Free Floating a Ruger M77 MK II

S

shelton573

Active member
I have been working on reloads for my buddy's Ruger 270 with factory laminate stock. Like all other MII I have personally seen, it has the pressure point on the end of the barrel. His also has slight pressure on the right side of the stock. While working up loads, I can get 2 of them to touch but one of the three will always pull about .5-2" from the others. To rule out the reloads, I had him shoot it with reloads and factory ammo and it did the same with factory. I decided the next step is to completely free float the barrel but wanted to see if anyone has had any negative issues free floating a Ruger barrel? Some say since they put the pressure point on it from the factory it needs to stay but I don't necessarily believe that. I am planning on doing the socket/sandpaper trick unless there is something better so I am open to all suggestions. Thanks!

Shelton
 
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I have done 3 77 m2s 7mm mag,243 and 22-250 and free floating and bedding the action has always improved accuracy for me. I use pieces of dow rod wrapped in sand paper..

Jason
 
Thanks for the info Jason. He is not sure that he wants to bed the action yet so will free floating the barrel just be pissing in the wind or will it improve it a bit? I haven't bedded my action yet on my marlin but did re-float the barrel and it seem to have fixed the accuracy (although there are now other problems that came up
mad.gif
) so I didn't know if his would do the same.

Shelton
 
Free floating may be all that you need. I use a Dremel tool with a ball type sander. Be careful though you can't put it back.
 
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I had a ruger m77 22-250, after floating the barrel it shot under an inch at 100 with factory shells. Before sanding the stock it was shooting all over.
 
I've done over a dozen Ruger M77MkII's of my own, and twice that of other guys rifles (nobody seems to like pillar blocking them, so I drummed up work), floating and bedding has improved accuracy on every one of them. Floating helps a lot, bedding helps a little more on top.
 
I have the same problem with my M77 MK2 in 22-250, right now I can shoot a 3 shot group in three hours but not in 3 minutes, I have wanted to free float the barrel but have been really nervous about screwing it up. I guess I will have an excuse to buy a new stock if things go south. is the wooden dowel and sand paper the preferred method?
 
Maybe I'm the odd one out. I free floated my 6mm rem that's a mark ii. It has a wooden stock, it made it worse so I glass bedded a pressure point at the end of the stock while everything up to the action is still free floating and that brought me to 1" at 100 yards with most loads
 
You can test drive it before doing the work by shimming the action just enough to float the barrel. Stack a few business cards fore and aft under the action itself and then torque the action screws to normal pressure. Make sure the recoil lug has sufficient bearing. Fire some groups... If accuracy improves, hog it out and go forward with your float job. If not, you can even experiment with a bit more pressure on that pad in the forearm by shimming it in the same manner. I have a Model Seven that has three oil soaked business cards on the pressure pad up front and now shoots very consistent sub-MOA groups with good ammo. Before the added pressure it was a hot - cold rifle that was very inconsistent.
 
Shelton,,,,Pull up stock bedding on You Tube by Midway...Larry Potterfield has one of the five that will probably help you with the stock fore end problem, including the material to complete the process...

I just pulled them all up yesterday in preparation for bedding one of mine...The one I'm referring to will deal with strengthening a a forearm that has warped, but the same procedure will apply to your problem...
 
Originally Posted By: shelton573Thanks for the info Jason. He is not sure that he wants to bed the action yet so will free floating the barrel just be pissing in the wind or will it improve it a bit? I haven't bedded my action yet on my marlin but did re-float the barrel and it seem to have fixed the accuracy (although there are now other problems that came up
mad.gif
) so I didn't know if his would do the same.

Shelton

for me I wouldn't free float unless I was going to bed the action also. Probably just my pet peeve. But like mentioned above doing each thing will help with accuracy.. sure wont hurt to try floating the barrel first..

Jason
 
I have hand loaded, shot factory loads, 40 to 55 grain bullets, lots of different Mfg's and still can't get this rifle to shoot consistant 1" groups... I have tightened the action screws as many have suggested! I guess I am just about done with this rifle!!!!!! Well enough of my rant, what else should I try? I want to free float the barrel but have read that it works for some rifles and makes others worse. Can anyone recommend a good replacement stock if free floating doesn't fix my problems.
 
Well I free floated the barrel last night and got to shoot a couple of 3 shot groups, the first measured .972 and the second measured .873. I was using cheap Remington loads.
 
Originally Posted By: dhc-6Well I free floated the barrel last night and got to shoot a couple of 3 shot groups, the first measured .972 and the second measured .873. I was using cheap Remington loads.

So needless to say it apparently helped your rifle? I haven't had any time to mess with my buddy's rifle but hopefully this weekend. Thanks for the update!

Shelton
 
It definitely helped my rifle, I was one range session away from pulling the scope and burying this rifle in the back of the safe! I don't think that I could have sold it to anyone with it shooting like it was. I am sure I will be able to improve the groups with hand loads. As a side note my point of impact shifted 9 inches low after the barrel was floated. I thought that this would have been excessive pressure form the stock.
 
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