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Picked up my second M77 300wm Hawkeye leftie stainless today. Reason for having 2 is my son in law will be hunting in Alaska with me this year but only has a 243 (he has shot my 300wm Hawkeye and is also a leftie) so I bought it for him. Reason I'm disappointed is it seems someone tried to close the bolt without pushing the follower down to make way for the bolt and scraped up the left side of the follower (the high side) leaving two small burrs. Checked the bottom of the bolt face and it seems ok. On my other Ruger if I open the floor plate and close it on an open bolt, I 'm able to close the bolt without having to depress the follower but on this one I have to push the follower down a little before the bolt will close. Is this normal? Ran some dummy 300wm's into the mag and it feeds ok but it still bothers me. Took my dremel and an extremely smooth grinding stone and lightly smoothed the burrs away, polished with a cydex polishing bit to a bright smooth shine (the surrounding area on the follower is matte) and it still appears to feed nicely. Would send it to Ruger to have them check the bolt and replace the follower but time is short before we leave on our hunt and we have a lot of testing to see what load it likes, sighting in and wringing out any problems (in Alaska, your life depends on your gear). Being a leftie, Ruger might not have replacement parts handy, meaning a long wait to get the problems rectified. Hopefully it will shoot as good as my other one and I can address the quality control problem with Ruger upon our return. Had a chance to buy a NIB Tikka T3 Stainless/synthetic 300wm for $681 but I wanted to buy American. Hope I don't regret my decision......

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RMCS(SW) USN, Ret
1968-1988
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Instructor, Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun/RSO

"On my other Ruger if I open the floor plate and close it on an open bolt, I 'm able to close the bolt without having to depress the follower but on this one I have to push the follower down a little before the bolt will close. Is this normal?"

Maybe, define "normal". You could swap magazine springs, followers, magazines and bottom metal in any combination and find out where the difference lies. It could just be the way the action screws are torqued. Make sure the magazine box is properly seated against the action. If it feeds and extracts fine I wouldn't worry too much. It will get smoother with use.
I have the same rifle right-handed. My only "issue" has been that it has a rough bore and copper fouls easily. Shoots great when it's clean.

Just got off the phone with Ruger concerning the follower problem. What is happening is not the way it is supposed to operate. Per Ruger if the bolt is inserted into the receiver raceways with the floorplate closed and the follower fully inserted, the bolt should close without having to depress it. They will be sending me a new follower spring and follower (they said it's really easy to swap out). If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll be shipping the firearm back to them for service with a two week max turn around. Either way, it will get fixed.....

_________________
RMCS(SW) USN, Ret
1968-1988
NRA Life Member
NRA Certified Instructor, Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun/RSO

Gotta love that Ruger Customer Service!