At any rate I have had a few Ruger K77/22VBZ's over the years. I mainly used these Rugers to shoot Indoor Bench Rest Competition with but also put them into service shooting Gophers every spring & summer. There were a few things that bugged me about the VBZ verson.
First of all the Target Grey Finish bugged me. I would have perferred if Ruger had just left the Stainless-Steel looking like Stainless-Steel. Secondly the Comb of the Factory Laminated Stock was not high enough for me to get a proper cheek weld when high rings and a high magnification adjustable objective scope was used. Lastly was the tapered 24" Barrel, and thought Ruger should have put a 20" Bull Barrel on these Rifles like everyone was doing with the 10-22's.
Well all that changed when I bought a Ruger K77/22RP Stainless-Synthetic .22. I again being picky did not like the hollowed out buttstock on Ruger's Synthetic Stock. I immediately went to work and made some plastic filler panels to fill in the hollow portion of the buttstock. Once I had them made I covered them (as well as the pistol grip & forend filler panels) with camo tape. I worked on the Trigger and installed a Weaver V-16 4x16x42mm AO Riflescope with Fine Crosshair / Dot Reticle on this Rifle and went to shooting.
While this Rifle as is shot great, it was not the Target Rifle I was looking for. This past winter I decided to give my Stainless Ruger a makeover.
I promptly ordered the following parts:
Clark Custom Guns 20" .920" Stainless-Steel Bull Barrel (Clark Custom Guns makes their barrels from Lothar-Walther Barrel Blanks that have a very good reputation for Accuracy. Clark Custom Guns also uses their own design Match Chamber Reamer, which again has a very good reputation for Accuracy.)
The stock was a bit more complicated as there are not all that many options available. I had my heart set on a Richards Microfit Bench Rest Laminated Wood Stock, but I was not willing to go through the 13 + week waiting to get the stock and then have to completely finish it. In the end I picked up a Volquartsen Laminated Wood Rollover Monte Carlo Rifle Stock. Prior to putting the Volquartsen Stock together with this Rifle I totally free floated the Barrel Channel on the stock so the only portion of the barrel that touches the stock is the rear 2" next to the receiver.
To transform my Ruger from the Synthetic Stock to a Wood Stock I had to order a Trigger Guard, Magazine Well and Action Screws from a Ruger K77/22VBZ. Once they arrived I had to polish off the Target Grey Finish so the stainless-steel matched the rest of my barreled action.
I again worked over the trigger. While I had it quite good I wanted it better and lighter for a Bench Rest Rifle. I spent hours honing and polishing. I made a new Trigger / Sear Spring and eventually had the receiver drilled and tapped for an adjustable trigger overtravel screw. The end result is a super crisp, super smooth 1 1/4 pound trigger that is perfectly safe having passed all of the safety tests I give a gun after doing a trigger job.
Once this Rifle was all assembled I headed for the indoor shooting range to break in the barrel. I did a series of shoot & clean for the first 500 rounds cleaning at different intervals. Once I had 500 rounds through this barrel I totally cleaned the bore and started shooting Target Ammo through it.
This is the very first USBR Bench Rest Target I shot with this Custom Ruger 77/22. On this target the "10 Ring" measures .100". To score a "10" the bullet's edge only needs to touch the "10 Ring", however to score a "10X" the bullet needs to obliterate the "10 Ring" so no portion of the "10 Ring" is visible outside of the bullet hole.
There are 25 bullseyes on this target for score (the top 3 are for practice, sighting in etc. As such a perfect score would be 250-25x. My very first attempt netted me a 250-10x and I was extremely pleased.
This has been a super fun project and the end result was well worth all the trials and tribulations.
Larry
