Refinishing my Ruger M77

LawrenceN

LawrenceN

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Toronto (West end)
About 20 years ago, I got a great deal on an unfired Ruger M77 heavy barrel and it's been my primary game getter and a dream to shoot. It'll do 5/8" groups with my handloads and seems to love 165 gr. Sierra bullets. After many years of hunting, I noticed the heavy finish on the wood was starting to yellow, flake and peel off in sections so I figured it was time that "old faithful" got a face lift. For those of you who like refinishing wood I can't recommend too strongly that you look into a simple tool called a cabinet scraper. I use these to take down old finish on rifle stocks prior to sanding. I stripped off the old varnish or urethane which was almost gone in some areas and still very tough in others. After I had the finish off and some of the dents and gouges smoothed out, I sanded it with 600 grit paper and gave it an oil finish. I just thought I'd share the before and after pics. Comments are welcome. Thanks for looking!

 
Mine too! I love the walnut and the old tang safety. To me, nothing beats that classic hunting rifle look and routine maintenance keeps it looking just fine. The oil will be good in repelling moisture and when I break my rifles down after hunting season, I put a thin film of light grease on all the hidden metal parts. Forty five + years and I've never had a problem with a rusting rifle.
 
I've read and heard that the torque on the action screws needs to be set at the proper torque. Did you find any accuracy variance after reassembling and shooting?
 
mosinmaster said:
I've read and heard that the torque on the action screws needs to be set at the proper torque. Did you find any accuracy variance after reassembling and shooting?
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It's hard to tell. My eyes aren't what they were but I can still cut cloverleafs into the target with my reloads (on a good day). With that rifle I consider a 1" group at 100m to be mediocre to good. I will say that every deer I've dropped with that rifle, and there have been lots, has been a 1 shot kill. I thank you for that little tidbit, and I'm going to contact Ruger to see if that information is accurate. Here's a pic of my best day with the rifle, other than with a deer hanging.

This pic is my last day at the range so you'll see one flyer. Still, it's all "minute of deer' accuracy.
 
Mine is a tang safety .308 Win. I shot sub-MoA with it at 200 metres, good enough for hunting accuracy. I would say I'm average+ at marksmanship, so somebody with more skill can shrink this group. Handloads will shrink it even more.

RugerM77200mSubmoa_zps1a918e5e.jpeg
 
Nice job. I always liked the stock style of the 77 wood. When it came out it was in the middle of the monte carlo, humped cheek rest, white line spacer period. I remember Jack O'Connor raving about the stock which was commissioned and designed by Lenard Brownell, a classic stock guy.
 
CheeseBurger said:
Nice work. I picked up a Mk. II 30-06 a month ago and it will be getting the same treatment this winter. I'm hoping mine will push 180gr Partitions as good as yours!
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Thank you for the comment regarding the refinishing. Sadly, I've never had the opportunity to fire a classic-looking Ruger with a standard profile barrel, but my rifle loves everything I push through it from 150 gr. to 190 gr. All the groups are perfectly acceptable for hunting, but the tightest groups have been with the 165 gr. bullets of almost any manufacturer. Depending on the darkness of walnut on your stock, you may wish to go with a standard oil or if the walnut is too light for your taste, look at the Watco or other dark walnut oil. I'd avoid the black walnut finish as it tends to be too dark for my taste, but that would be your call. A good idea is to do a colour test in an unseen area of the wood, like the barrel channel.
 
I did a tung oil finish last winter on a beater shotgun that I fixed. Which oil did you use on this project? I haven't had my Ruger long enough to figure out what it likes although the previous owner told me that the guy he bought it off said it preferred 180's. I haven't had a chance to do any load development for it yet.
 
CheeseBurger said:
I did a tung oil finish last winter on a beater shotgun that I fixed. Which oil did you use on this project? I haven't had my Ruger long enough to figure out what it likes although the previous owner told me that the guy he bought it off said it preferred 180's. I haven't had a chance to do any load development for it yet.
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I used a Watco dark walnut oil. I let the first coat soak in and just kept touching up areas where it had absorbed at different rates. When the oil coat was even, I let it polymerize until it was very slightly tacky. I then used a 3-zero steel wool to matte and smooth the finish. A good trick is wrap a piece of linen around a strong magnet and pass it slowly over the whole stock. It will pick up any residual pieces of the steel wool and when you pull the linen away from the magnet, the metal will just drop away or shake off the cloth.
What rusty51 has as a recipe sounds good. You will get a lot of very good information as to formulae, products, tips and hints most or all of which are very good info. Ultimately, you will have to decide which route you'll choose to go. Any good wood oil like blo, tung oil, watco, or the circa 1851 (?) products will probably work. Google has good information on all of them. When you do your stock, please post before and after pics. I'd love to see how it comes out.
 
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