Walter's Ruger M77 308 optimized for +P+ Hunting

Walter just put the finishing touches on his modified Ruger m77 with a Pacnor 18 in 308 for an upcoming elk hunt in Colorado. Walter never liked how the rifle shot; he rarely shot it. A year ago, Walter had Pacnor rebarrel the rifle with an 18-inch barrel. The rifle shot a lot better, but with the standard 175 SMK's, the external ballistics left a lot to be desired. Once Walter' started messing around with the Sig 277 Furry Brass, he pulled the Ruger out of the safe and started modifying it to fit his needs. 

On a recent trip to the Mountains of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, Walter and whoever he could con into firing the beast all confirmed that the rifle shot great but was awful ergonomically. The length of pull was too short, the grip angle out of date, the little Harris bipod on the swing swivel doesn't cut the mustard in the days of tripods and modern bipods like the MDT SkyPod, and the reticle on the Meopta Optika 6 left a lot to be desired.

 Walter considered buying a more modern chassis system, but the options were limited and expensive. Instead, he went ape shit in the shop with some two-part epoxy, a table saw, some sandpaper, some baltic birch plywood, and a bit of hockey tape and ordered up an Element Nexus Gen 2 4-25. To make additional spacers for length of pull, Walter cut up 3/4-inch pieces of baltic birch on the bandsaw and picked up some longer screws to attach them to the from a local hardware store. With some two-part molding epoxy, Walter recontoured the cheek weld of the stock and added a lot of material to the grip to make it more vertical and comfortable while shooting prone and from a bipod. On the table saw, Walter cut into the foregrip of the stock and glued and screwed an Amazon Dot Com Arca rail to it for attaching his MDT bipod and Really Wong Stuff tripod, AKA a copy of a RRS tripod made by the Man in the Black Pajamas. 

The rifle is a joy to get behind now and far more capable at maximizing the performance of the 308 hybrid brass throwing 212 ELDX's at 2450. Walter would like to take this opportunity to remind bowlers that a capability they think they need probably already exists in their gun safe with a little ingenuity and the coming flood of hybrid brass. A limited run of Fud Hunting Hats and some extra If You Will It, It Is No Dream Shirts are now up on the webstore.