"Big Bore" Ruger 77

[Bayou City Boy]

Some of you are possibly aware of my love affair with big bore rifles....

Several months ago I noticed an oddity in the Ruger catalog, so I asked a local gun peddler to keep an eye out. I had forgot about the whole thing until he called a couple of days ago. He was in possession of a Ruger Model 77 African Rifle in...... 223 Remington caliber. I went and looked at it Friday, and it was so cute that it followed me out to my Jeep and on home.



Its like the big bores in all respects except its built on the short Model 77 action. It comes complete with a fixed 50 yard elevation shallow V rear sight, windage adjustable....



A stock cross bolt to handle the punishing recoil.....



And a barrel band front sling swivel and an ivory bead front sight.



Anyway....... I hope it shoots good. It has a 1 in 9" twist barrel to handle the heavy dangerous game solid bullets in .224" bore. Now to find an appropriate low power scope with a German #4 reticle befitting a big bore rifle.

-BCB

[Trent]

Well, they finally listened to our cries for a proper safari rifle to protect ourselves against the charging prairie bulls!

Cool rifle!

[Bill K]

Those are neat, Ruger came out with it to give us something to practice with, that looks and feels just like the same rifle, but in 375 Ruger... Enjoy. Bill K

[Rick in Oregon]

Well Hal, aren't you the one to come up with unusual, interesting yet useful items from the firearms world. Nice one there, bud. I didn't even know Ruger produced the Safari rifle in 223; now I wonder if any of the other makers do for the reason Bill K. mentioned.

Congrats for yet another neat new toy.

[Bayou City Boy]

I contacted Ruger directly after seeing it in their catalog several months ago, and "something to practice with" is the exact reason I was given for it being built.

I shot it a little bit ago over the 50 yard ivories and it shot directly to point of aim without any windage adjustment needed on the rear sight. Its a fairly big rifle and simply goes "bang" when you pull the trigger. About 45 minutes of shooting (20 rounds) was all I wanted to do today with our current heat. More shooting to come soon with it and a real big bore rifle for comparison purposes.......

-BCB

[acloco]

BCB,
THAT is a righteous rifle.

Can only guess that the number built is ultra low.

Great find....truly great find.

[Bayou City Boy]

The dealer here in Houston who got it said he had left word with all of his national distributors to let him know if they got any. Several months passed, and finally one of the distributors got two of them from Ruger. I now have one of those two.

So........... I agree that they are probably not a big number production item.

-BCB

[Bill K]

Well they sure ought too. Greg Boddington did a show and comments re: the Ruger rifle on one of his African series, in which he said that is exactly why Ruger came out with it, to give hunters a rifle to practice with, same weight,handling,etc that their big bore 375 has. In regard to Rick,s ?, there was one other "High end" company that put out a rifle along the same idea. (Sorry can not remember who that was) Remember reading a article about them, several years back. Bill K

[Bayou City Boy]

Well they sure ought too. Greg Boddington did a show and comments re: the Ruger rifle on one of his African series, in which he said that is exactly why Ruger came out with it, to give hunters a rifle to practice with, same weight,handling,etc that their big bore 375 has......

Well, boy howdy....! They should say that if that's the story old Mule Deer is peddling on TV....... Since Captain Kangaroo died, there's not been a better source alive for valuable information than Mule Deer.

-BCB