Yah I know that graveyard shift can be rough.I worked nights for 8 1/2 years. I just about forgot how normal people lived.Hang in there.Maybe you can get on days soon.It does have advantages though.While everybody else is working you can have things done and beat the crowds.
Ruger Redhawk

I can' t speak for the sporter weight M77' s, but I an the proud owner of an M77VT Mk II in 22-250 and I like it very much. The quality of the rifle is great, I really like the controlled round feed bolt, and it is a very accurate rifle. I' m glad that I chose the Ruger over the Savage I had been looking at. Being a varmint/target it' s more accurate than one could reasonably expect a sporter weight rifle to be (it shoots consistantly at .75MOA with Winchester factory ammo, and I' ve had groups as low as .3MOA and I srongly suspect that I' m mostly the cause for any group bigger than .75MOA). But I think that is the sporter weight barrels are made to the same standards at the heavy barrels then they should be more than accurate enough to hunt big game with.

From the reading I' ve done about the M77 MkII it seems that the Rugers have somewhat of a bad rep for accuracy. But further research revealed that Ruger used to contract out the M77' s barrel production to the lowest bidding company instead of making them in-house, which resulted in quite a few rifles with barrels of sub-standard quality leaving the factory. Ruger has since realized the error of their ways and begun producing all their own barrels to a much higher quality control standard, and that has put them back in competition with the rest of the arms makers. I can personally vouch for the quality and accuracy of my rifle and I would not hesitate to buy another M77. I' ve been tossing around the idea of picking up an M77/17, as I think that the .17HMR is a neat little round to plink with, but I' ve got to finish getting my handloading setup for the M77 and my Glock before I think about buying another rifle.

I also need to invest in a bigger gun safe! [8D]

Mike

I have one in 22-250, and the thing is a tack driver. I think their triggers are fine for a hunting rig. Good luck!

my friend had a ruger m77 in 300 and hes 19 and is wishing that he woulda got something smaller, because even for being 19 he said that it kicks alot and when he gets older he' s not going to want to shoot it alot because of the kick.The 308 should be fine, or go with a 270 or something along those lines.

I bought a M-77 Mk-II in .300 win mag. last fall. The factory trigger sucked but a $25 trigger job got it down to a clean three pounds. I also own a m-77 in 7mm mag. Both rifles are great and the scope mounting system is superior.

I agree with the others that Ruger makes a great gun ,but prefer to put a adjustable trigger in rather than doing a hone job on them . The adjustable trigger is about $50 bucks . I had one done by a gunsmith?butcher and later had to buy a trigger for it because I just didn' t trust it . We were testing it and only one time did it fire but even one time is to much .