M77 Mk Ii Ultra Light??

S

shortaction

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Manitoulin Island, Ontario
Sold my 243 Win Tikka T3 and now need a coyote gun.

Was thinking a 257 Roberts might make a nice coyote round in the Ruger M77 MK II ULTRA LIGHT.

I have never owned a Ruger and was wondering what kind of accuracy I could expect from it?

Anyone else use a 257 Roberts for coyotes? What loads are you using?
 
I owned the 22" version MK II in 257 Roberts & it's an excellent rifle. 1 M.O.A. accuracy out of mine. Friends MK I is the same. The nice thing about these rifles if not the cartridge, is the fact that they seem to like any weight of bullet in the 257 range. The Ultra Light would have been my choice as well, but there were none around when I purchased mine and for 2" I wasn't going to sweat it.
I take a 257 Roberts over the 243 any day, but that just my 2 cents...
 
Pelts are not my biggest concern more predator control, prefer the 24 or 25 cal just because my niece's and nephew's can use them for whitetails as well and they buck the wind a little better in the open country. Also we have a few Wolves here and I would prefer the heavier caliber to put them down.

I have used a 243 win and 243 WSSM with 55gr Ballistic tips and they worked well and didn't damage the hides. No exit hole just a caliber size entrance hole. I put a mangy fox down with the 243 WSSM that was only about 50 ft away (standing at the speaker of the call) and didn't get a exit hole.

Now I have no experience with the 257 Roberts and the lightest bullet nosler makes is 85gr and Hornady is 75 gr so they my very well exit and make a terrible mess.
 
The Ultralight has a pretty skinny barrel, so may require a bit more finesse to get shooting properly, i.e. free floating and bedding.
I bought a new Hawkeye this year in the Roberts, and it's a nice rifle; accurate and with a decent trigger straight from the box. The stock is a big improvement over the Mk II in my opinion; it's been noticeably slimmed down and has wraparound checkering and a soft recoil pad. What it's not is a featherweight rifle, but that's okay by me. It soaks up even more of the .257 Roberts' already low recoil.
I've done no stock or trigger work to mine and it will shoot Hornady 87's into an inch using H4831 powder. Also shoots factory Win 117 gr +P well, Sierra 100 and Hornady 100 flatbase bullets well. If I were shooting coyotes as pest control only, I'd just use a 100-grain deer load and avoid resighting the rifle. For fur hunting, I might try the Sierra 75 grain Varminter hollowpoint.
For kids to shoot, Remington roundnose 117 grain factory ammo is worth a look. It has extremely low recoil, and was very accurate in my Model 70. It'll drop deer to 250 yards, coyotes further, but it won't shoot very flat.
 
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