I would like to say what a pleasure it is to have you so generously share your knowledge and experience with all of us. It feels like I am hanging out with you in your workshop without actually bothering you or your wife by coming over to your place unexpectedly and disrupting your day. No matter how far away I am it feels like I can just stop in and learn something. Thank you.
Neat! Common things to try on an M77, in no particular order (besides floating barrel, bedding receiver, and other typical things like you do a good job of going over): 1. Correct torque of action screws, 2. Filing down of front and back of magazine box (new ones can be purchased, if concerned of taking too much off), and 3. rat tail file to relieve wood hole for full clearance of front action screw.
I've had multiple m77 variations over the years and would probably use one as my main hunting rifle but they have more downsides than positives in my opinion.
Stainless steel coil type bore brushes could cause the rivetting signatures (horizontal scraping) visible with the bore scope. Also, consider bi - metal 7.62×51 NATO (steel jacketed) bullets used frequently by the U.S. also for 30 caliber (30 - 06) metal deposits (brinnel strength of barrels harder / stronger than the bullet) Ah, yes..button rifling signatures.
After i discovered propper barrel break in, i cleaned all my rifles that i was NOT happy with and went through break in using hoppes bench rest. They all group way better now.
I just acquired a 1984/1985 M77 RS (RS= that it came with rings and open sights) in .243 Win. The previous owner installed a longer sling screw that was hitting the barrel. I saw immediate see evidence of the aftermarket sling stud machine screw because of the white spacer. Also, the front action screw was only finger tight and there was bluing gone where the screw touched the barrel. Since the machine screw appeared to be locktited in with red and spinning in wood, I went ahead and ground down the screw flush. That’s all I’ve accomplished so far other than some cleaning. It’s a fun winter project. Looking forward to yours.
Rumor has it that the rugar m77 out sourced barrels till the early 90's then it took a few years to truly figure how to make a good barrel. I have bore scoped near a dozen m77's newest being 1994 be it. All had tool chatter marks and all had some pitting. Most pitting was found mid barrel or towards the end. Just shy of half were stainless and most were mark ii's only 3 were mark i's. Mark i's were in caliber 7X57, 35 Whelen, amd 350 rem. The mark i's looked better for the most part and were standard blued steel. Mark ii's were primarily stainless except for a 30-06 and a 308. Tooling wasn't as noticeable on the 30-06 or 308 but still had noticeable pitting at points. Scope used was a teslong.
Thanks for your excellent demeanor and broad expertise in sharing your knowledge on these videos. Horizontal ribbing may be from the initial cold hammer barreling As it’s homogeneously present throughput the length of the barrel. However the barrel may just need to be replaced.
Wow, that's an unusual looking 1984 M77. My newest M77 was made in 1986 and has the blued bolt handle and the gloss blue barrel. Also surprised you didn't mention tightening the diagonal receiver bolt to 96 inch/lbs torque which really can improve the accuracy. My .243 went from 1.5 to .365" group.
@seibertsmiths Yes, that's the screw. Not sure about the Mk II M77s, but the tang safety models called for around 95 inch pounds on the diagonal action screw. Some guys say they get good results down to 35 inch pounds. I'd say it's going to be rifle dependent.
The horizontal lines are exactly what you thought it was - its created as a result of tooling efforts. Looks like someone tooled out the bore and quite possibly from the manufacture.
Very interested to see what the stuff is in the bore, looks like its on top and not down in the bore to me, I guess I would try JB on it and see if it will polish out..but the proof is in the pudding so lets see how it shoots...good video sure want to see the rest of them, God Bless
That's a beautiful gun. Just want to say that I appreciate the insightful content that you bring to the platform and that's coming from someone who's part of a younger generation. I learn a lot of great useful information from your channel and I've been going through your content since I found you this past week. Keep it up!
I read somewhere awhile back that ruger contracted Douglass barrels to make their m77 barrels in the early days. Then they contracted Wilson barrels from about 1972 or 73 through the late 1980’s As I understand, the Wilson barrels were not as consistent.
