I picked up a tang-safety M-77 in .25-06 a while back and finally got around to shooting it over the weekend. The cartridges I have are from a while back for another quarter-bore (given to my daughter) and they are quite long due to the throat on that rifle. Chambering was tight but not unreasonable.

The first shot didn't. I felt/heard the sear release, then nothing...no bang, no more movement possible in the trigger. I dropped the rifle off my shoulder and just barely started to lift the bolt and got a surprise when it went off.

With an empty chamber, the cocking, firing and safety all function as expected.

Another cartridge was tried and everything worked as it should. A third repeated the first performance...but I was ready this time.

I disassembled the bolt but can see nothing of note.

I reseated a couple of bullets deeper and that had no effect (didn't really expect any). Further live fire has been discontinued.

I believe this has the original adjustable trigger. Can any trigger adjustment produce this kind of result?

Any other ideas?

As always, thanks!

with different primers to make sure it is not a primer or ammunition problem. How do the primer strikes look? Maybe disassemle the bolt to make sure there is no rust or dried grease impeding the firing pin.

The impression I got was the firing pin wasn't getting to the primer until the bolt was lifted ever so slightly. I pulled the firing pin and saw nothing out of order...no grease or gum or small animals.

I guess my suspicion is the cocking piece is binding somehow? I'll play around some more and see where it leads.

Found out if I hold the bolt down tight on an empty chamber, the sear trips but the firing pin is not released. Simply releasing the pressure on the bolt lets the FP loose. The cartridges I used, being long, would have exerted enough "back force" to hold the bolt in the tight-down position. Now to find out why it hangs up in the first place...

This is a problem that can easily get someone killed.

Personally, I would not have anything to do with it until Ruger went through it.

Something is not right and that is real wrong.

Byron

Hoot,

Possible that someone has the overtravel adjusted just a skosh too snug. Back it off a turn and see if that helps. If it does, make sure all the trigger/sear giblets are clean and re-adjust.

Jimmy P.

Have not had that problem with an M77 before, wonder if the sear is being prevented from releasing the firing pin or if the firing pin is binding on something in the action?

first thing id check is the sear enguagement to see that someone didnt take a file to that trigger. Yes a misadusted trigger can surely cause that kind of results. Its why remington had all the law suits. Not because of a dangerous trigger but because of idiots who think they're gunsmiths.

But did have to fix a few model 721 rifles because the owners tried to make the safety easier to use and wound up making the rifle unsafe. The safety on these had to pull the firing pin out of engagement with the sear and required a fairly good amount of effort. Several people reduced the effort by lessening the contact of the safety and this allowed the firing pin to slip past the sear if the trigger was pulled while the safety was on. When the safety was later moved to the fire position it would release the firing pin and fire the rifle.

Have also had to fix the trigger adjustment on a Browning B-78 because the owner had tried to adjust it for a very light trigger pull and made it unreliable. Sometimes it would release the sear, but the firing pin would not fall all the way. Sometimes the firing pin would slip past the sear with a good jolt. Sometimes it actually worked the way it should. It was a rather simple job to adjust the trigger properly once the relationships between all the parts were understood, but it took a while to figure out.

These are just a couple examples I have seen of mis-adjusted safeties/triggers which caused similar problems. I have not had to work on Ruger M77 rifles too often, so do not have a great working knowledge of them, but will be most interested to read what you find out to be the problem.

Messing up the overtravel adjustment could produce what you are seeing. I think the more common goof is to adjust those triggers so light that the rifle fires when safety is disengaged, buttstock is bumped, etc.

On the 'left': Remington Under Fire: A CNBC Investigation @ Hulu.com (43 min)
NOTE: Hulu.com has commercials, but it is otherwise a safe website (no viruses or spyware beyond cookies).

On the 'right': Remington's Response to CNBC Under Fire @ YouTube.com (14 min)
NOTE: AFAIK, this is the entire video/response.

HTH

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