Shooting with Jim Hammond Ruger M77 .308 Product Review

Don't Give Up

 

This is a story about my hunting buddy, Alex Thomason and his quest for a hunting rifle. This story starts off with Alex spending hours on the internet and reading Woods "N Water magazine for information on the caliber and rifle that would best suit his needs. See, Alex lives in Florida and for the most part is going to hunt hogs and deer with the rifle he decides on so he needed to find a rifle and caliber that would work well on these species.

 

After many hours of research he had decided on a 308 or 30-06 and a bolt action rifle but was not 100 percent sure as to the make or style of the rifle. He had based his information on a few things as far as the caliber, style of rifle, brand and maximum distance he might get a good shot.

 He wanted something that shot a round that had the power to bring down his prey with one well placed shot, was readily available in both factory and reloadable ammo and had many sizes and styles of bullets available. With this said the choices for him were 308 or 30-06. I also think a little of his decision was based on me having equipment and knowledge in reloading both of these rounds.

 

Now that he has chosen the two calibers he is in search of the rifle. Back to the internet he went in search of the rifle for him. He looked a Winchester, Remington, Sako, Ruger, Marlin and probably a bunch more before deciding on a Ruger M77. His choice was based on how pretty the rifle was, being American made and dependability.

 

Now, the next part of this saga was to find one that was almost new or new for the right price and if used in pristine condition. Both he and I searched high and low for a real nice used one but ner to be found until we went to an auction in Clay county and what did we find laying on the tables with many other fine guns but a Ruger M77 in 308. This rifle was either only shot a time or two or never fired and in cherry condition. No nicks, scratches or dings on the gun anywhere. The bore was perfect, the action worked great and the rifle was darn good looking. Oh yeah, it also had a real nice Leupold scope and scope rings, which was a big plus, as he was going to have to buy a scope for the one he decided on and a Leupold was what he wanted. So now all we had to do was fix a maximum price he wanted to bid and wait until this rifle came to the block. After sitting though a couple of hours of other firearms being auctioned, the Ruger had it's turn. The bid was started at $350 and then $375 then $400 then $450 then $475. Just before the gavel hit wood for the close on this item, he shouted $500. The auctioneer said $500 once, $500 twice, SOLD for $500 to the guy with the big grin on his face. We went and paid and picked up the rifle and back to the house we were headed. Well, now the easy part was over and the big chore was ahead of us.

This is where the title of the story is fixing to come into play.

 

Now we all know that all rifles do not shoot the same or all ammo with the same accuracy so the next day he went and purchased about 8 or 10 different brands, styles and sizes of 308 ammo for our day at the range. He had ammo from about $20 to over $40 a box in brands like Winchester, Remington, Nosler and more.

 

Before we headed to the range we went ahead and bore sighted the rifle, loctited the scope and gave the rifle a good once over. Once at the range, I broke out my Savage 10FP in 308 and Alex with his new Ruger, we began to shoot. He started out a the 25 yard to be sure we had bore sighted the rifle, then to the 50 yard and finally to the 100 yard. Now, I had already been at the 100 yard range testing a few more reloads so I already had a few holes punched in the paper that he was able to se as we walked down to hang his target. He was kind of mumbling a little as he looked at my targets and so I asked him what he was saying and to my dismay he said, "he was not getting groups that good at 50 yards with his rifle. Now my groups were in the .30 to .50 of an inch range. The first thing I thought was we had messed up mounting the scope and maybe it was not secured properly, so when we walked back to the bench, the first thing I did was to check this out. But sadly enough, this was not the problem.

 

He went ahead and shot 3 rounds of one brand and three rounds of another and so on, until he had shot 8 three round groups. I leaned over on each shot and viewed the target through my rifle scope and with each shot, I was saying to myself, "what a POS this Ruger is". Now if you could have been there you would have been right there with the same comments as the groups at best were 8 inches from a Lead Sled rest. This was worse than terrible. Now poor Alex had his head hanging low with disappointment and I do believe you could have purchased that rifle for $200, just to get it away from him. All the high hopes of a rifle that shot like my Savage and what he had was just plain terrible.

