Ruger 77 hawkeye ?

[Country Boy]

Has anyone been shooting one ? My .308 has a freefloating bbl from the factory and I can"t get it to shoot at all. I stuck a business card in the bbl channel and it helped some but about 2 " is all I can do with it at 100 yds , 3 shots , are these rifles worth the money.

[p15camborne]

My Hawkeye in .243 shoots great with Core-lokt and even better with Hornady SST.  It's not free floated and the trigger is heavy, but breaks like glass.  Plenty good for hunting and shooting off the front porch. 

[abigdiesel]

Are you handloading it?  If not what brand are you shooting?  The hawkeye has a 1:10 barrel twist, you might be shooting too light of a bullet.  I found this chart that gives an idea of what twist is good for what bullet size for the .308

.308 / 7.62mm
1:15 up to 150 grains
1:14 150 – 168 grains
1:12 168 – 170 grains
1:10 170 – 220 grains
1:8 220 grains or more

Now this is not the rule, but is a good place to start working out what bullet will do better from your ruger.

Also, check the muzzle for burrs at the rifling(sometimes due to cleaning rod)

Which model hawkeye has the free floating barrel??

[Flash]

I have two All Weather Hawkeyes in 25-06 and love them. One for deer and one for varmints. Mine shoot extremely well but handloaded ammunition is used. It matters where I rest the rifle when I sighted it in too. I rest it on the floor plate and only use a bipod when it's absolutely necessary. My shooting sticks are even held behind the front sling swivel and as far back as possible.

[crash87]

Are you handloading it?  If not what brand are you shooting?  The hawkeye has a 1:10 barrel twist, you might be shooting too light of a bullet.  I found this chart that gives an idea of what twist is good for what bullet size for the .308

.308 / 7.62mm
1:15 up to 150 grains
1:14 150 – 168 grains
1:12 168 – 170 grains
1:10 170 – 220 grains
1:8 220 grains or more

Now this is not the rule, but is a good place to start working out what bullet will do better from your ruger.

Also, check the muzzle for burrs at the rifling(sometimes due to cleaning rod)

Which model hawkeye has the free floating barrel??

Wow! I was wondering if there are  charts for different calibers as I shoot a number of them? Looks like I need to get a couple more 308's and have them rebarreled with the "proper" twist for my bullets. I have a Ruger M77RSI, in 308 w/1:10 twist, and am wondering if I can beat 1" groups with the 150's I'm shooting now? BUT, should I go with the 1:15 or 1:14? Or just go with a 1:14.5? 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Don't put too much stock in that chart---even if it were true--rebarrelling is a rather expensive proposition. And good luck finding any barrels with some of those twist rates listed.

Try as many loads and weights as you can before you go messin with your gun and then REALLY causing a problem.

My .30-06 Hawkeye is a sub-MOA shooter with the cheap Federal 150gn loads from Walmart. Only mods I did was to mount a scope and clean the bore---was doing that the first time out with the rifle.

[abigdiesel]

Try as many loads and weights as you can before you go messin with your gun and then REALLY causing a problem.

My point was not to change your barrel, but to try different weight bullets.  My neighbors 700 308 (1:12 barrel) loves 165 bt's and 168 hpbt.  Anything under 130 grains doesnt group, and anything over 180 has the same outcome. 

I agree with O-BG, Its cheaper to try diff. ammo than find a 14.5 rebarrel

[rugerfan.64]

Are they worth the money? In my present state of mind the one I HAVE is definately not worth the money I paid for it. Wish I had it to do over again. I'd have bought a Browning A bolt for the wife. Its a Hawkeye standard 257 Roberts. Floated the barrel,checked the bedding for full contact,JUST finished checking the bolt for contact,bout 80% on the right,0% on the left. Tried every factory load I can get,been through my whole powder cabinet,every bullet powder combo I can make. The best results I can get is about 2" at 100 yards. On the other hand,I just came back with my old M77 ST that shot 3 rounds of Hndy 87 grain sp's into about 1/4 " at 100 yards. My daughters M77 MK II in 260 will stack em as well. I guess I got a LEMON. Are Hawkeyes worth the money? The one I have for darn sure aint! Good luck.

[roscoe]

I have a Stainless Hawkeye in 204 Ruger that shoots overlapping holes at a 100 yds consistently as long as I do my part!

[Darrell Davis]

Count me as a RUGER fan!  Have been since the early 60s!

I have a Hawkeye in stainless and synthic and it shoot GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am surprised it is floated from the factory.

Mine wasn't - is now - and the instruction book said NO TO!!!!!!!

Great shooter and very good velocity!

