Here is my latest 77/22 project I have had in the works for a few months.
I bought a used 77/22 in 22 mag someone who was not happy with the accuracy.
I had been wanting another project and a heavy barrel 22 mag sounded like a fun one.
I had a takeoff 10/22 factory ruger hammer forged (heavy) barrel laying around that I removed from a different project gun.
It shot great, I just simply put it back to the factory sporter barrel and threaded it for a lightweight suppressor host.
So I had the heavy barrel laying around for a few months prior to this project trying to figure out what to do with it.
Once I bought the 77/22 in 22 mag, I knew exactly what to do with it.

Putting it on was really one of the more easy rebarrel jobs I have done, as they are very close.
The location of the V block slot is different, but the tenon is the same diameter.
To make install easier, I simply set the barrel shoulder back and trimmed the tenon back until the v block slot lined up with the receiver.
I then measured from the receiver face to the bolt face and cut the tenon until I got proper headspace.
I ended up trimming close to 1/2 inch off the barrel in total. So barrel length is now 19.5 instead of 20, but it should not matter.
I then rented a chamber reamer and cut the chamber, then cut the extractor slots and mounted it up using the factory v block.
I think sanding out the stock was more work (well, more elbow grease) than the barrel.
Sorry I forgot to take many pictures. But here is one comparing the factory on the top, to the machined one on the bottom. You can see where it is shiny is how much I trimmed off. This picture was also before I cut the chamber and extractor grooves.



Here is the first test fit into the receiver and it fit like a glove and looks great!
I do really like the spiral looks of these barrels.



Here are a couple pictures I took today when I zeroed it in.






I know someone will ask, did you even shoot it with the original barrel?
Yes, I did shoot it for groups with 5 different types of ammo.
Accuracy was so-so.

The following picture is with the factory barrel. 50 yards from the bench, 5 shots each group.
The center is some older federal HP in a red box. Not sure if it is still made.
The top right is CCI game point
Top left is federal 50gr hp, it had a big drop, probably from being so heavy.
Bottom right is hornady Vmax
Bottom left is CCI Vmax




Next up is with the new heavy barrel.
I used the same bushnell scope as I used with the factory barrel. Same 50 yards from the bench, and I shot the exact same ammo for each group from the same boxes, in the same order as above, same 5 shots each group.
So that should make it easy to compare the changes.



As you can see, all groups shrunk by a noticeable amount. I was quite surprised by the fed 50gr, as it strangely did not have near as much drop as it did before.
It looks to love the cci Vmax, but the game point also did really well. The cci game point has shot well in everything I have tried it in.
Not sure when I will get the chance, but I will try some groups at 10 yards and see how it does.

To answer a question I'm sure will come up. Bore diameter.
I used pin gauges to measure the factory 22 mag barrel and then the 22lr heavy barrel.
The difference was .001 smaller on the new heavy barrel. That is not enough difference to make a difference.

I also looked at the factory barrel with a bore scope and it looks very rough and poorly machined. Must have been a friday afternoon/monday morning barrel.

I also stepped it out to 100 yards. I did not adjust the scope as I wanted to see the amount of drop and/or shift in the groups.

I shot the same target and did the same ammo in the same locations. All these groups were 10 shots instead of 5.
I took a sharpie and circled the groups and drew a line to the POA to try and help show them better.
The older federal red box stuff I had shot the worst (center). It has been unaccurate in everything I have shot it in, luckily I shot the last rounds out of that box.  
Naturally the heavy 50gr federal had a lot of drop, but group was not that bad. (top left)
The cci game point did ok, but had a good bit of drop. (top right)
The cci vmax (bottom left) shot the best, with the hornady vmax (bottom right) coming in 2nd.
Both of those had a lot less drop than I was expecting (and a little shift to the right)



I also had my garmin chrono cause I was testing some loads in another rifle, and decided to see what all these were doing.
The older federal red box was 2270fps
The federal 50gr was 1545fps
The cci game point was 1945fps
The cci v-max was 2214fps
The hornady v-max was 2208fps.

I would have thought the .22LR barrel would have been problematic with the magnum cartridge. You learn something new everyday. Well done!

I've liked those hammer forged spiral barrels ever since I first got into guns.  Always wanted one of the 10/22 Targets with that barrel and the laminate stock but never bought one.  Finally, I just bought one of the barrels to go into a take off laminate stock I've had sitting around for years.  This is a super cool application for one, I like the idea and wish I had the skills to do this kind of stuff.  I did hand file the second extractor groove like the 77/22s have into a TacSol TSS integral suppressed barrel for my Owyhee so I got that going for me.