Ruger mark 2 vs tang saftey?

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chuck

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I have heard that the mark 2s are not a accurate as the older tang safety ones, is that true or BS?
 

pete44ru

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rugnelli said:
Depends on the specific tang safety rifle...


+1

I've owned/shot a tang safety .30-06 M77RSI that w/o any mods would shoot honest 3/4" groups @ 100yds with commercial hunting ammo.


.
 

Paul B

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pete44ru said:
rugnelli said:
Depends on the specific tang safety rifle...


+1

I've owned/shot a tang safety .30-06 M77RSI that w/o any mods would shoot honest 3/4" groups @ 100yds with commercial hunting ammo.


.

I wish I could say that about my RSI tang safety chambered to the .308 Win. it took two years of load development and very minor modification of that metal muzzle cap to finally achieve 1.25 to 1.50" groups on a consistent basis. FWIW, that holds true for the three M77 RSI's I have, all in .308. Don't ask, I still haven't figured that one out other than they wouldn't give good groups for their previous owners and the prices were definitely right. All three now perform about the same.
Paul B.
 

Enigma

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For a long time the tang safety M77s had the reputation of having very poor barrels. The saying was the if you wanted to get a Ruger M77 to shoot, the first thing you needed to do was to replace the barrel. A drastic generalization, I know from experience, but it still speaks volumes. Ruger hired an aftermarket barrel maker to fix their problems, if I recall correctly, and their barrels are much, much better these days. I don't own and M77s these days to compare, but I sincerely doubt that the tang safety guns were any more accurate than the MK2s.
 

Paul B

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"I don't own and M77s these days to compare, but I sincerely doubt that the tang safety guns were any more accurate than the MK2s."

Accuracy on the tang safety rifles was a luck of the draw thing thing. Same deal with the #1's of the period. I have #1's that are more like a scatter gun in comparison. The worst case was my #1 in 7x57. Ruger had to replace the barrel due to a throat that was so far out spec that is was impossible to seat a bullet anywhere near the lands. Now it's at least an MOA shooter. I had one M77 tanger in .308 that was a half inch gun with factory and was closer to .25" with selected handloads. I have two M77 tangers in .358 Win. thatI have nevr been able to get any kind of group form either one. Like I said it's the luck of the draw.
Paul B.
 

chuck

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Paul B, I also have a #1 in 7x57 that does well to group 4" at 100 yards.
 

pete44ru

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Paul B said:
pete44ru said:
rugnelli said:
Depends on the specific tang safety rifle...


+1

I've owned/shot a tang safety .30-06 M77RSI that w/o any mods would shoot honest 3/4" groups @ 100yds with commercial hunting ammo.

I wish I could say that about my RSI tang safety chambered to the .308 Win.

it took two years of load development and very minor modification of that metal muzzle cap to finally achieve 1.25 to 1.50" groups on a consistent basis.

FWIW, that holds true for the three M77 RSI's I have, all in .308.

Paul B.


Paul FWIW, I've owned/shot/hunted with well over a dozen RSI's over the past 40-odd years in various chamberings (.250, .270, .308, & 30-06).

Every one of the 5 different .308 RSI's I had displayed lousy accuracy - barely accurate enough to take a deer if it was within 100yds, but not an inch farther away.

The single 7x57 #1-RSI I had was also had miserable accuracy.

I never understood about the .308 RSI's, since I also had 2 different non-RSI .308's that shot very well indeed.

The RSI .250's (3) & the RSI .270 (1) shot well enough, but not as accurate as that .30-06.

My latest tang safety .250 is a M-77-RS, and shoots just about an inch @ 100yds.

IIRC, Ruger had a bunch of barrels that were less than ideal, so maybe the .308's had those bbl.'s (IDK).


All of the foregoing rifles were shot with commercial/factory ammo.

I've only owned a single M-77RSI-MkII, in .223, and quickly decided that I much preferred the earlier tang safety guns. (YMMV, of course)



.
 

Paul B

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"IIRC, Ruger had a bunch of barrels that were less than ideal, so maybe the .308's had those bbl.'s (IDK)."

Yeah, those the Wilson barrels Luck of the draw barrels is what I call them. I read on another site where a fellow had his .308 Win. RSI rebored to .358 Win. I thought the barrels on the RSI were way too thin to do that but apparently one gunsmith thought otherwise. I dunno???
Paul B.
 

daveg.inkc

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I have 1980 made M77 .270 W that has always been very accurate. I remember a 3 shot 1/2" group at 100 yds. target. This was with 130 Rem Core-Lokt. It still is accurate! I load 90 gr-150gr bullets for it. This year, 2 shots, 2 bucks with 130's Rem. I found 1 Core-lokt Bullet under the hide, neck shot. I heard the solid "Smack!" A 3000 fps bullet is 2000 mph!
 

robertkirksey

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Ruger has used their own in-house hammer forged barrels I think since the Mk IIs came out. These barrel are good shooters like the Douglas barrels that came on the earliest Model 77s. Beginning about '73 they had Wilson barrels. That's when Ruger got the black eye.
 
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My flatbolt .308 is extremely accurate, easy moa with several different handloads and also likes blue-box Federal factory 150 gr stuff. I have a tang safety RSI in .308 that, while not a tack-driver, is very acceptably accurate. Like 1.5" 100 yard groups with hunting loads. It might be capable of better, I have a 1.75-6x Leupold with the heavy duplex reticle, not the best for tiny groups but sure shows up good in the woods. I also have a tang safety (but not flatbolt) 7 mag that shoots very well. Not sure how many 77s I've owned over the years, but I'd guess north of 20. Guess I've been lucky; I haven't had one yet that wasn't a good shooter, and several were outstanding. Noteworthy are a .220 Swift heavy barrel (stolen from me years ago) and one of the medium sporter barreled ones in .25-06 that was superbly accurate. I've heard the inaccuracy thing for many years, just haven't run into it myself. I've only owned one Mk II, an RSI .308 which I'm not sure I even shot; found the same gun in a tang safety, bought it and sold the MkII.
 

PAShooter

Single-Sixer
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I must be lucky. I have an RSI 308 tang safety since the 80's, that shoots under an inch with my hand loads without any modifications. My 7x57 #1 shoots slightly more than 1" with not much load work up, heavier bullets seem best.
 

gunzo

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Kentucky
"I've never seen a rifle that shot worse than the shooter"

Sorry, but I am totally failing to grasp the meaning of this statement. Did I miss the winking emogie?

I suppose if a rifle is only capable of 2" groups @ a hundred & it's the only rifle the shooter shoots, then by default, the shooter is only capable of shooting 2" groups @ a hundred. Am I close?
 

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