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[jimone]

Be sure to shoot it enough before passing judgment, my 308 RSI Hawkeye took 50-75 rounds to settle in, a little oil at the stock tip cap helped too. I found loads with 125 Speer TNT, 150 &165 Sierra SBTs with Varget that all will group around an inch at 100 yds, time to move back to 200. Not bad for a walking around gun

[Country Boy]

Jimone, how much does that rifleweigh ? Is it will balanced. What is the bbl length ? I haven"t spent my money yet but that looks like a possibility. Thanks, Crock

[jimone]

Rifle weighs 8 lbs 6 oz with 3-9x40 Redfield with Butler Creek caps, Hunter cobra sling and 5 rds of 150gr Sierra SBT and 44grs Varget.
Puppy Joe weighs 60 lbs with a bag a week of Purina puppy chow. Caries and points great.

http://www.ruger.com/products/m77HawkeyeInternational/models.html

[BBF]

I was eyeballing that rifle in 358 Win. After adding up the $ to get it in my hands and reading above I decided against it.

[poncaguy]

I have a 338 Federal Hawkeye  it shoots I 1/4 groups, some 1". I love it!

[fatercat]

in 257 roberts you need a polly choke on it to hit a #2 wash tub at 100 yds.

[old06]

Well I’ll count my blessings I bought a Hawkeye back in Jan. It is the one with the factory Hogue stock in 270 Win and with my loads it puts the Nosler 130 Part in at a 1 1/8  and it places the Hornady150 sp interlock at 7/8 it functions flawless the barrel is floated. Now it doesn’t like Sierra 130 Boat tail or Nosler 140 Ballistic tip. I did have a trigger spring on hand a wolf 2.5 lb and put it in. The trigger was like 4.5 lb not bad but with a little polishing and the spring it’s a great trigger.

[poncaguy]

Shot my 338 Federal Hawkeye today, 1/2"...185 Federal Barnes TTSX Last time I shot it, I was using 200 grain and it was  shooting  1 1/2", so you just have to keep trying different ammo and loads....

[Darrell Davis]

Back quite awhile, my oldest son had a new RUGER in 270 that just didn't want to shoot.

I went with my normal powders for this caliber and probably some different bullets, and it just didn't shoot up to expectations.

A friend said to use some 4064, to which I replied something like, "it's too fast."

He said try it.

So I did, and what do you know, that rifle really liked Hornady bullets and IMR 4064.

The point here is, don't count out the rifle until you have given it a chance with a bunch of different bullets and powders.  Even ones you wouldn't normally expect to proform in your caliber.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[StevenK11]

My Hawkeye gray laminate stock 30-06 in stainless was only shooting 2-3 inch groups with bulk FMJ 150 gr bullets.   Then I tried reloading Hornady 155 gr A-max bullets and found sub-MOA immediately.   I use IMR 4895 and don't prioritize maximum velocity with that powder (it's one notch faster than 4064).   I've also had success with IMR 3031, which is faster still; but again not looking for max velocity out of it.    Both 4895 and 3031 also work well in my 45-70 Govt loads, so that keeps powder inventory simple.

Nothing is modified on this Ruger Hawkeye rifle, and the barrel is not floated.  Of course, once it heats up on the range from 5-10 rounds, then the groups tend to spread a bit out (1.5-2.0 MOA), but that is to be expected without any advanced barrel/stock improvements.

[Mosinman]

My friend who travels and shoots tournaments with me uses a Ruger M77 in .308 with a Straitjacket barrel system installed.  We shot a local tournament today (8/14/10) with about 35 shooters involved.  He placed 2nd with his Ruger, and both 1st and 2nd place shooters in the Straitjacket class beat the best benchrest scores by a bunch in both aggregate score and group sizes.  It was a 300 yard match, and 2nd place in the Straitjacket class beat the benchrest shooters by 5 points and 3X.

I noticed some conversation about changing out the barrels on Rugers in the thread, and the Straitjacket is a $350 barrel treatment that adds a removable muzzle brake and solves the heat problems, while fixing the accuracy problem with your current barrel.  I have several rifles with those barrel treatments on them, and they work great with both box ammo and especially with handloads.

The "treatment" is a sleeve system that adds some heat sink media between the existing barrel and a new metal sleeve, that is pressed on and then sealed with a threaded unit that is welded on and finished.  A muzzle brake is included and a "thread protector" so you can still shoot in tournaments that don't allow muzzle brakes or for hunting.  It turns your barrel into a composite bull barrel.

