I have a Ruger 77/22 International in stainless, and I bought a Leupold VX-Freedom 2-7 to put on it. It's a matte black scope, and I'd rather have black rings than the stainless rings. I need the Ruger 4 rings, which are the medium height for 1" tube.

The closest to black that I see Ruger offering is a matte blue finish that they call Blued Hawkeye Matte. Does anyone know if the matte blue from Ruger looks black, or close enough? I don't like the look of the stainless rings with the black scope, but I don't want too obvious a difference in the rings and scope.

My other option is Leupold rings, but the only ones they show in medium height come in a pair, with one an extension ring, and I don't need an extension ring.

Does anyone have a suggestion for Ruger style rings in black? It's just a .22, so they probably don't have to be the best. I just can't seem to find anything. I will call Ruger and Leupold tomorrow, but still looking for any good suggestions. Thanks!

It has been a very long time since I have seen what a manufacturer called a “blued” finish that was actually blue in color. Almost always these days “blue” is what a finish that’s not silver colored is called, and it’s usually black.

That’s probably no help, I realize, but what would the forum be without extraneous comments?

I think talley makes a set of rings for the 77/22.

I have a “blued” 77/22 and the rings that came with it look black.

I suggest the Ruger factory rings if you have the stainless rings. Ruger will likely exchange stainless for blue, gratis if you ask. They have done this for me several times. They will also exchange based on size.

quote:

Originally posted by newmexican:
I think talley makes a set of rings for the 77/22.

I have a “blued” 77/22 and the rings that came with it look black.

I've got a set of blued Ruger rings that came with a No. 1, and I guess maybe they're blacker rather than bluer, but they're glossy finish, so they definitely look wrong with the matte black scope. I don't know what a Ruger matte blue looks like.

Thanks for the suggestion about Talley, but I just checked and they don't offer anything for the 77/22.

quote:

Originally posted by mlazarus:
I suggest the Ruger factory rings if you have the stainless rings. Ruger will likely exchange stainless for blue, gratis if you ask. They have done this for me several times. They will also exchange based on size.

Thanks. I definitely plan on calling Ruger tomorrow. They somehow included two different size stainless rings with the rifle, and it needs two of the same, so they need to do something anyway. Hopefully the matte blue will look okay.

Some Ruger rifles take different sizes for front and rear rings. Frankly, I don't recall if the 77/22 needs different ones or the same size. Obviously Ruger CS should know. Last time I exchanged rings, the new ones were shipped the day I called, well before I shipped back the exchange.

I just checked my two 77/22 rifles and the front and rear ring heights are identical as far as I can determine without taking them off the rifle.

I seem to remember that the model 77s I had used different height rings front/rear.

I'm pretty confident it takes two of the same size, as I loosely mounted the scope with the two number 5 rings (high) that came with my No 1 (whole 'nother story), and looking through the bore it was pretty close to on.

With the 4 and 5 rings that came with the 77/22, one way the scope didn't sit flush, and weirdly with the 5 in the front it sat flush, but it was obvious that the scope was not parallel to the bore.

I don't need the high mounts, and the ones I have are polished. So hopefully Ruger will help me out when I call tomorrow.

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:

quote:

Originally posted by newmexican:
I think talley makes a set of rings for the 77/22.

I have a “blued” 77/22 and the rings that came with it look black.

I've got a set of blued Ruger rings that came with a No. 1, and I guess maybe they're blacker rather than bluer, but they're glossy finish, so they definitely look wrong with the matte black scope. I don't know what a Ruger matte blue looks like.

Thanks for the suggestion about Talley, but I just checked and they don't offer anything for the 77/22.

I just looked at talleys website and you are right they don’t have any. Strange, I’m almost positive they did even up to fairly recently. At one point I was thinking of buying some, perhaps they just weren’t a big seller and or expensive to manufacture so they stopped.

I talked to Ruger today and they said they would do a one time exchange of rings for me. I just hope that their flat blue looks okay with the flat black scope. Fingers crossed.