Ruger 77 Redux

p_ham

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Joined
Jul 6, 2017
Messages
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Location
Fallon, NV
A member sent in their beloved Ruger for a refit.

First step is to true the receiver. I checked and re-checked my setup no less than 6 times on this rifle. Most actions will completely clean up eccentric threads by going .010" oversize. This receiver had .021" of runout! Not only that, but the bolt lugs and receiver face were skewed .0035" the lugs only had a small contact area on the edges.

20230802_102228.jpg20230802_125705.jpg

Once the receiver face and bolt lugs were brought true, the threads were opened up to 1.032"-16. Standard Ruger 77 threads are 1"-16.

20230802_150033.jpg

The barrel tenon and chamber were cut without issue. I did adjust the contour to better fit the rifle's aesthetics.

20230802_181756.jpg20230804_175737.jpg


Next up is refitting the barrel channel and fixing the receiver bedding. Stay tuned!

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Holy stacked tolerances!!!
Shoot in Missouri and hit Alaska. :eek:

We had the turret on the Mazak I run at work aligned last Friday after the kid on nightshift crashed it.
Then after only getting 8 parts off of it, he crashed it again!
Yanked the material out of the jaws at 2,000 rpm.
Tore a hole 3" long X 1" wide through one of the way covers and tore the 1.25 bore bar tool holder out of the turret. :eek:

Turret was re-re-realigned on Thursday. I used the touch setter to touch off ALL the tools (12) Thursday before I left work.

Came in yesterday to a sign once again on the lathe "do not use".

Found out the when the material came out of the jaws, it hit the arm of the touch setter.
Off .044 in X.
.090 in Z.

Back to manually touching off all the tools.

Not too bad if your doing a run of parts like second shift does. But I get all the onesy, twosy stuff on first shift..
 
Holy stacked tolerances!!!
Shoot in Missouri and hit Alaska. :eek:

We had the turret on the Mazak I run at work aligned last Friday after the kid on nightshift crashed it.
Then after only getting 8 parts off of it, he crashed it again!
Yanked the material out of the jaws at 2,000 rpm.
Tore a hole 3" long X 1" wide through one of the way covers and tore the 1.25 bore bar tool holder out of the turret. :eek:

Turret was re-re-realigned on Thursday. I used the touch setter to touch off ALL the tools (12) Thursday before I left work.

Came in yesterday to a sign once again on the lathe "do not use".

Found out the when the material came out of the jaws, it hit the arm of the touch setter.
Off .044 in X.
.090 in Z.

Back to manually touching off all the tools.

Not too bad if your doing a run of parts like second shift does. But I get all the onesy, twosy stuff on first shift..
What the hell is he doing?
 
Holy stacked tolerances!!!
Shoot in Missouri and hit Alaska. :eek:

We had the turret on the Mazak I run at work aligned last Friday after the kid on nightshift crashed it.
Then after only getting 8 parts off of it, he crashed it again!
Yanked the material out of the jaws at 2,000 rpm.
Tore a hole 3" long X 1" wide through one of the way covers and tore the 1.25 bore bar tool holder out of the turret. :eek:

Turret was re-re-realigned on Thursday. I used the touch setter to touch off ALL the tools (12) Thursday before I left work.

Came in yesterday to a sign once again on the lathe "do not use".

Found out the when the material came out of the jaws, it hit the arm of the touch setter.
Off .044 in X.
.090 in Z.

Back to manually touching off all the tools.

Not too bad if your doing a run of parts like second shift does. But I get all the onesy, twosy stuff on first shift..
Made me cringe.
 
I love it! Meticulous carefully done work. Your friend will be extremely happy and the rifle should shoot and perform a whole lot better than it did! I would trust you with one of my rifles as I'm impressed with the care you take. Nice job.
 
What the hell is he doing?
Not pulling his head from his backside!!

In all fairness, he's new to it. Been running the machine for about 2 months.
Had a weeks worth of training on the Haas ST35, then "congratulations, your a Mazak operator".
Training at my company sucks!!!
What I know about operating a Mazak is essentially self taught.
 
Not pulling his head from his backside!!

In all fairness, he's new to it. Been running the machine for about 2 months.
Had a weeks worth of training on the Haas ST35, then "congratulations, your a Mazak operator".
Training at my company sucks!!!
What I know about operating a Mazak is essentially self taught.
I know all about the self taught thing. Most of what I have learned about Hurco is from YouTube. Man I did like the Haas tip of the day video’s. One day I hope to be good at the Hurco

OP great job! I have a 1903A3 action I have thought about building a hunting rifle for my son with.
 
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Got the barrel channel fit up with a good free float.
20230805_203958.jpg

We were hoping not to have to touch the bedding but it's going to have to get redone. 3 problems with it.
1: The inletting is a bit off center and pointed to the left. This can be corrected a small amount.
2: The bedding material is some soft epoxy. Bedding compound should cure rock hard.
3: the barreled action showed .025" of movement while torquing the rear action screw. .003" is about as good as you can get with the M77s but anything over .005"-.007" should be redone.

I'll do the bedding on it before it gets reblued.

VideoCapture_20230805-204533.jpgVideoCapture_20230805-204535.jpgVideoCapture_20230805-204537.jpgVideoCapture_20230805-204542.jpg
 
I had that issue, the softness with Acraglass. Switched over to Devcon.

Whose make of gun vise is that?

What barrel manufacturer is being used for this build?
It's a Tipton Ultimate vise.
Barrel is X Caliber.
I use Marine-Tex on almost everything.
 
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Waiting for an update....

Also, what torque spec are you using for the action screws with the wood stock?

I've searched everywhere I could think & downloaded the 77 manual. Manual says "till tight". :oops:
:cautious:
 
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