 

I gave him a few of my reloads and they were not any better. I shot a few more times and I could not get it to shoot any better the he did, so we packed up and back to the house we went. I did offer him $200 but he did no think that was too funny.

 

That night Alex spent many hours on the internet, researching his rifle and what could he do to make it shoot right. He read articles about the rifle needing a new trigger, barrel, sights, wing dings and everything else that was on the internet. The next day he called and said he was lost and needed some help. I asked "was the barrel touching the wooden stock? I told him to take a dollar bill and place it under the barrel and see if it would slide all the way under the fore grip to the receiver. He put the phone done and came back with an answer of  NO. The dollar would only go about an inch or so then stopped. I then told him the barrel could not be touching the stock and had to be free floating all the way to the receiver if he wanted to have an accurate shooter. He then said by and went back to the internet for more research on what to do now.

 

The next day, he called and said he had sanded out a bunch of wood and the barrel no longer touched the stock. I suggested that we head back to the range and try again. He then ask if I would reload some rounds that he found on the internet that were supposed to shoot good in a Ruger M77. Of course I had no problem with this and by the next day, he had several loads in a few different weights and powders.

 

Again we went to the range and again the rifle shot big groups in the 6 to 7 inch range. I asked if he had taken off enough wood and would a dollar slide to the receiver. He stood up slid one under the barrel and it stopped about 1/4 of the way down. He had not removed enough wood from the stock and the barrel was still rubbing.

 

Here is the deal with the barrel rubbing thing. When you pull the trigger and the rifle goes BOOM, the barrel vibrates, just like a tuning fork. If it is rubbing on the stock, the barrel does not return to the EXACT place it was on your first shot. So, if the barrel is not pointing to the exact spot it was on the first shot, your next shot is going to be off and the third and so on.

Now, I know some of you are saying WHAT, the barrel vibrates when the rifle is fired. No way, not that big heavy piece of hammered steel can be vibrating. Well it does. Even a 22 with a big fat bull barrel, vibrates.

 

So we packed up and back to the house we went. I wanted to get out the chain saw and help grind out some wood but he would not let me help. I don't know why. I could have hit it a few times with the chain saw and had plenty of wood removed. It might have looked a little rough but it would have been done.

 

That night he sanded more and more until he had a nice FREE FLOATING barrel. Then put some stain and sealed the wood with varnish.

 

A few days later back to the range we went. This time I had loaded about 25 different hand loads in different sizes and powders. With some hesitation, Alex set up and squeezed off the first shot, then another and another. Now I was on the spotting scope and after his second round, I said nothing as I watched the rifle punch a hole about an inch from the first shot then the third shot very near the first. As I looked up and in his direction I saw what was a pretty big smile on his face and he was now ready. Ready to shoot all the hand loads in search of the perfect one for that rifle. All of the wood that had been rubbing on the barrel was now removed and his rifle was ready.

 

Before the day was gone, he had shot about 150 rounds and we had found two loads that would shoot 3/4 inch at 100 yards. Now we had to get back on the reloading bench and fine tune these loads. We reloaded 10 more groups of each of the two good ones. Each, 3/100th of a grain of powder heavier and lighter until we had enough for the next day.

 

The next day we were both anxious to see what the rifle would do with our new loads as we headed to the range. We got there, set up and proceeded to shootem up. We started with a load that was 3/100th heavier than the best from the previous shoot and it shot a little better but not where I wanted it to be. Next two sets of loads were even better and the fourth set was shooting 3/10 of an inch groups at 100 yards. We continued and the loads were getting worse. We went ahead and shot all of them just to see but the fourth set was the load for this rifle.

 

I was happy but more important Alex was jumping for joy. See I told him at the start, he could not hunt with me using that rifle until we had it dialed in at 1 inch groups at 100 yards and with him shooting 3/10 of and inch, we had accomplished our goal.

 

We went back home and reloaded a bunch of the ones that worked best and shot one more day, just to be sure. He was now ready to see what the woods had in store for him and his new rifle.

