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Posted: 11/17/2024 10:23:11 AM EDT
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I have had a older 77/44 for years (it was made in 97 according to the SN, so first year) and have loved it. Nice bluing, walnut stock, great little carbine. I originally was going to thread it for suppressor use, but was reluctant as it was in such nice original condition. I eventually found a used henry model X to fill the desire for a threaded 44 mag. However I have been wanting a blued 77/357 to go along with my 77/44. However there was only a very small run of blued ones made and they are exceptionally hard to find, if not almost impossible. I hate stainless rifles personally. Just me. So I said I was never going to get one unless I can get a blued model. Well ruger finally came out with a blued one! Sadly it only comes with a ugly ass camo plastic stock. But that can be swapped out. Only thing I do not like is the bolt hand and rear shroud are still stainless. On my 77/44, these are blued and only the breech block is in the white, and it looks great. Well a couple weeks ago my local gun store got some of these in and I finally get to see one in person. It looks great. The bluing is not full gloss, but not matte. Kinda in between, but still looks great. I hate the stainless bolt through, but nothing I can do about that, as that is all they offer. They had them for $1039, but they let me have it for $980 since I do buy a lot there and I pointed out they were $950-ish online. This is the new model that has the straight barrel as opposed to the previous models that had that strange flare up at the muzzle giving the barrel that strange look. This one being straight looks so much better. I measured and it is .750 in diameter at the muzzle. I get it home and take it apart. I then take apart my 1997 vintage 77/44 and compare. The receivers are identical as well as the bolts and all related parts with the exception of the "breech blocks" which is what they call the front half of the bolt. The new blued 77/357 dropped right into the walnut 77/44 stock, fit perfectly and looked great! I searched high and low for a 77/44 stock and there are none to be had. Everywhere is out of stock and no backorders. I called ruger and asked them about buying a stock. They said they needed a SN first before they would sell me any parts. Luckily I have a 77/44, so I get the SN from it and they said the stocks are factory fit. I said I could fit it myself, if they would sell it to me. She said that there would be no returns on the stock and it would be noted on the invoice, and I said that is fine. She said they do not have any and would "have to make one". Price was $238 shipped. I get it and it looks good. Nothing fancy. No lottery ticket winning wood grain, but not the worst. Still lightyears ahead of the plastic camo stock. I test it and the 77/357 drops right in with no fitting required and the barrel fit the channel perfectly. Boy it looks so much better. This is how they should be selling it!   I mount up a vortex scope and finally get to shoot it yesterday. My goal was mainly to get the scope zeroed in and check function. No issues to report. It fed/cycled and ejected perfectly. I used a load I worked up for a different 357 carbine with was ramshot enforcer under a 158gr x-treme plated fmj flat nose. It shot really good. First picture is at 50 yards. 2nd picture, I decided to take a few shots at 100 yards. I did not adjust the scope or the hold, as I wanted to see how much drop there was, and was surprised it did not have as much as I was expecting and I am still happy with it.   Not sure I am even really going to bother testing different powders with these bullets, as it seems ramshot enforcer has shot the best groups in all my 44 and 357 carbines. My goal is to get some 180gr bullets and work up a subsonic load. That is the whole point of this gun, is for subsonic suppressed use. I have another non threaded 357 carbine that I use for supersonic loads. My next order of business is to get a extended mag release as the flush ones suck bad. I put a extended one on my 77/44 and lot it. Also going to pick up either a timney or volquartsen sear, as the trigger is not that great. My old 77/44 trigger is nice and smooth, while the 77/357 one is heavy and creepy. Also looking into ways to darken/blue the bolt handle. |
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Nice! I thought about one but couldn’t justify the price. Blued and walnut is a great look. If I did one up I’d use a compact scope. A 2-7x or something even smaller. That and I also was buying the Marlin 1894Classic in .357. I bought at least three guns this year. 
