No offense taken, Steven, but being new to this forum, I just wanted to give a bit of background on myself! I might also add that I am one stubborn s.o.g. (son of a gun) and am still fiddling with my Ruger. I may yet find out some overlooked problem. Wish me luck - - I would rather fix my Ruger than trade it!

- - John

In hot rodding, they used to say: "If it won't run fast, chrome it!" In rifles, it can be: "If it won't shoot, float it!" With modern production methods, it is very unusual to get a "bad" barrel. Many times the problem is screws not tight enough or the stock bearing against the barrel. Good luck in solving the "too big" groups with that Ruger.

I will confess up front that I am a huge Ruger Fan. I love the M77 and especially the #1 which can be very tempermental. I have had numerous M77s over the last 28 years. Some were tack drivers and remain in my cabinet. Some were good shooters and were sold to friends, and some never would shoot. Even after in depth reloading, there were some that would never group under 2" at 100 yds. These were traded to dealers for another Ruger. I had a 30-06 once that had a warped personality. One time the group would be great and the next time it would be terrible. A different stock fixed this gun. I can't help but think that other manufacturers have some of this type of variance as well. The best shooting low cost guns out of the box that I have seen are the savage rifles. With a different trigger, these guns are simply amazing from an accuracy standpoint.

i have 5 rugers 4 mk2's 6mm' 25-06,7mmrem mag,300win mag &1 tang safety 22-250 heavy barrel all shoot 1"or less the triggers on the mk2's are heavy but consistant the 22-250 has had alot of work done to it it will shoot 1/4" anytime all of my rugers seem to shoot well with heavy bullets for caliber.