M77 questions

[NH Rugerman]

My father in law recently passed away and I am trying to help value his firearms. He was a consultant and then employee at Ruger in Newport and friends with WBR Jr. Here are my questions:

1. There are two M77MkII rifles with asterisk prefix serial numbers...I know that these were purchased from the factory as "used". They are in 223 Rem and 243 Win calibers, do they have additional value as "*" marked rifles?

2. There is a M77RL in 308 Win with serial number 78-435XX, this seems to me to be a very early number for an RL. The stock is the giveaway as it has the ebony forend tip, etc indicitive of the RL model...could this be a prototype of the RL?

Your help and expertise is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[golferboy426]

sometimes the * or U add a premium, depends greatly on the rarity of the gun . Neither rifle is especially rare so any premium would be small. There are collectors of the "used" guns Unless you have the original box expect next to nothing

There are earlier RL's in other calibers so likely not a proto