You are correct so they went from very accurate to not very accurate with the barrel switch! Have had a bunch over the 45 years I have been buying them and you will find out real quick if they are not the finer barrel! That said you can get the other barrel to shoot halfway accurate but it’s going to take a lot more work!
well, those tool marks in the barrel are from the hammer forging process. Hammer forged barrels are forged around a mandrel. every little ring is a hammer strike and the metal flowing. Some TUBBS bullets may do wonders for that bore. I've used them numerous times and they've always worked. Some better than others but they have, to the gun, made them all exponentially easier to clean.
I've been told those are tool marks but from the button rifling process? I could see either process leaving those marks, but that makes perfect sense about the marks being from the metal flowing on the strikes.
I bought a Ruger M77 Hawkeye in 6.5 PRC in the summer of 2020. It came with a bedded stock and the same 26 inch heavy barrel they use on the Ruger Precision Rifle. It’ll shoot 1/2 MOA at 100 yards. But, I’ve shot 8-inch groups at 1,000 yards when it’s not particularly windy.
Spend a day and some JB polish and just keep cleaning until it looks brand new! Seen this before and a lot of elbow grease and you will be surprised by what it can do to a neglected barrel!
That "pitting" inside the bore looks like something I ran across a few years back, and several times since then. It looks like etching from an aggressive bore solvent that wasn't completely removed after cleaning. It doesn't always prevent the gun from shooting good groups, but it can. The rough texture damages the bullet as it passes down the bore. I love the older Ruger 77R rifles, and own a couple myself. Both made in 1974. I would do whatever is necessary to save that barrel, even if it meant settling for slightly larger groups than you want.
Ta, I wondered about that but given the age of this rifle and how long it has been since was cleaned last it would most likely have been Sweet's. There weren't that many aggressive cleaners that I can recall from 20 or 30 years ago and that's how long its been since it was cleaned last.
The horizontal marks appear to be from The Broach being forced through the barrel, and it was chattering or something like that. Possibly button rifled because that's a swaging process. I have one of those rifles that was built in 1972. I have not had the chance to cite it in yet but if it shoots anywhere as good as my 1979 Model 77 7mm mag, that firearm shot a 049 in send her to Center spread in 20 shot groups the pole was no bigger than . 33. It's also possible that the barrel supplier that they were using that month or maybe for a few months there was not doing as good a job as they had hoped.
i think before 1973 were the tack shooter after 1973 was wilson barrel they were the one with some acc problems,the came 1990 when ruger star making there barrel my are 1979,1986 2015 and all are great shot.
Wow, that barrel is a lot worse than I thought it would be. I'm not sure this will be an easy fix without putting another barrel on it. Good luck, Mr Tom. I'm anxious to see how it shoots.
I don't think many people realize just how good it is in the right situation? I saw my old Lee Enfield 8n 303 British go from over 3 in groups at 100 yards to just over 1 in thanks to a little JB.
With the bore scopes magnification hardly, any bore looks good in factory rifles. If buying the borescope in this video it may be better to buy one with the monitor recorder. I purchased the same one he has. It worked fine on a laptop, but the phone app isn't too good. In fact, they ask for a credit card and they were trying to take money from my account when they said it was free. So, I later bought the rod style borescope that came with the monitor. Works great. Caution when starting the monitor, you have to hold the on button down until it comes on. If you just push the button without holding it down, you will think that it doesn't work. I made that mistake. It has to be held down a few seconds sometimes. You also need to make sure it gets charged before using and does not get run down too far or you will reduce battery life. It is a lithium battery that has to be installed. It is not bought at the corner store battery.
try gun slick bore foam it works wonders! you have to use a nylon brush tho. I had a guy give me a savage 110 7MM that sat in a closet for 25 yrs. couldnt even see through the barrel. took 4hrs and 40 mins to get it back to new. I also spray my barrel and action with gun scrubber spray to make sure all the foam is out of the chamber when im done. just follow the instructions, foam brush repeat till its spotless.
