Three position safety on a ruger m77.

[Okie1297]

My dads main deer rifle is a ruger m77 mk1 in 7 mag. It has the old style tang safety. We went to a gun store tidal and the had a used m77 mk2 in .270 for sale with a Nikon prostaff for $750 I thought that was a little high but thought I could bring it down. This particular store is always high. When we were looking at it I noticed the bolt doesn’t lock in any of the positions. It blocks the trigger in position 1 and 2 but not the bolt like it’s supposed to. Guy there said it’s a common mod but with it being the safety I don’t want to trust it with out replacing it. I’ve been considering halting it with my dad and trying to bring the price down sucks the work would probably need to be down. Is it safe to use that without a replacement? Thing is I don’t want to trust it since I already dint relay on a mechanical device.

[Scorpion8]

Is it safe to use that without a replacement?

Short answer is "yes" as long as you follow general firearms safety rules. Since the 3rd position locks the bolt, as long as you're not relying on that during "walking in the woods with a round in the chamber", you should be fine? A common mod? That's a new one on me. I've got an M77 Mk.II in 7mmMag and if anything I just don't use the 3rd (fwd-most) position. If it was me, I'd replace whatever part they bubba'ed to make it work the way it's supposed to because in an critical situation my brain works to what should be normal. I would need a lot of experience with it for my brain to say "Oh yea, that doesn't work the way it's supposed to work".

[Okie1297]

Ok thanks I’ll keep that in mid of I do get it. I don’t think I will thing was I thought it was weird sicke it’s a 3 position bolt all they had to do was use the second and third position but they got rid of the first basically.

[Scorpion8]

Exactly, why bubba'up a gun when you just don't have to push the safety all the way forward? If I recall, there's a small pin that protrudes and locks the bolt. Probably either ground that off short, or deleted it. Chances are it's an easy fix. Besides, if you ever tried to sell the rifle, an inexperienced goober job on the safety is a huge price dropper. I wouldn't touch it except for a 50% discount on whatever price you listed it for as who knows what else some goober did to it, safe or unsafe.

[Okie1297]

That would’nt be bad. I’m really enjoying my cousins Remington 700 in 270. He’s owned it for 30 years and by his count has fired it less than 10 rounds. I’ve put that many through it since Friday. Might make him an offer maybe.

[Banshee]

I can not see why anyone would have modified the safety in that way, but without seeing it I wouldn’t call it an “ inexperienced goober job”.
Maybe it is just broken or Who ever did it know what they were doing and had a reason for doing it. I have two Remingtons that I removed both the safety and ejectors on. Both are single shot bolt guns i groundhog hunt with and the triggers have no provision to mount safeties and i removed the ejectors to keep from damaging the case mouths and i got tired of hunting the brass when they accidentally got flipped in the pasture field.