stiff action help
 

Wife bought me a brand new ruger m 77 .308 .I cant stand the trigger... to long in the travel and a little stiff. I can deal with that till post season but the damn action almost requires 2 hands to chamber a round . That said ... how much and how long would it take a gunsmith to smooth things out?By the way im getting under an inch groups / 100yds with federal fusion ammo. This thing with a trigger job will be a tack driver.

most of the new rugers are pretty rough on the bolts. someone at ruger had the bright idea that applying a rough bead blasted finish to a bolt is a good idea. the bolt itself will get ALOT smoother over time but you can speed things up yourself without going to a gunsmith. start with fine grit (600 grit) wet sand/emery paper and use something like rapidtap as a cutting fluid for a finer grain finish. once you have a smooth finish, polish it up with a cotton wheel and some extra mild non embedding polishing compound. if you dont have a bench cotton wheel, you can pick up a cheap dremel knock off and use the little cotton wheel included in most kits. once you do this you will have a smoother bolt then most top shelf rifles. the only thing a gunsmith will do from here is jewell the bolt, that is done on a mill or drillpress in a jig and will create a pattern like what is seen on remington cdl's but this is only a asthetic feature. even if you dont have the materials mentioned above, its still only a $60 investment and you will have the tools to do this to all your rifles. just make sure not to touch the bolts locking lug faces as doing so will effect head spacing.

Have it hand lapped & keep it well oiled when at the range.

Smoothing the action will help if the problem is encountered when sliding the bolt handle forward to chamber the round. If you have problems closing the bolt after it is in the forward position, I don't think the issue is the bolt, but perhaps headspace. I'm no expert. If it does not feel right, have someone knowledgable look at it, or call Ruger.

I have a Savage 220f bolt shotgun, the action was stiff, I had it lapped and it improved it

Does it close as hard when the chamber is empty? Was wandering if it could be an ammunition/chamber length problem? I have two 22-250's one a savage 110 the other a remington 700. If i try to put reloads that fit in the savage just fine in the 700 the bolt wont hardly close.

Check the torque on the action screws. Might be springing the receiver and binding the bolt. And here is a source to replace the trigger spring. It's easy.

http://www.erniethegunsmith.com/catalog/i29.html