Ruger 77/44

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I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds.. and for Indiana deer hunting thats a long shot here in bush country.. anyone have any tips or experience with this weapon ? Im not retireing my Savage model 10 for deer season or my scoped 870, Im just trying something new.
I put the synthetic and stainless in layaway.
 
H110 is a great powder to load your own 44 off of. Will serve you well as a brush gun for deer in your area. You should be 1.5-2" at 50 yards and close to that at 75.

I've shot a few deer with 44 lever guns. Bullets were Speer Gold Dot and a cast. Gold Dot worked well. It was 70 yards. Dropped no problem.

PM me if you want load data. I have plenty of it.
 
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds...


I see no problem with this rifle grouping under 4 feet at 100 yards.
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds...


I see no problem with this rifle grouping under 4 feet at 100 yards.
grin.gif



im sure i can manage a little better than that. My dad has great luck with his Thompson Center .44 Mag and has great grouping at 100 yrds. i see my mistake, lol obviously i meant 4 inches
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds...


I see no problem with this rifle grouping under 4 feet at 100 yards.
grin.gif



Historically the Deerfield carbine is not know to shoot anywhere near tight groups. Minute of deer at 50 yards is what you get!!
 
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds...


I see no problem with this rifle grouping under 4 feet at 100 yards.
grin.gif



Historically the Deerfield carbine is not know to shoot anywhere near tight groups. Minute of deer at 50 yards is what you get!!


Yeah, but the 77/44 is a completely different ball of wax.
 
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Originally Posted By: BISCUT
Originally Posted By: Stelth
Originally Posted By: OtisBlkR1
I put one of these in layaway yesterday, never fired one, planning on mounting a Bushnell Elite on top of it for deer season, this will be my first .44 Rifle, im fairly excited. I see no reason why i should be able to maintain a grouping of 4' or less at 100yrds...


I see no problem with this rifle grouping under 4 feet at 100 yards.
grin.gif



Historically the Deerfield carbine is not know to shoot anywhere near tight groups. Minute of deer at 50 yards is what you get!!


Yeah, but the 77/44 is a completely different ball of wax.


I agree, i wouldnt have put $ down if i had any doubts that i could hit the kill zone at 100
 
brought this little carbine home this weekend and put my new Bushnell Elite 3200 on top of it. After a quick boresight and throwing a bi-pod on it I took a few shots and made a few clicks i was cutting the same hole at 30 yards with winchester .44 Magnums in short order.

I will start the dialing out to 100Yrds this coming weekend. I love it !!!!!
 
and when i mean cutting the same hole, i do mean cutting the same hole.. it held very tight groupings at the 30 yrd mark.. i will post up more information as i shoot it more and dial it out.
 
I guess I haven't looked in here in a while. I never saw this thread.
I have a 77/44 I tinker with quite a bit. I bought it about four or five years ago on a whim, mostly because the price was right. I didn't expect to keep it unless I suppressed it (I have a suppressed 77/22, and it would make a nice companion for that), but that was the first surprise it gave. It has not only stuck around, but it gets taken on most range trips.

When I got it, I had high hopes for accuracy and thought that would be where it had the edge over lever actions. Checking online at the time, I found people saying it shot really well or fair at best. What I found was that it was a 4+1 or 3+2 shooter, meaning it would put three, and usually four, into a group but throw the other one or two out.

Some of that was my fault because it got better after some trigger tuning. Obviously my trigger control was part of it. Bedding is probably the test if the answer. I was unwilling to do any obvious and permanent changes because they were out of production at the time (and bringing more than they were worth in my honest opinion) so I tried temporary tricks like using shims to gloat the action above the stock. That helped, and I think a full bedding job would do wonders with mine.

But I didn't. Really- why? I got it to where I could keep them in two inches at 50 (Leupold 1-4x) and didn't see why I needed more. That's enough to stay in a deer's vitals at 100 allowing for quite a bit of wobble on my part. And that may be mire than I can use because a) I doubt I'd see one beyond half that far, and b) that's five shot groups, when I can't imagine getting more than two at the most. I always got at least three touching. Sinking more time, money, and effort into it seemed like a quest for what Jeff Cooper called "inconsequential increments". I don't see that 1.5 MOA vs 2 MOA matters on deer size game within 100 yards.

So I've mostly played around to see what all I could get it to shoot at least passable well. I cast bullets and have quite a range of .44 moulds, so I played around with bullets ranging from 113 to 320 grains. From 680 fps to just under 2000. The twist (1-20) handles them all pretty well.
In jacketed, it likes the Hornady XTPs in 240 and 300, like most .44s do.

I've loaded shot loads, round balls, double projectiles (two stacked 133 grain bullets), heavy bullet subsonics, and I got at least decent results with all except the shot loads, which is no great surprise.

Some people say the 77/44's magazine is too short to handle long bullets. Yeah, it is too short to take a 300 SWC with a long nose, but there are plenty of heavies it will take. A switch to a Wide Flat Nose or TC will get it in there. The heaviest .44 mould I have is an SSK-designed TC meant for 320 grains in Linotype. It runs more like 330 or so from wheelweight alloy. I can use it through the magazine when seated to it's deepest crimp point. I doubt I'd need anything heavier. I can't imagine what I need a 330 for.