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The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
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Got the volquartsen sear in and that brought the trigger pull from just under 5 pounds, down to just under 3 pounds. Much better trigger. Needed some brass to start working up a subsonic load, so I dug around in my stash and found some 125gr I had loaded with some H110 a few years ago. Going to shoot those 50 rounds this weekend so I can reload the brass. Will also be curious to see how it does with the light bullets. I picked up a box of hornady 180gr XTP's to use for my subsonic loads. |
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Got the IQ munitions extended mag release friday and installed it. It is so much better now. Mag changes are a lot easier. I know the reason they make them flush on the original gun, as they are made for hunting and are smooth so you do not accidently drop a mag while hunting. Quick mag changes were not on their list of things they wanted the gun to do. But for a subsonic range toy, I want quick mag releases. On that note, I need to pick up a couple more mags. I was shooting my timberwolf and trying a couple different loads and decided to try out a few in this one. The same load as above. 13.5gr enforcer under a 158gr plated x-treme fmj. 10 rounds at 50 yards. Velocity was 1525 fps. Funny, as the timberwolf has the same length barrel, but gets 1603 fps from the exact same load. (I shot them both side by side yesterday).  [/url]I shot the 125gr bullets too. Accuracy was not great. Not worth posting a picture of. Plus the group was about 6 inches high. Velocity on it was 2116 fps. So seems it like heavier bullets, which is a good thing. |
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I spent yesterday finding some subsonic loads. I have a bunch of different powders I can use. So I have to start working through them to find the best one. When I did this with my 44 mag, I had originally started out loading 5-10 of loads I worked up using quickload. All of them ended up having to be tweeked a little, as they were either too slow or too fast. So I ended up doing the same thing I did on the 44. I loaded up 2 rounds, shot them across the chrono, then walked back inside and adjusted the charge, loaded 2 more and tried again until I was at or just above 1000fps. This took my a couple hours, but I now have several loads to test for accuracy. Once I get them loaded up and accuracy testing done, I will report back. I did, just for the heck of it, measure the twist rate in the barrel and it is 1-16. Not sure how that compares to other brands, but thought I would put that out there incase anyone is curious. |
I'm glad you're liking it. I'm hoping to snag one of the blued ones here pretty soon since I like the barrel profile a lot better than my current threaded (big ended) stainless.
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I had 12 different powders to test out, so I decided to just do a quick and dirty test of 4 rounds of each powder. Yea 4 rounds is not really a good test, but I figured it would be enough to weed some of them out and then come back and to a better test with more rounds of the powders that showed the most promise. I did that and ended up narrowing it down to 5 powders. HS6, Longshot, Power pistol, Herco, and 2400. I loaded up 10 rounds each of the 5 powders and shot 10 round groups at 50 yards. I shot with the suppressor attached. Bullets are hornady 180gr XTP's. I used standard small pistol primers instead of mag primers, since these are low power/subsonic. Top left is 2400, top middle is power pistol, top right is herco. Bottom left is longshot, and bottom right is HS6. Ignore the tiny holes. I was shooting a shotgun at a target above these and did not realize I was peppering these targets with shot. I know none of the groups are centered, I was waiting to do the final zero of the scope for when I settled on a load. HS6 seemed to do the best. It did have two random fliers, not sure what was up with that. Might be me, or might not, I do not feel like it was, but it could be. But it was still a significantly tighter group than the others. Funny, when I worked up a subsonic load for my 44 mag henry model x, HS6 was also the best performer.  Now that I settled on a load, I will load some more up and then get the scope zeroed in for it. All loads were very quiet. Pretty much a loud click and a thud when it hit the berm. I also tried to blacken the stainless bolt handle and shroud. It was kinda sorta a fail. If I had to do it over again, I would have just had them cerra coated. https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/Any-of-you-ever-black-oxide-blue-stainless-parts-/49-554460/ |
| For the heck of it, I ordered one of the farrowtech optics mounts that replace the rear sight. Their CS said they weren't sure if it'll be a 100% fit but since 10/22 sights fit the odds are decent. If not, I can return it. But if it works, I think it'll be pretty darn handy with a Holosun 507c on it. Figure it's only a 75 yard rifle for me anyhow. |