308 one of my favorite 30cals top 3 for me are 7.62x39 308 and 300 winmag. Picked up 90s model savage model 12. Put new stock on it, I think ill put around 900 ish round in it per year clean barrel at 500 rounds
Suggestion: try Tamiya triangular shaped craft swabs. They don't fray and don't easily deform. Regular cotton swabs are much cheaper, but the fibers standard cotton swabs leave behind can cause major problems.
Those striations in the barrel are from chatter when they pulled the button through the barrel to rifle it. Every single ruger barrel iv ever seen has had those pitted looking spots in them and I’m speaking of barrels that are brand new off the shelf iv seen it and rifles from the 70s iv seen it and all the way through the middle.
I have that exact rifle, i hope you talk about the "recoil" pad. I dont like mine at all it has almost sharp edges and its super hard. Its unpleasant to shoot off the bench.
Good Going n Hope It Turns Out Well. My self I would definitely hit it with 1 of these JB Bore Cleaner , Montana Xtreme Cooper Cream, or Wipeout bore cleaner. I might also use JB Bore Bright. Or Montana Xtreme Bore Compound. These are polishing cleaners ie like rubbing compound for autos. These get used with care n in frequent.The formers are cleaners n while they due remove dirt copper powder etc in there polishing they don't remove metal form form the bore..just stuff that aint supposed to be there. I generally use the 1st items on new to me n new toys before 1st range trip.. n if bore feels rough n not smooth the 2nd items. I dont have a bore scope btw ..but agree with your view n thought there. My thought is thats either baked on carbon or left over rust n possibly caused by 1 not cleaning in 20 yrs n or corrosive primers.. n yes there were some still use in our military up into the 60 70s . Seeing as was bought used never will know.
@@TomRiverSimpleLiving I bought a brand new Remington bolt action in 7 mm 08 ,,the xHR TRIANGLE BARREL 24 inches ,the barrel was full of pits out of the box ,,but the crown area looked fair ,,it shoots one and a quarter inch groups with almost any ammo
Needless to say I was surprised at the pitting through out the barrel. Really odd, but who knows. With a few tweaks here and there you may get MOA or sub-MOA at 100 with it. At least I am hoping so. I'm continuing to follow along enthusiastically. Thanks.
This video is extremely interesting I have 1 spot in my 20” AR barrel I got from faxon brand new. That looks just like the inside of this barrel in 1 spot. How it got there I have no idea because I’m actually quite meticulous with my guns. I purchased the faxon barrel before I got my Teslong. So I can’t say the barrel came that way from the manufacture. But as I said I’m really meticulous with my cleaning procedures. But I’m definitely learning because sometimes idk what I’m even looking at when I use my bore scope. So thanks for doing these videos I’m definitely glad your doing it. There’s isn’t much in the way of this kind of topic on RU-vid. Tom teslong also makes a bore scope with its own Monitor by the way.
Johnny, I saw the one with the built in monitor I was just worried that monitor would end up going out rendering it unusable? And I'm still learning what to look for myself. I'm also working on the editing now from the range trip but I can say it shoots great? Who would have guessed.
@@TomRiverSimpleLiving well thanks for the response Tom I do appreciate it. I gotta say I’m enjoying all your content Sir. Can’t wait to see the update video I’m sure it’s going to be chock-full of knowledge and tips. I need to add a few more videos back to my channel. I use to have a bunch of videos on casting powder coating and the like.
Hi Tom, I have a Ruger M77 in 30-06 and my barrel has the exact same horizontal marks as this one. Almost had a heart attack first time I ran a bore scope down it! That said, the accuracy is fine ( 0.3 - 0.5 MOA after lots of load development.)
Take your time with this one Tom. If you can only manage a video a day, there may be some of us that may forgive you. 😁 I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this project, but I'm feeling like a re-crown may be on the cards from the initial inspection.
It looks like the scope and barrel clearance is very tight, too tight? I'm stocking a M77 in 25 06 rem, at a local pawn shop, same vintage as your project rifle, very solid rifles...I own 2 M77 mk2's, one in .280 rem, and another in .338 win mag, love those too.
