Ruger Hawkeye twist rate

[Marlin Junky]

The new Ruger Hawkeye in .358 has a 12" twist and before I start running around to acquire one I'd like to get some input on this particular twist for shooting boolits in the 150 to 180 grain range. The 12" twist sounds better mated to a .35 Whelen with the heaviest practical boolits than to a .358 using say, 150 to 250 grain boolits.

MJ

[Bass Ackward]

The new Ruger Hawkeye in .358 has a 12" twist and before I start running around to acquire one I'd like to get some input on this particular twist for shooting boolits in the 150 to 180 grain range. The 12" twist sounds better mated to a .35 Whelen with the heaviest practical boolits than to a .358 using say, 150 to 250 grain boolits.

MJ


MJ,

When I think of twist rate for cast I never consider bullet weight as a factor only for the heaviest bullet I might practically shoot. that's because there are two ways to eat up twist rate. One is by bullet weight. The other is by meplat size.

The question I answer for myself is what I intend to do with the gun? 12 twist is still a mild twist in that caliber allowing you to still shoot higher velocities.

What is more important than the twist rate to me in 35 caliber, is will the throat permit those weight bullets? And that I can not answer.

[Marlin Junky]

What is more important than the twist rate to me in 35 caliber, is will the throat permit those weight bullets? And that I can not answer.

Bass,

Too true. Even though I won't know the above until I find a .358 Hawkeye and insert a dummy round into it, I figure if the twist won't shoot the low end boolit weights well, I'll just go with my .35 Remmy for those boolit weights. I guess what I really want from a .358 Winchester is the ability to shoot 220 to 270 grain boolits accurately in the Mach-2 neighborhood. To crack 2300 fps with a 270 grain boolit in the .358 (22" bbl) would probably require a substantial throat, which would preclude the use of 158 grain SWCs for precision shooting.

MJ