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Slight update. I just installed the IQ munitions mag release and that went quick and easy. The Volquartsen sear was *almost* a drop in. The safety is a little stiff but it’ll wear in. That’s still a huge improvement from the first gen 77/357 that I needed to take off a thousandth or so from the top of the safety pawl for everything not to bind up. But the trigger pull is a repeatable 2.75#. I also installed a set of bolt shims because there was a fair bit of wiggle in the bolt. If the weather is nice, I’ll test with some 158gr AE soon. |
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Originally Posted By NorthPolar: Slight update. I just installed the IQ munitions mag release and that went quick and easy. The Volquartsen sear was *almost* a drop in. The safety is a little stiff but it’ll wear in. That’s still a huge improvement from the first gen 77/357 that I needed to take off a thousandth or so from the top of the safety pawl for everything not to bind up. But the trigger pull is a repeatable 2.75#. I also installed a set of bolt shims because there was a fair bit of wiggle in the bolt. If the weather is nice, I’ll test with some 158gr AE soon. Let us know how it does. I think the mag release and sear are the first two things anyone should do to one of these. |
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Originally Posted By arndog123: Just installed the Volquartsen sear and spring on mine and wow, night/day difference. I need to do the same for my 44 too. Are there torque specs on the takedown bolts like on 10/22’s? Officially I think it’s 60 inch pounds and finger tight but the archive thread had some solid numbers. |
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Originally Posted By NorthPolar: Officially I think it’s 60 inch pounds and finger tight but the archive thread had some solid numbers. That sounds too high to me. That is well into the range where the wood starts crushing. OK for HD Fiberglass stocks and stocks with aluminum blocks or pillars but if that is just a regular wood stock I would be carefull. |
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Originally Posted By SemperGumbi: That sounds too high to me. That is well into the range where the wood starts crushing. OK for HD Fiberglass stocks and stocks with aluminum blocks or pillars but if that is just a regular wood stock I would be carefull. Yup is why I said to verify. I did 35 inch pounds, but it really does play with accuracy so you might need to find what works best for your rifle. |
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Originally Posted By raf: Suggest that Owner's Manual for your specific firearm, downloaded from Ruger, should have torque specs for attachment screws. The manual says ‘snugly tightened’ fyi. Is why there was such a long conversation about torque in the archived thread. |
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Originally Posted By NorthPolar: The manual says 'snugly tightened' fyi. Is why there was such a long conversation about torque in the archived thread. Originally Posted By NorthPolar: Originally Posted By raf: Suggest that Owner's Manual for your specific firearm, downloaded from Ruger, should have torque specs for attachment screws. The manual says 'snugly tightened' fyi. Is why there was such a long conversation about torque in the archived thread. On my Ruger GSR M-77 Mk 2, the Owner's manual was specific on torque values for receiver and trigger guard screws, as well as which one to tighten first. It's also true that using 25 In-Lbs torque on Mini-14/-30 gas block screws seems to enhance accuracy, compared to OEM spec of 40-In-Lbs. Obviously, torque values can make a difference. Keep in mind that unreinforced screw attachment points in wooden stocks will certainly allow any unreinforced attachment points to compress over time. OTOH, syn stocks do not compress over time, so torque values are very likely to be repeatable. When I say, "Reinforced stock", I mean a tightly fitting cylindrical collar fitted to the wooden stock, through which attachment screws pass, and which prevents the wood from being compressed. If your stock lacks this, then make one and fit it. At any rate, suggest a decent, reliable In-Lbs torque wrench. Will come in handy for many things, as well as experimenting. |
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I like mine! Tons of fun suppressed, I would like to have a wood stock, wish that was an option directly from Ruger. Attached File Attached File |
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Originally Posted By HUCK70: I like mine! Tons of fun suppressed, I would like to have a wood stock, wish that was an option directly from Ruger. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32514/IMG_6422_jpeg-3535374.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/32514/IMG_6428_jpeg-3535375.JPG It is. I bought mine directly from Ruger. Might try giving them a call and see if they will sell you one. |
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Bought a factory walnut stock from Midway, much better!Attached File |
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