RUGER SKELETON STOCKED RIFLES...NEED INFO PLEASE!

[7025Jack]

I have a skeleton stocked (zytel) 7mm rem mag that starts with the serial # 780. It seems very accurate.

I like it because it is resilient and it fits me! I am interested in the same gun in a 243.

I found one that starts with the serial 785.

I wanted some info on these guns and thought I would seek advice from the experts. When did they start and stop making these guns? Are there any rules of thumb on them? good ones, bad ones? better years to buy? do they hold consistant accuracy? Am I wise to buy one of these vs a new Abolt or xbolt that is bedded and floated? any and all info is appreciated

 

[contender]

Welcome to the Forum.
Hopefully someone else can give you the peticulars on when they started & stopped making these stocks. W/o looking it up & figuring it out in the RENE guide,, I don't know off the top of my head.
Anyway, as for buying one & how it shoots. I've not heard of any issues with the stocks other than some folks didn't care for the looks or the material. But they have been durable, & no mechanical problems from what I can recall. As for how it'll shoot,, well, if it's not been abused or shot out etc,, it should be just fine.

 

[7025Jack]

thanks contender!

anyone with info? I am all ears!

 

[chet15]

Ruger came out with the skeleton stocked M77 Mark II's at about the same time the Mark II was introduced. They made a bunch of them, course if anybody wanted the rifle in stainless, the skeleton stock is what you got with it.
Then Ruger found that they could produce the full buttstock by putting a series of inserts in the stock to keep them from getting the big gas bubbles they would get in them previously.
There are a bunch of skeleton stock models....guns with sights, without sights, ultralight models...and then there were some distributor exclusives with the skeleton stock and blued barreled receiver, with and without wood inserts.
There are several models that should prove to be quite collectible, and some that already have the attention of collectors such as those guns in unusual calibers like 7.62x39.
Chet15