[Lloyd Smale]

cant see dumping a crap load of money into a pour shooting ruger. If i were you id do what i just did. I dumped two poor shooting rugers and bought a great shooting reminton! Not here to bad mount ruger as i own more ruger guns then all the rest combined but a 2 inch gun is never going to be a tack driver and in my experince accuracy is more of a luck of the draw thing with 77s then it is with about any other brand. Just about every rem and sav. and even winchester ive bought shot well right out of the box. If a gun shoots even 1 1/2 to 1 1/4 some fine tuning will usually get it down to an inch but a 2 to 3 inch gun is a dud plain and simple and is not worth me wasting my expensive bullets and powder and time on.

[Darrell Davis]

Lloyd might be correct, but if the rifle was mine I'd get rid of that stock to barrel pressure first thing!!!

Over the years, I have never been sorry that I floated a barrel. NEVER!

Just IMHO.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Mckie Hollow]

2" groups seems to be acceptable these days from new rifles. My last 3 new rifles were 2" shooters, until I free floated and bedded them. Then They became 1" shooters, and this is acceptable to Me.

[MZ5]

I only have 1 Hawkeye, and it's a 308 I got fairly recently.  With the first couple or three handloads I tried, it was a 2-3" gun.  Now it's sub-inch (this is all at 100 yards) and I'm pleased with it.  It still has the pressure point at the stock's forend, as well as roughly under the chamber.  In point of fact, the pressure 'point' in the fore end on mine is more of a pressure 'region' of an inch or inch and a half from the fore end back.  There's also contact with the stock under the 'fat' part of the barrel under the chamber area.  I'm glad I didn't file all this away before trying more component combinations.  I should admit, though, to having evened out the pressure areas; I like symmetry.   I haven't shot a factory round down it yet, and not sure whether I will.  Handloading is kinda fun for me.

[Happy]

I only have 1 Hawkeye, and it's a 308 I got fairly recently.  With the first couple or three handloads I tried, it was a 2-3" gun.  Now it's sub-inch (this is all at 100 yards) and I'm pleased with it.  It still has the pressure point at the stock's forend, as well as roughly under the chamber.  In point of fact, the pressure 'point' in the fore end on mine is more of a pressure 'region' of an inch or inch and a half from the fore end back.  There's also contact with the stock under the 'fat' part of the barrel under the chamber area.  I'm glad I didn't file all this away before trying more component combinations.  I should admit, though, to having evened out the pressure areas; I like symmetry.   I haven't shot a factory round down it yet, and not sure whether I will.  Handloading is kinda fun for me.

Remember too a lot of new guns shoot better groups once they have a hundred rounds through the bore .I have learned not to load for groups until the gun has had a chance to settle in.

[Lloyd Smale]

A new gun at my house allways gets floated bedded and a trigger job. Usually before it even hits the range the first time. Ive seen floating and bedding help many rifles drasticaly and ive never seen it hurt one yet. Still hasnt helped alot with most of the ruger bolt guns ive owned. Sorry fans but give me a remington 700 anyday over a 77

Lloyd might be correct, but if the rifle was mine I'd get rid of that stock to barrel pressure first thing!!!

Over the years, I have never been sorry that I floated a barrel. NEVER!

Just IMHO.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[Swampman]

Sound like a typiclal Ruger.  2" is not acceptable in a boltaction rife.

I've never seen a Remington 700 that wouldn't shoot MOA or better right out of the box.  I've never bedded one or free floated the barrel.

Many Rugers do not shoot well free floated.

[Huffmanite]

Have a Ruger 77 tang safety that as a 270 Win featherweight shot very poor 100 yard groups.   Had a low priced A&B barrel in 7x57 installed.    Found a Boyd Unilet stock on clearance and inletted it and then improved trigger pull by installing a Basix trigger sear available only for the tang safety rifle.  Rifle is quite a shooter now....around 3/4" 100 yard groups.

Last Saturday I bought a Hawkeye in 257 Roberts.....one of my favorite calibers to shoot.  Mounted scope and took rifle to range just to sight it in and do my idea of a barrel break-in.  Rifle shows promise from this brief outing.  However, I don't like the pressure point on forend of Ruger stock and trigger pull on my Hawkeye.  Trigger pull not really bad, just thought it should be lighter.  So, now my barrel is free floated and trigger pull has been reduced with a new spring (from Ace Hardware store) and some very minor polishing on sear engagement area of trigger.  After trigger work cocked the rifle and tried the trigger....jeeez, now about 1 lb.  This surprised me....expected 2 lb or more.  Bounced rifle stoutly at butt on my work table, slammed the bolt closed numerous times....trigger never released.  Now it matches trigger pull in my tang safety Ruger.