A long rod goes end breach end through the barrel attaches too a massive puller and they pull the cutting head through the barrel there's some stretch in the rod that's what causes the chattering as the cutting head is pulled through. You can find this on yt factory tour . (That's pitting )
I have the Teslong rigid scope and it is very clear. The lumps are rust. The torque is strange to me, front is first 95" rear is 50" and middle is snug in that order. If it still has flat head screws, it's hard not to strip the head.
Seems to me like it’s bad metal from the factory, but I’m not there looking close. I did machining and It happens. Company’s change suppliers looking for cheaper prices. So if we go back to 1984 no one was putting a camera down the bore?
Tom, I'm thinking that someone has fired old surplus 7.62 NATO that has corrosive primers unaware that the barrel needed immediate cleaning afterwards. Just my guess.
Black cerakote can look good on a rifle. My main hunting rifle is made of stainless steel that is cerakoted in black, and a beautiful walnut stock. It is one sharp looking rifle. What I find odd is that your friend didn't get the action cerakoted as well. It just looks like the job was half finished, and defeats the whole purpose of having the benefits of a cerakoted firearm. Anyways, I hope you are able to turn it into a shooter, but if not then my advice is to look into rebarrelling and cerakoting both the barrel and action or in getting a new gun.
@@robertdinicola9225 Yeah. I know they hammer forge barrels nowadays. I just wasn't sure how they did barrels back in the day. I have heard lots of people that hunt with these rifles talking about how they couldn't get the rifles to shoot as well as they like. They get about 1 1/2 or so inches at 100 yards but not what they WANT, which is under an inch. Then there are some that swear by the ruger 77's. Most people I hunt with use Remington 700's, weatherby rifles or browning rifles, or marlin lever rifles. Maybe with ruger 77's you get a good one or you don't. I don't know. I'm a ruger fan though and was thinking of buying a ruger 77 for a new deer rifle. The things I've heard about them have kept me from buying one. Might take a chance on one anyway. We'll see.
@@rickyflinchum2909 my marlin is old and abused by the florida swamps. I was gifted a browning levergun in 7mn-08. Beutifull gun. Grouped like crap. 2-2 1/2". Guy used it on one hunt and never used it again since 81. The barrel had some copper but otherwise good. I removed the copper and did a break in. 1" and under now.
When I saw those marks, I remembered that Ruger had some problem with chattering in the barrels back in the day. My M77 in .280 Rem. is from this same era and took a long time to get to what I consider good.
Someone may have shot corrosive surplus ammo through it back in the day without cleaning. I pitted a few barrels back in the day shooting cheap Chinese 7.62x51.
Ruger didn't start making their own gun barrels until the 1990s. Before that they were inconsistent. If you got a good one great. If not welllll. There were a few things you could try. If you hand loaded you could seat the bullet out some on once fired cases that were only neck resized. Some people glass bedded the action. Most of the time you could get one to shoot well enough but if you got a real turkey there was little you could do but send it back or replace the barrel which may or may not solve the problem.. In that year the barrel should have been made by Wilson.
In the '80s, Ruger firearms had accuracy issues, unless you bought a target or varmint model. Also looks like chatter marks when the barrel was rifled.
That barrel looks bad! Crown looks bad too. I wouldn't expect it to get any better by cleaning it. Copper will fill some of the pits I'd say but it's still pretty ragged. Like the old saying goes, can't polish a turd. I'd have it rebarreled unless you're just gonna make a 100 yard deer rifle.
Easiest thing you can do is take it and trade it for a 270 they always shoot great 308 is a crap caliber anyway even if you can make it shoot you still don’t have anything
I had a tang safety m77 in 22-250 that didnt shoot very good at all! I did kill a bunch of coyotes pigs and deer with it. I sold it and bought a savage 110 22-250 and wont ever even consider buying a m77.
Moisture over the years of a unprotected barrel you get corrosion. That's why why you put a coat of oil for protection and clean it before you use it again. That's why they tell you to clean the barrel from the factory before you shoot it!
