light 22" barrel. Some shots were at 450 yds. This was before the fad of long range shooting,

At the range a guy with a 270 loaded with a 140gr. boat tail bullet asked me to spot for him as he shot at a 2' square heavy steel plate at 500 yards. He hit it and the plate was knocked completly horizontal. You could see the trail of the bullet in the spotting scope. I was impressed. After he had the hold figured out, he hit it every time.

My conclusion is great gun and cartrige. Hard to beat.
Eagle0711 is offline  
Old February 27, 2011, 10:22 AM   #12
603Country
Senior Member
 
Join Date: January 6, 2011
Location: Thornton, Texas
Posts: 3,995
Trooper,

Yep, I hear you on Dad cleaning his Ruger ULW (old model with tang safety) more than every couple of years for best accuracy, but he just isn't going to do it. I've never known him to clean a rifle. I don't know how well that rifle shot when new, since nobody ever worked up loads for it, but he sure has killed a lot of deer with it. It's a great rifle, that Ultra Lightweight Ruger, and I wish I had one. Dad is in his early 80's now, and the rifle is light enough for him to carry and shoots well enough to make him happy. And I should mention that after all these many years of not being cleaned, the bore (when I clean it) still looks great.
603Country is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.04536 seconds with 7 queries