Finally got the 338 77 Tanger home!

preacher

Handloader
Aug 19, 2012
2,294
330
man! After several setbacks,etc, I finally brought this jewel home. Someone had slimmed/trimmed the stock & recheckered it. It really feels nice in the hands.
 

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Very nice. What glass are you going to mount?

JD338
 
salmonchaser":21s5e815 said:
Tell me about the Tanger, I've never heard of that.


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It is a Ruger 77 with a Tang Safety.


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Ha! Its just a euphemism for the tang safety, as ol 5shot said. I took it apart/ cleaned and inspected the bedding ( it has a big dollop under the chamber and a pad on the end of the forearm. I then put it all back together, torqued all the screws to appropriate torque. and mounted my Leupold 1.5x5, torqued the rings screws too. The trigger breaks real nice at 3#, so someone had also fixed the trigger ( notoriously "not so hot" back then). I have 180s, 200BT, 200AB then jump to 250 PTs & ABs. I've never really had any dealings with the 225, not in the old 35 Whelan AI nor any 338, 340W or 338 RUM.
My first "nice bolt rifle" was a 1977 Ruger 77 in .280. I got it on discount as it had sat in a gunshop over a year ( I was a Jim Carmichael fan and he loved the .280 "if handloaded".) I shot it stock for a few years. My first 338 winmag was a MKII in early '93, it was stock also, but the MKII was a lot slimmer/trimmer than the original tang safety 77s. Even back then there was a ad in Rifle magazine of some fellow who slimmed/trimmed/recheckered them and this may be one of those, for all I know. Anyhow, its as slim as, if not a tad more so, than a Remington. Feels pretty lively between the hands. It still has the Red Pad recoil pad, which may or may not get replaced. ( I do like Limbsavers) Anyhow, after selling off a few treasures to pay "the vig" on Obammacare scam, its nice to have a medium bore back!
 
I have a "tanger" in .300Winmag that shoots extremely well. Somebody flipped a 4 wheeler while the rifle was slung across his back and the stock took the brunt of the fall. Oh wait that was me..... :) Cleaned the 3 inches of mud from her barrel, swabbed her clean, and rechecked the zero.. never moved. Ruger makes a very nice integrated scope mounts.

Bomb proof rifle. Have fun with her!
 
PJ I hope you can hold on to this one and that it shoots good for you looks to be a nice rifle.
My tang safety is in 30-06 and after considerable bedding work it has never lost poi since the work was done back in the late 1970's when I bought it new.
Ruger didn't seal the forearm and it warped putting pressure on the barrel causing the poi to be way off. I had to beat the barreled action out of the stock with a no bounce hammer to disassemble it. Hogging out the barrel channel and glass bedding the action and forearm free floating the barrel solved the problem and it became a laser.
 
When It was bedded no one knew about pillar bedding so it was glass bedded with accruglass which had stainless steel filings add for strength. I have never had the action out of the stock since i got it back from the gun smith back in the 1970's. He did one heck of a job on it for it to hold it's poi all these years.
Off all the rifles I own if the sh1t hit the fan this would be the first one I would grab.
 
I haven't shot it yet! I just picked up my Mod 70 Fwt in 7x57 ( 80's push-feed) and found a new smith on Saturday. I am having the Mod 70 trigger replaced with a Timney and he is going to bed an aluminum bedding block in the action,etc. Will add a couple ozs only. I want to give it every chance to shoot well. The stock is dark and the whole rifle is in 95+% condition. I also won a bid on an old Sako Forrester in .243 so paying it out. On top of that just been too busy with working. If the Mod 70 bedding job looks good, I'll have him do it to the Tanger also! I found the smith on Google, he lives about 27 miles from me, http://www.utahrifle.com his shop looked good and he is an avid hunter too. As mentioned, my old smith retired and my other friend who is just getting started is more of a "General Gun Repair" sort. I wanted more this round.
 
preacher":38jijsky said:
I haven't shot it yet! I just picked up my Mod 70 Fwt in 7x57 ( 80's push-feed) and found a new smith on Saturday. I am having the Mod 70 trigger replaced with a Timney and he is going to bed an aluminum bedding block in the action,etc. Will add a couple ozs only. I want to give it every chance to shoot well. The stock is dark and the whole rifle is in 95+% condition. I also won a big on an old Sako Forrester in .243 so paying it out. On top of that just been too busy with working. If the Mod 70 bedding job looks good, I'll have him do it to the Tanger also! I found the smith on Google, he lives about 27 miles from me, http://www.utahrifle.com his shop looked good and he is an avid hunter too. As mentioned, my old smith retired and my other friend who is just getting started is more of a "General Gun Repair" sort. I wanted more this round.

Jim, why are you replacing the trigger? Jeeze, I love them triggers.
 
This one was "bubba-ized", ha. I wasn't happy about that as I really like them too "if" one can get them set right. I have a long history with Timneys, so I'm still happy! :)
 
salmonchaser":2ut1ern2 said:
I'm such a dork


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:lol: :lol:

I listened to a guy telling me all about his "Bruno" and how well it shot, the whole time wondering what a "Bruno" rifle is, days later I slapped my head realizing he was talking about a CZ BRNO.......
 
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