Wood vs synthetic

[Country Boy]

Which Hawkeye would you get and why ,a wood stock or synthetic stock in .358 win.

[Darrell Davis]

Hey there Country Boy,

I personally go for the synthetic.

Reason, it is just great to hunt with a SS synthetic rifle and do away with a lot of the stock damage and rusting of a wood and blues rifle.

Yes, I know that the SS are not totally rust free, but I have packed one for a number of years now and just really like the how simple it is to keep it in good condition.

Do I like pretty wood stocks?  Yep! Have a great one - 243 - in the rack, and have many many hours in that stock and just don't like to drag it around the wood on the 4wheeler or on foot.

So, when I unloaded the synthetic/ss A-Bolt with the extremely bad barrel, I went back to RUGER and the synthetic/SS Hawkeye.

Good choice.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Bearcat 74]

The one that just showed up at my house is stainless/synthetic and has a .358 Winchester brand on the side of the barrel. 

[Country Boy]

Let me know hoe you like it and how it shoots also if it is free floated or not. I'm on the verge of buying one. Thanks

[Bearcat 74]

I can tell you right now it is not free floated, not even close.  It may be a day or so, waiting on a Leupold Vari-X III 1.75-6x32mm to get here and top it off. 


I will let you know how it does. 

[Darrell Davis]

Yep, I would agree.

My Hawkeye was not floated.

The instruction book says not to change the barrel bedding, and RUGER may bock at doing anything about a rifle which does not shoot well, if the barel has been floated.

That being said, I floated mine anyway, and plan to take a tad more material out of the barrel channel.

I have found over the years, that floating gave me the degree of consistancy I desire in a rifle and as I have stated on another post, the only rifle I have which is not floated is a Clark Custom - RUGER 77/22.

It just shoots so very well as it came from Clark, that I have never even taken the action out of the stock.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Bearcat 74]

Well, I couldn't take it anymore, I had to shoot the Hawkeye.  I put a Nikon 3-9x40 on and went outside to the bench.  The hay is up so I could only hit 75yds before I couldn't see, so my groups are 75yd groups, not 100yds groups.  2 shots had me on paper, 1st 3 shot group was 1.14" 2nd 3 shot group was .711".  No time was taken between shots, it is around 90 degerees here today so things got warm quick.  I did take time between groups though.  I know I need to stretch out to 100yds and I will, but I really think this thing will shoot.  My load was the same thing I launched from my BLR.  Win .308 Brass, 200gr Hornady SP, H4895-47grs, WLR Primer.  When I came back and checked the seating depth the bullet is .048" off the lands, LOL.  Moving it forward should tighten things up, but I already have quite a few of these loaded and it is certainly accurate enough right now.  Again, it is not even close to being floated.

Here is a good read on a guy and his .358 Hawkeye, reading this just drove the nail in for me to own one:

http://www.noslerreloading.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9820

http://www.noslerreloading.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10481

I PM'd him and asked him what all he had done to help with accuracy, his reply was to keep shooting it because it got better and better with each round.  His gun is not floated, bedded, nothing, stock .358 Win Ruger Hawkeye.

[RaySendero]

Which Hawkeye would you get and why ,a wood stock or synthetic stock in .358 win.

Country Boy,

I assume your picking between of these ?:

[Country Boy]

Yes I'm leaning toward the ss as it might stand up to use better than the wood.I do a lot of bear hunting and climbing in and out of stands hauling on a 4 wheeler or in a boat really messes up a wood stock.

[RaySendero]

Yes I'm leaning toward the ss as it might stand up to use better than the wood.I do a lot of bear hunting and climbing in and out of stands hauling on a 4 wheeler or in a boat really messes up a wood stock.

My preference is always toward the wood/blue rifles, but in your case I think the synthetic/SS would be better.

[Bearcat 74]

That is why I went stainless/synthetic.

[Bearcat 74]

Mounted up my 1.75-6x32 Vari-X III today and fired 15 rounds total.  I don't know about this gun, I had 3 more 3 shot groups, again at only 75yds, that were all .4's - .6's.  Wht I don't know is if I will hunt with anything else but the .358 Hawkeye this year. 


Same load as the BLR:

Win .308 Brass
Hornady 200gr SP
H4895 - 47grs
WLR Primer

[Bearcat 74]

Don't know if you plan on doing it, but my Hawkeye will not feed round nose bullets.  I have 286 pieces of Hornady 200gr round nose that are now useless to me because the gun won't feed.  I loaded a 158gr pistol bullet to mke some plinkers, won't feed them either.

[Country Boy]

 Try some TAC in youir rifle in my blr it gives 2750 with 200 grain. and 2360 with 250 grn bullets