Ruger Freehand stock

[Kurz]

Please excuse the tape residue, I'll get it all off in a day or so. I have two of these both the same.

 

[matthias]

That is very cool thanks for the pictures.
It sort of looks like the winchester marksman style of stock.

 

[Alan Warner]

I think what you have is a couple of early versions of the Palma stock when Bill Ruger made rifles for the 92 US team for the world's at Raton IIRC. The rev changes ended up taking 6 or 7 changes. Bill was very hard headed even after Mid and I told what the stock should be at the get go!
You should of seen how red his face got when I told him to get rid of that damned angled front bedding screw!

 

[Will Henry]

I've never understood the antipathy for the angled guard screw. I have always considered it to be one of Ruger's better ideas. On the 77, the guard screw and the bolt stop were standouts, I thought.
I had a couple of friends, brothers they were, who made their own actions. One thing they incorporated into the action was an angled front guard screw, It was angled less, I believe, but they liked it.
Of course, like so many ideas, it usually only works as well as the conventional approach and the difference is just...difference! WH

 

[Kurz]

I think what you have is a couple of early versions of the Palma stock when Bill Ruger made rifles for the 92 US team for the world's at Raton IIRC. The rev changes ended up taking 6 or 7 changes. Bill was very hard headed even after Mid and I told what the stock should be at the get go!
You should of seen how red his face got when I told him to get rid of that damned angled front bedding screw!

Alan,

Thank you for a little more of the historic background. I appreciate any background since I obviously lack some of the pertinent history.

The angled action screw will always be a point of contention. It's always a love hate/hate relationship. This particular stock does use the angled screw which according to the experts, separates it from the Ruger Palma version with the straight action screw.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this query, I really do appreciate all of the help!

 

[AlNyhus]

I think what you have is a couple of early versions of the Palma stock when Bill Ruger made rifles for the 92 US team for the world's at Raton IIRC. The rev changes ended up taking 6 or 7 changes. Bill was very hard headed even after Mid and I told what the stock should be at the get go!
You should of seen how red his face got when I told him to get rid of that damned angled front bedding screw!

Alan, were some of the initial Ruger Palma guns matte blued receivers? Did they all come with your sights on them?

The long tenon/straight screw one I worked with was one of two that came to Stan Ware's shop by way of Wisconsin....not sure how they came into his possession. The owner didn't want them rebarrelled but was convinced that the stocks and bedding were the issue with the performance. I had an old 3" BR stock that was pretty beat up and Stan pillar bedded one of the barrelled actions into it to get a baseline of the accuracy of the barrelled action. Over flags and from a rest with a 36X scope, neither of us were able to get the thing to shoot much better than 5/8" five shot groups at 100 yds. no matter what bullets or powders we tried. I made some 150 gr. flat based bullets on the 1.150 J4 jackets and they shot a bit better but not much. It was pretty much just locked in there at that accuracy level. The owner was convinced that they were "Guaranteed from Ruger" (his words) to shoot .250" five shot groups. The bolt/receiver fit seemed to be just like a production 77, as I remember.

Stan advised the owner to keep them original and enjoy them for what they were...a pretty cool piece of history. I've often wondered what happened to them.

Any blanks you could fill in would be cool. -Al

 

[Alan Warner]

Al,
I recall all versions where blued.
Bill B ought from me, enough sights for all the guns. I don't know to this a day why in the hell he bought Green Mtn. Barrels for them. They where real crap at the time! Don't know about now.
Bill was a hard guy to figure out, to say the least.
He made new molds to investment cast actions for this project, but cheaped out on barrels.
Larry Racine has collected more than a few of the team rifles over the years and I'm pretty sure he
Fit at least one with a good launch tube with major accuracy improvement.
Funny side note:
Sitting back at the 1000 yd. Line first day of the Palma, Bill made a comment about "well, they sure like your sights" I wanted to say - if you had listened to Mid and me, they would have liked the whole thing. I kept my mouth shut. Very awkward moment.
Bill offered the rifles to the 16 guys for free if they uses them in the team mtch. Mid put a quick stop to that shit! I think only one of them was used!

Last job I had before WTC , I worked with the engineering guys there to develope hammer geometry for the then new German barel forging machine. Bill was happy when it cost him all of 8 bucks th make production barrels for the product rifles!
HTH
Alan

 

[Alan Warner]

I've never understood the antipathy for the angled guard screw. I have always considered it to be one of Ruger's better ideas. On the 77, the guard screw and the bolt stop were standouts, I thought.
I had a couple of friends, brothers they were, who made their own actions. One thing they incorporated into the action was an angled front guard screw, It was angled less, I believe, but they liked it.
Of course, like so many ideas, it usually only works as well as the conventional approach and the difference is just...difference! WH

Execution of a concept is all that counts

 

[SBS]

Mitchell Maxberry told me that initially few of them would even chamber rounds. So happened he was bringing a reamer to the matches he had borrowed from Earl Liebertrau (sp?). He and Earl took them to Trinidad and rechambered them using the gunsmithing school's equipment and Earl's reamer. Also had to rework the inletting so that the barreled actions would actually fit down in the stocks -- think it was a problem around the trigger area. Ruger had shipped them disassembled, apparently never tried putting them together. Also said the barrels were plated so as to appear stainless. Mitchell was pretty close to Krieger in those days, having helped Krieger get on the map using his barrels to win a number of long range matches. He said Krieger offered to donate barrels if his name was put on them, but Ruger refused -- apparently wanting all the press, instead of what was best for the Palma Team. It was Mitchell's opinion that most of them were about 1 MOA. None of this was mentioned when Ruger appeared on the front of the American Rifleman holding one of his "Palma" rifles. He got the image he wanted the Members to see - that he was a great help to the Palma Team. Bill Ruger wasn't hard to figure out. He was a businessman who didn't let much stand in the way of making the most bucks and cutting costs to the bone as much as he figured the customer would stand. I'm not anti-business either, having been in business most of my life, but there are times to give some consideration to things except the very bottom line.