 

A couple of weeks later he and I headed to the woods. We spent the best part of the day getting set up with stands and a little scouting then that first afternoon, we headed to our stands. I was hunting over a small field that had 5 cross roads and lots of animal trials all using the field as a junction and Alex was hunting over three pretty well worn animal trails that crossed a road. It was a nice afternoon with a 20 plus knot wind a little colder that I like but we were in our stands and waiting for our quarry to get in our sights. Long about an hour before dark, the wind completely died and now I could hear everything. Every little bird, squirrels foraging and what I thought was something larger in the thicket behind me. I sat real still, slowly turning my head so I could see in the direction of the sound but I saw nothing but a little pig. Now I wanted a deer and I was pretty sure if I shot the pig, my chances of getting a deer were going to drop off pretty good, so I just sat still and waited. Not more than a few minutes later, I heard the crack of a rifle in the direction of where I had left Alex. Well, If there was more than one deer, the remainder of them should be heading my way. I sort up sat up and with all of my senses alert, and watched the edge of the field hoping to see one come my way but nothing showed itself. Well, the day light had now left and it was too dark to shoot and time to get down and see what Alex had shot. After a short walk I came up on him he was one giant grin from ear to ear.

 

Where is it, I said and he pointed to the edge of the road and said, "right there". I was happier than if I had shot one. He had a nice deer and a well placed one shot had dropped it where it stood. There is nothing like it when a well planned game comes together. Now here is the neat thing about this story. Alex had never been deer hunting before and on his first hunt he has harvested a deer. It was not a monster deer and did not have a monster rack. It was a spike BUT his first deer. Can you remember your first one? I sure can and it did not have to be a wall hanger trophy, it was my first one. And I know the excitement he was feeling with this first one. After lots of attaboys and high fives, we loaded it up and back to the camp we headed.

 

That night it seemed like neither of us were going to be able to sleep after such a great day but when we finally did, it seemed like day light came pretty early. Now the next day, it was fair game for hogs or deer after Alex had broken the ice.  

 

The next day, we hunted a different area and this spot was loaded with pigs, so I knew I was in for a treat. We both got in our stands and played the waiting game. All you out there that hunt, know what I am talking about. Get in the stand, watch the birds and squirrels, hear or see something that gets your attention and wait some more. Well this day, the waiting for Alex was short lived, as I heard a boom not more than 30 minutes after he was in his stand. Then a bout 20 minutes later another boom from Alex's direction. I waited about an hour and just had to go see what was going on in his direction. I slid out of my stand and headed toward him and what was in the road ahead of me but a big ole pig. I rested one hand on a small tree, brought my rifle up and looked right at the pig using my BSA scope, that was turned up to 8x. I followed it's body down to it's hind quarter and with great disappointment saw some big ole male parts hanging from his belly. That's right a big ole boar. I was absolutely sure I did not want a 200 pound boar. Now if it been a sow, It would  now be in my freezer but no thanks to a boar. I shouldered the 223 and put my hand on the 44 revolver, just in case it did not want to run from me but at me. I took a few more steps and off it went, so back down the road I went. As I made the bend in the road, I could see two black furry creatures, one on each side and both looking like the were the results of the two shots I had heard earlier. As I made my way toward Alex, he hollered out, "there is big one down that road". I replied that I knew and it was a male.

He climbed down and headed toward me as I was examining his most recent results. Both of these sows were about 50 yards from his stand and both with a head shot. He had shot both of them in almost the same place, just forward of the ear, right through the head. Two great shots, two dead sows and did not damage any meat.

 

After more attaboys and high fives, we drug them back to the truck and headed back home.

 

Alex Had a heck a great time and some luck to have three nice animals walk within range.

 

The moral of this story is, DON'T GIVE UP. He purchased a rifle that shot terrible, spent a bunch of time free floating the barrel, spent a bunch more time at the range and ended up with a rifle that shoots great groups and has three kills to it. If you end up with a rifle that does what his did when new. Try some of the things we did to make his a shooter. It might work for you.

 

      

 

 

 

       

Alex with his first deer and his two nice sows. Lots of range time paid off, with accurate one shot kills.