Armory Sponsor
Posted: 9/7/2025 9:51:20 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Jeeps-And-Guns][Edited]
|
Looks like ruger just brought it back out with the newer style straighter taper threaded barrel (matching the current 77/357), two different cammo stocks, and also a walnut stock! Still wish they would blue the bolt handle and shroud. Still, glad to see blued models available, and this barrel profile looks so much better than the previous ones with the weird taper up at the muzzle. https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/ruger-unveils-updated-77-44-rifles-precision-and-style-in-44-magnum-44822539 https://ruger.com/products/77Series7744/models.html Their site shows a little over $1200, but most online retailers I am seeing $850-900 This may prompt me to sell my henry model x in 44 and replace it with the wood stock 77/44. |
|
Are they still pot luck in the accuracy realm? While I liked the idea of a .357 suppressed some day I think I recall a lot of negative reviews specifically on accuracy or maybe even feeding., Am I misremembering? 
|
The only hyphenated names I like are cartridge names......30-06, 30-40, 38-55 etc.
|
Originally Posted By SteelonSteel: Are they still pot luck in the accuracy realm? While I liked the idea of a .357 suppressed some day I think I recall a lot of negative reviews specifically on accuracy or maybe even feeding., Am I misremembering? Maybe? Maybe not? Hard to tell. I have a old (first year 1997) 77/44 and I have been very happy with it accuracy wise. I also bought one of the new (current) 77/357's as soon as they came out with the blued model. I have been very happy with it. https://www.ar15.com/forums/Armory/Bought-one-of-the-new-blued-77-357-s/52-554816/ I bought a henry model x because I could not bring myself to cut and thread my mint condition old 77/44, but wanted a suppressed 44. I have never been a fan of lever guns and I may sell the model x and get one of the new 77/44 wood stock models to replace it as my suppressor host. |
|
Originally Posted By SteelonSteel: Are they still pot luck in the accuracy realm? While I liked the idea of a .357 suppressed some day I think I recall a lot of negative reviews specifically on accuracy or maybe even feeding., Am I misremembering? I've been super happy with my 77/357 but the old archived thread on them had a huge discussion about accurizing them as they are 'decently' accurate out of the box. .357 isn't a precision round and all, but you can tighten the groups notably by pillar bedding and playing with screw torque. A winter project of mine is to replace the plastic stock on mine with a boyd's stock, pillar bed the action, and possibly form 1 it to a SBR. |
|
Picked up my new 77/44 from the dealer friday. Everything looks great, fit and finish are good. Still annoys me the bolt handle and shroud are all stainless, but I am looking at options to correct that. I mounted up a vortex copperhead 3-9x40 scope with the included rings. I gave it a basic disassembly and inspection and everything looks good. Gave the barrel a light cleaning and hit it with a bore scope. Rifling looks good, nicely made, no flaws or other issues. I hit the range and put 25 rounds through it to sight in the scope and give it a test run. I was just shooting some 200gr x-treme plated bullets under some H110. Just a plain plinking load I use for my various 44's ranging from a revolver, desert eagle, timberwolf, and my other 77/44. I had my other 77/44 out too, so I could shoot them side by side, and also because I changed the scope on it and needed to zero it in too. It is a first year production, blued with walnut. I originally bought it to cut the barrel back and thread, but after getting it, seeing it was near mint condition, and was first year production, I just could not bring myself to do it. The bluing on the old one is more glossy and deeper. Very beautiful. Also a gloss finish on the stock. The new one, while the bluing is shiny, it is not as shiny as the older one. It is between high gloss and matte. The stock on the new one is kinda a semi gloss. Not shiny, but not completely flat. The trigger on the new one is ridiculously heavy. It was the same way on the new 77/357 I bought. I got a volquartsen sear and spring for the 77/357, and plan on doing the same for this one. Funny, the trigger on the old 77/44 is actually quite nice. It does not appear to have had a trigger job done to it. The bolt lift on the new one is noticeably stiffer than the old one. It could just need some breaking in, or they might be using a stronger striker spring now. The new one is more accurate than the old one, using the same ammo. The new one I was getting 1-3/4in group at 50 yards with it. The older one was closer to 2 to 2-1/4. Next step is to order the new sear to take care of the trigger pull, and then test some subsonic loads.  Here is the new one next to the old one. New on the right, old on the left. 
