My new modified M77 Stainless 358! :-)

[Black Frog]

Being a HUGE fan of the 358, and very disappointed that Ruger has discontinued chambering the 358 and leaving only Browning to keep the 358 torch alive, I couldn't let the great deals on the stainless/synthetic M77's out there go past.

I picked up a new-in-box stainless/synth 358 with 22" barrel for $490 off of GunBroker.

I already have a 358 Frontier with the 16.5" barrel and scout scope setup on it. Cute, compact little gun that is a joy to carry. I also have a Rem 750 carbine with 18.5" barrel that I had bored up to 358. I like shorter compact rifles, and have always thought the 18.5"-19" barrels to be about perfect for my type of hunting.

When climbing through thick woods, that extra few inches of barrel length on a 22" barrel seems to catch on every twig and branch. Hard to believe that just a few inches of barrel can make such a difference.

So what to do with my new gun? Chop the barrel off. 18.5" seemed about right. In the last year I finally got a little gunsmith lathe, and this would be the perfect chance to tinker.... And I really don't care for Ruger's sythetic stock. I did have a Zytel skeleton stock with the wood inserts laying around and thought it would be a perfect match for this little 'project gun'.

So here it is:

I played around with doing a 11 degree crown, and different recessed crowns before doing the final cut to length and settled on this recessed radiused crown:

I really like how it turned out. Short, compact, light- just what I wanted.

I did shoot it before doing all this work just so I could have some idea of grouping before/after. Hopefully I'll get the scope on her in the next week or two and have an outing at the range!

 

[pisgah]

Personal tastes would make it hard for me to call that rifle "good looking "-- but there's no question it's a light, handy, rugged little powerhouse! In practical terms, taking aesthetics out of it, she's a beauty!

 

[Black Frog]

Yeah, I know the skeleton stocks are a 'love it, hate it' thing for people.

I have plenty of purdy wood rifles, and could never warm up to synthetic stocks at all. But for some reason the skeleton stocks always caught my eye. So this stock with the wood inserts is a nice compromise for me....

With the matching Ruger stainless rings and a Leupold fixed 4x matte black scope, I think it'll be a cool looking rig. I realize others will find it God-awful ugly.

....or maybe so ugly that it is pretty.

 

[pisgah]

Hey, I hear you. One of my favorite rifles is "Old Ugly", a cut-down Spanish Mauser .308 with a 2X long eye relief scope in a homemade Scout-style mount. No one on earth would say it's pretty to look at -- but it is a superb, accurate hunting rifle that I never fret about carrying all day in the rain or falling in the river with.

 

[martyj]

My father always told me if you find a rifle you can hit what your aiming at dont part with it regardless of what it looks like or what caliber it is.
I took his advice and worked out pretty well for me

 

[Rocdoc]

Turned out great, I'd like to do that myself, would like to get some of the wood inserts for my skeleton stocks. Didn't Remington do a 18" barrel in a 35 Whelen?

 

[Black Frog]

Didn't Remington do a 18" barrel in a 35 Whelen?

Yup- 18.5" actually. I have one. They also have the 308 Carbine in 18.5" barrel too, that's the one I had bored up to 358.

 

[Quattroclick]

Pretty is as pretty does, and that ought to do pretty well for a woods gun!

 

[toysoldier]

I LIKE IT!
Wish Ruger made skeleton stocks for southpaws. We're at least 10% of the population, and get less than 10% of the options available to righthanders. :x