Old Ruger M77 bolt locking up

[underthegun13]

And elderly lady who is a friend of our family has had this old Ruger M77 for about 30 years, she says. At damn near 80, she still hunts with the thing every season and has never had a problem. About a week ago, she told me the bolt had locked down on the rifle and she had to use a rock to bang the thing open (fortunately the bolt doesn't appear to be damaged). And she swears the safety wasn't on. The rifle is now cycling fine, and I can't figure out what is wrong with the thing.

She also told me there had been a recall on the rifle "back in the day" and Ruger had sent her parts that her husband was going to install, but he never got around to it. She now thinks those parts are buried in the garage, but isn't sure. I sent an email to Ruger to look for help, but I thought I'd check here to see if any of the old timers had any wisdom for a youngster.

I plan to clean it real well (it could use it), and fix a little bluing that's gone on the barrel. But aside from that, I don't know that I would know where to start with replacing parts without being able to see what exactly had happened (even then I'm not quite sure). Does anybody have any experience with this rifle that's familiar with the problem or something similar? Could the dirty factor have caused the jam? Or is it more likely the safety mechanism isn't engaging properly?

Any thoughts or ideas?

[kendog4570]

The Ruger recall that I am aware of was for trigger malfunctions, and they issued a replacement spring. That wouldnt cause the sticky bolt.

Maybe one hot round caused a hard bolt lift. Shoot it first before you "fix" it.