|
|
You just cost me some money! I have a SS model on the way to the FFL. Seriously though, I have a .357 that is a good shooter and wanted the .44 as a companion. I had it on the back burner for a while but this thread popped it back up to the forefront. I am looking forward to picking this one up and getting out to do some shooting. I have a ton of .44 loaded up, so I hope that load shoots well in the rifle. |
|
Originally Posted By ECVMatt: You just cost me some money! I have a SS model on the way to the FFL. Seriously though, I have a .357 that is a good shooter and wanted the .44 as a companion. I had it on the back burner for a while but this thread popped it back up to the forefront. I am looking forward to picking this one up and getting out to do some shooting. I have a ton of .44 loaded up, so I hope that load shoots well in the rifle. Sounds like you are like me, you like to have companion rifles. I also have the blued 77/357 that is this things twin. https://www.ar15.com/forums/armory/Bought-one-of-the-new-blued-77-357-s/52-554816/ |
|
So I had time over the weekend to try it out with my subsonic loads. I had the box of 50 rounds I had worked up a load for with my old henry model x. 300gr xtp and 10.5gr of HS6 and I was getting 1038fps out of the henry. I put about 10 rounds through it without the suppressor to readjust the scope to getting hitting dead on with the subsonic loads. Accuracy was very good. I then put on the suppressor to see how much it effected the point of impact. I found 2 things. This load for some reason goes supersonic out of the ruger, even though the ruger has a 1 inch shorter barrel (16in instead of the henrys 17). So I am going to have to adjust the load a little. Also it caused the poi to shift about 5 inches higher. Hopefully this weekend I can adjust my load to get it back to subsonic, retest the accuracy and go from there. |
|
Winter weather a being sick has put a damper on testing. But I ended up dropping the load by half a grain and that got me back under the speed of sound. My load is now 10gr of HS6 under a 300gr Hornady XTP. I installed a volquartsen sear and spring into it and this greatly improved the trigger. I finally got a chance to do some more testing yesterday. I shot a couple groups at 50 yards unsuppressed and accuracy was good. I then installed my silencerco hybrid 46 and shot some. I was not hitting the target. It took a few shots of aiming high, then low before I finally saw a hit on the top right. I ended up having to aim several inches low to get a hit. In the following pictures, the left target was unsuppressed. The right target, I was aiming at the very bottom edge of the paper. The suppressor caused a massive shift in POI, but it did seem to tighten up the group a little more. I decided since I am dedicating this one to shoot only subsonic suppressed, I would rezero the scope for when the suppressor is on.  I then got wondering, how much power does it have at these velocities and will the XTP still expand? So I grabbed 3 empty cat litter jugs and filled them with water. I figured there was no way it would make it through all 3. I do not know how many gallons of water they hold, but it is a good bit. They hold 14 pounds of litter. https://www.purina.com/cats/shop/tidy-cats-free-and-clean-unscented-clumping-cat-litter Well I fired one round and man it sounded like a small bomb went off when it hit. I went to inspect and it went clean through all 3, exploding the first, cracking the 2nd wide open, and two holes in the 3rd. It then went through the 1/2in plywood target board and I found it laying halfway up the berm about 3-4 feet behind the plywood. It did mushroom and did so quite well. Props to Hornady for making a very well performing bullet and even at subsonic velocities, it is still hitting like a mack truck. 
|
|
Originally Posted By Buckeye33: Very impressive, thank you for sharing your data. No doubt that would put the thump on something. I have some 270 grain Speer soft points that I want to try this with as I have a can of HS6 sitting around. I have worked up a subsonic 180gr 357mag load for my 77/357 and it too liked HS6. I tested lots of different powders working up these loads and HS6 did the best on both |
Armory Sponsor