Anyone ever free float a ruger stock? Then bed it?

FullMoonYoteSkin

FullMoonYoteSkin

New member
I have a new Ruger 17 hornet that i havent shot but have bedded other rugers and it made a huge difference. I notice the stock gets more loose as year had passed with others and want to have a tack driver from day 1. I plan to bed and free float right off the bat, good or bad idea?
 
If u can post pics, i am about to pull the trigger on a m77/17 hornet, and have heard bedding is one of the 1st things to do.
 
I used to bed Ruger M77's for a local guns shop that had a shop smith that hated bedding them because of the flat bottom and the angled lug. Been through a BUNCH of them, and never had one that shot worse afterwards. Some were barely better, but they've all been better.

Pillar block it, bed it, free float it, and never look back.
 
I had a Remington Model 660 in 222 cal for about 20 + years before I decided to have it glass bedded by a local gun smith. I didn't shoot it very much when it was new as I didn't really have any place to go shoot it except at my place of work. I worked at a swimming resort with a couple of lakes on the huge property. One was for the swimming public and the other was the fishing lake.

We were lifeguard there at the time and I was in college. The owner was good to us and let us stay out there at night and camp out and go swimming in the lake during the hot summer months.

We had about 8 to 10 life guards working each summer and several maintenance guys who cut the grass plus the girls in the Kitchen. So we have some good parties for many years until the place closed down.

I would take the rifle out there after closing or before opening and try to shoot the muskrats that were swimming in the lake. They were making dens in one of the dams between the two lakes and needed to be eradicated before they caused the dam to break. I know we could have trapped them out of the lake but shooting them was more fun. I was young and didn't really know anything about mounting a scope on a rifle properly. So I was not the best shot in the world back then even at only 100 yards. The lake was about 12 acres in size and the rats kept to the other side of the lake away from the beach and the pavilion building up on the top of the hillside above the sand beach.

I would sit up on one of the pick nic tables on the pavilion early in the morning after an all night camp out and shoot a few rounds at the musk rats. But I only shot the gun about 10 to 20 times if that much. I only took the rifle out to the lake once or twice.

So the gun was still pretty new just had been sitting around in the house on the gun rack for 15 to 20 years before I got it out and started hunting with it. Well by hunting I mean taking it to the rifle range and sighting in the scope properly. By this time I had learned how to mount the scope better. The rifle is now a tack driver. It shoots Remington 222 PSP and Hornady 222 cal shells like a dream. The Remington 222 cal was a great caliber in it's day and was a gun many shooters coveted. So I was told by many others.

Anyway I think that after the receiver was glass bedded it shot great. I'm not sure if it shot as good when new as I really can't remember shooting it that well. I did find out that it had an awful trigger when a good friend of mine shot it on a range trip when we were in college together back in 1976. He said the trigger was really bad. He was a NRA gun and now is a Director of a State Fish and Wildlife Agency. Plus he is the guy that goes out and certifies ranges in our state as meeting NRA standards. He's been with the NRA since before I meet him in school.

I had the trigger replaces by the same gun smith that did my bedding job. Remington did a recall on that particular rifle and paid to have the new safer trigger installed. The gun shoots a lot better now. But I may still have someone put in a better trigger someday. I hear that Timmy Triggers are nice. I have a two stage trigger on my AR15 that I love. I can't recall the name of the company that makes that trigger right now. I'm getting old and memory fades at times. Anyway a new trigger might work.

I also had the Remington's original plastic trigger guard replaced with a steel one. This improved the looks and function of the rifle a great deal. The shells in the magazine and the spring in the magazine had deformed the plastic trigger where it didn't fit tight up against the bottom of the stock anymore. There was a gape there that a bullet could fall out of from the magazine. The new steel trigger guard fixed that problem.

The only time I use the Remington anymore is when I go to the rifle range. And since I got my new pistols I hardly ever shoot the rifles anymore. The pistols are just too much more fun.
 
Thanks guys, i need that bedding and floating encouragement! Just need that push sometimes, buuuuuttttt.....

I got out and poped a few rounds today with it. I wish i took a pic of the first group. .5 or so at 88 yards (ranged). Cheap barska scope and all. I will still glass it and float due to the freeze thaw that guns get up here in MN when you are out hunting in the cold of winter, but these little rifles are fantastic! No recoil, crisp (though slighty heavy) trigger and just a great feel. Im going to see how handloads go then bed, then float, the barrel touches uneven in the stock and i just want to get it all perfect before snow flies, but im very excited!!!
 
I'm glad u got lucky man! I wasn't going to say anything but I'm in mine well over a grand to get it to MOA. I'm glad yours does well for you!!!
 
Mine is a ruger, I bought my girlfriend the CZ same day. Hers shot 5/8 or so out of the box. I had to get my chamber recut, float bed and trim the barrel 2" and recrown. I also deburred the contact surfaces on the trigger and sear contact points.
I've never seen a firearm in such bad shape out of the box.
 
Yikes! Ive been there! With a ruger too, although it was a mini 14, but it shoots good after all of the BS i did to it. I floated my barrel today but a wedding kept me from finishing the bed. Ive taken pics and ill bring you guys through my process. I do use shoe polish, probably better out there but that stuff keeps it from any lock, FOR SURE. Varmints have been seen in numbers latety and i cant wait to get this dik'd in before the snow flys. I hope powder doesnt become an issue after is tragic oregon shooting, how terrible. I cant imagine the pain those families are feeling, awful.
 
I used kiwi for many years, but never again after I used johsons paste floor wax for the first time. It is 1000 times better, in my opinion.

Yes, Oregon was a tragedy. I was sorry to hear about that.
 
Shoe polish is a PITA to clean off of the barrel, ill prob take your advice on the next one. Aerosol would be much easier. Gun bedded, i only shot a few rounds free hand today. I gotta go prone or vise it to see where im at with it MOA wise, but i like it. Fun gun, cant wait for the dogs to drop this year. Btw, no one is joking about ruger triggers, that will help me greatly, im sure.
 
Originally Posted By: FullMoonYoteSkinYikes! Ive been there! With a ruger too, although it was a mini 14, but it shoots good after all of the BS i did to it. I floated my barrel today but a wedding kept me from finishing the bed. Ive taken pics and ill bring you guys through my process. I do use shoe polish, probably better out there but that stuff keeps it from any lock, FOR SURE. Varmints have been seen in numbers latety and i cant wait to get this dik'd in before the snow flys. I hope powder doesnt become an issue after is tragic oregon shooting, how terrible. I cant imagine the pain those families are feeling, awful.

A Mini 14 in a .17 Hornet?
 
Originally Posted By: Orneryolfart357Originally Posted By: FullMoonYoteSkinYikes! Ive been there! With a ruger too, although it was a mini 14, but it shoots good after all of the BS i did to it. I floated my barrel today but a wedding kept me from finishing the bed. Ive taken pics and ill bring you guys through my process. I do use shoe polish, probably better out there but that stuff keeps it from any lock, FOR SURE. Varmints have been seen in numbers latety and i cant wait to get this dik'd in before the snow flys. I hope powder doesnt become an issue after is tragic oregon shooting, how terrible. I cant imagine the pain those families are feeling, awful.

A Mini 14 in a .17 Hornet?

Ornery as usual.... I'd be ornery too if I went 2 for 8 on a stand this weekend, hahahahaha.
Glad you're in good spirits!
 
Nope, sorry Mini 14 is in .223 only
wink.gif
sarcasm?

My .17 hornet is a 77/17
 
Back
Top