Along the way, I realized where this rifle shined over lever actions was in handiness. A pistol caliber lever is a handy thing, but this is even better. Mine was 5.25 lbs before I put that little scope on it. That is the same weight as my Browning takedown .22 autos.

I've seriously given thought to the 77/44 as a survival rifle. It may not be the best tool for fighting off close Zombies, but it will handle anything in IN or vicinity at reasonable range. It is easy on powder, with the heaviest loads using less than my .223 reloads. I can use a wide range of powders- even black powder if I had to. I can cast bullets for any situation. Mine is stainless/synthetic. The hollow stock can hold fishing line and matches, etc. Its light an easy to carry. I don't know. Just an offbeat thought that started when I noticed that even during the ammo buying panic of 2009-2009 I could always find .44 Mag on the shelves.
 
+1 on handy pistol caliber carbines. I have to respectfully disagree on the handiness issue; being as it's in the eye of the beholder.
My Marlin .357 carbine is very balanced, light, and works pretty fast. I know that the Brits could get 15 rpm with the SMLE, but I bet I get to nine quicker than anything short of a full auto. to my thinking, THAT'S HANDY!
 
Despite what the specs say, my Marlin .41 Mag weighs almost 6-3/4 lbs. I have a .308 bolt action that weighs just over seven. Lengths are within an inch. The weight difference is hardly noticeable and length is virtually the same. When picking one to carry around, I see little reason to take the lever aside from just for fun.

The Ruger 77/44, at 5.25 lbs, is enough lighter to notice.

With pistol caliber carbines, I usually end up thinking that since I'm only ounces away from a rifle using a rifle cartridge, I might as well use that. The PCCs end up being used for playing around. The Ruger is enough lighter to really feel the difference.
 
I envision a PCC as a defensive arm first, and hunting second. In most situations, a rifle would over-penetrate. I addition, in a defensive situation, a PCC is usually lighter, quicker to action, and shorter. I have not hunted with it yet, but from all I've read; with the proper bullet and shot placement I'm good to 100yds for deer and hogs. If hunting were the primary use, I too would opt for a rifle it there were no significant weight or length penalty.
 
I ordinarily don't look at PCCs as much more than fun guns either, but IN's deer hunting regs were changed just in the last few years to allow some calibers of PCCs (basically .357 Mag as minimum) as legal deer rifles. This is the first time we have been able to use a rifle on deer in decades.
In that light, they got another look from a lot of us here. When its the best thing one can get, they are suddenly very interesting.
 
great reply's thanks all.. this past weekend i cut the same hole 3 times at 80 yards and had one zinger about 2 inches out.. thats not a problem in my book. Id realy like to get this gun a good zero at max yardage, a local professional suggested 150yrds as Max zero for this rigle. ive never had to make a 150 yard shot but cant see where it would hurt having it set up to do so.
 
I was shooting mine yesterday and was reminded that I have to modify my bench technique with it. I thought maybe I should mention that here.
When shooting from the bench, I can't just let it ride the bags. The slow moving bullet and light weight of the rifle lets it move before the bullet clears the barrel. That's a theory only, since I have no way to prove it, but I think its the case. Partial proof is that when groups open up, they drift in the direction of recoil.
I either reach under the front rest and hold the tip of the forend, or hold it normally and rest my hand on the rest's sandbag instead of resting the forend directly. Either way, I pull back pretty hard to keep it still. When I shoot a group that way, and another the regular way, the groups are a lot different.

Regarding zero range, its all your decision of course, but I wouldn't zero it for that far. I tend to zero toward the closer end of any cartridge's working range simply because it's a lot easier and more natural for me to hold over than to hold under. I think that is probably true for most people.

With the 77/44, I zero closer because odds are that's where I'll be shooting. I'd rather have to hold over for the rare 150 yard shot than need to hold under for all the others.

With a 150 zero, you would be holding 2.5-3" low until past 100 yards. I am looking at a 240 XTP trajectory, btw. At 125, it's still 2.2" high. It's on at 150, but by 175, it's almost 3.5" low. That's a pretty narrow window.

I zero mine for 50 yards, but 75 or 100 might be better.
With a 100 yard zero, it's well within an inch of the crosshairs from ten feet until about 110 yards. At 150, it's 5" low.
A 75 yard zero keeps it within .3" to 75, 1.2" low at 100, 3.4" low at 125, and almost 7" low at 150.

Another problem I'd have with a 150 yard zero and my rifle is group size. The group would be as large as the drop. If my rifle was making one-hole groups at 150, zeroing it there might be more useful, but getting the zero a couple inches closer when it's putting them in a 6" circle doesn't seem to gain me much.
 
Barry -
A slower, heavier bullet will shoot higher than a faster and lighter bullet.
And for the reasons you gave - this is normal.

Consider old .38 special revolvers - the front sight was high because of the standard 158 grain bullet.
Shoot a 130 in there, and be prepared to group low!
 
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