Ruger Hawkeye 77?

[TXGunNut]

I've been offered a stainless Ruger Hawkeye M77 in 35 Whelen. Stock is composite. Can't recall seeing one before, any idea what the twist rate should be?

[square butte]

Mine is 1 x 12" - But I here tell they put out some with 1 x 16" as well. Mine is like yours - composit stock and has the darker grey stainless.

[TXGunNut]

I'm thinking a 230gr boolit won't care much, would prefer a 1/14 to match my Winchester. I've read that most were 1/16 but some were 1/12 like yours. How does she shoot?

[35 shooter]

Exactly my thinking too...230 shouldn't care much. Does it come with irons too?
I'd dive all over that if the price is right!

[runfiverun]

I love the hawk eye rifles.
IMO it's the best rifle ruger has ever made..
I bought one in 358 win. when they first come out and it has never disappointed me.

[TXGunNut]

Hmmm......need to put tires on the car tomorrow. Darn sure tired of spending money lately. If it were a .358 I'd have started the thread out differently, lol. I was wishing it was a .358 but I don't have .358 dies. 35 Whelen makes more sense, in some ways. Could make an excellent backup/bad weather gun to Ellie May but I can rationalize most any rifle purchase, lol.
R5R, what exactly differentiates an Hawkeye from other 77's? My "bad weather rifle" is a stainless/composite 77 in 30-06 and after a Timney trigger it may just be one of my best fitting/shooting rifles. It's no slacker when it comes to paperwork, if you know what I mean.
And yes, Buddy, the price is right.

[35 shooter]

Of course you know Ellie May is not going to like this one bit!! She'll get over it by hunting season though.:kidding:

[square butte]

TXGunNut - I haven't shot mine yet. Have only had it for a couple of months. I does not have irons on it so still have to find a scope for it. I looked for 2 years to find it and got it from someone who didn't quite know what they had. I had all appendages crossed on the rate of twist. I would have been happy with it whether or not it was a 1 in 12. Have a Rem 700 with 1 by 16 that doesn't like heavier as much as 200's. If I had not killed a couple of caribou with it - I might think about selling it. But it lives where it's gonna stay now. Think hard about passing it up.

[runfiverun]

my 308 stainless all weather with the thinned out stock is super similar to my 358 hawkeye.
except that the all weather appears to be stainless and the hawkeye is a matte finished barrel with a full sized stock.
the hawkeye also has the LC-6 trigger which needs no adjustment.
the two seem like a perfect pair but there is enough difference in them [recoil being one] that it would be hard for me not to take the 358 on a back pack hunt where I would be hunting on more open ground and all I shoot in it is cast boolits, it has never seen a jacketed bullet since it's initial factory fired test round.

I don't remember all the different changes they made to the haykeye and many of them are subtle little improvements, but I'm remembering one in 257 Roberts I dawdled too long in purchasing I regret it all the time as I wanted it to make another 7x57 Ackley hunting rifle with.

oops now I'm wandering off track.
but if you have the 0-6 and get the 35 whelen you'll have pretty much the same combination I have only bigger :lol:
the whelen is a medium range hole stomper in an Elk, any deer or pig where you are [or anywhere else] wouldn't stand a chance out to 300 yds.
and for sure adding cast into the mix changes the game in your favor over the 30 caliber by a factor of about 3.
the 35 is right on the edge of balance for speed and weight, I shoot the 250gr saeco in my 358 to right near 2350 fps and it's so close to too much.
when I loaned it out for culling does around a ranch near here I almost didn't get it back from a friend.

[Mk42gunner]

Drifting the thread a bit, here.

Even though they didn't make all that many of them, and haven't for somewhere around four decades, I still think of the single shot .256 Win Mag handgun when I read "Ruger Hawkeye."

Back on topic, sounds like a good rifle.

Robert

[TXGunNut]

I remember the Hawkeye as well, guy I bought my first safe from had one. That was about 30 years ago, haven't seen one since.
Back on track, she followed me home today. Price was more than fair, IMHO. Negotiated down to $525 and had some Cabelas points to burn so I came out pretty good. She's wearing a Leupold VX-2 2-7 scope and other than a bit of camo paint looks almost like a new gun. Action was very smooth for a stainless gun and the trigger breaks nicely at an ounce or two over 2.5 #'s. Rifling looks like 1/12 but will check on that later.
I don't think I'll keep a pair of Rugers, R5R, but I like the sound of yours. I like the idea of having primary and bad weather guns chambered for the same cartridge. My Ruger 30-06 was too nice for trade bait, it will probably find it's way into my brother's safe. He has two beautiful M70's and frets over them when he hunts in the rain. He's been my gracious host on his deer lease and I think my next trip with this rifle will be our last one together, if you know what I mean. Some rifles you gotta keep in the family, lol.

[runfiverun]

yep then you at least have a chance at getting it back at some point.

I just 're-sold' my b.i.l. two of the three rifles I loaned him money on about 5-6 years back. :lol:

I think he was heard the 270 was just about to go become a 7x57 Ackley [the barrel is already at the gunsmiths]
and he knew I slicked up the 45 colt lever gun and regulated a load for it, since I already have one almost exactly the same.

[35 shooter]

Can't wait to hear how it shoots!

[TXGunNut]

Can't wait to hear how it shoots!


Still too wet to shoot around here, more flash flood warnings a little while ago. My place has been at least 30% under water for at least two weeks now. Gotta watch where I walk with all the high water, baby toads and duck poo. Think I'll probably get some loading done tomorrow, lol.

[TXGunNut]

Finished cleaning, lubing and checking the Hawkeye today. Twist is indeed 1/12. Bore was cleaner than any other gun I can remember buying, new or used. Could not get any copper, lead, powder residue or even dust out of the bore. Bolt was a bit dry so a few drops of oil here and there helped things a bit. Had an extra Butler Creek scope cover for the scope eyepiece and the scope installation is exactly as I would have set it up and all screws are tight. As much as I dislike stainless/composite rifles I must admit this thing is growing on me. Dark stainless steel and a few well-applied areas of tan & green camo paint make this a good-looking rifle. Guess I better slip off into the loading room and get to work, floodwaters could recede as early as next week. More heavy rain coming today, road out front has been under water since first light this morning.

[35 shooter]

We're getting the rain here too. Knocked my range day out for sure and i was all set to test BLL lube as a stand alone lube in my whelen...oh well.

Let me know if you want to try some 358009's in that 12 twist...they keep the elephants out of the cabbage patch.:D I'm betting the 230 rd you have will do very well in it.
I think you'll be glad you picked this one up.

[TXGunNut]

Here's a pic-if I can get it to work. Netbook likes to make this little job difficult.


140332

[35 shooter]

Yep, looks good from here!! Nice find!

[TXGunNut]

Thanks, not really my style but I like it. Didn't dare take it off the porch, be hard to find in the swamp that surrounds me these days. ;-)
Found an objective scope cover and loaded up some more test ammo, now all I need is a little range time. It doesn't much care for the big flat meplat of the RD boolit but I'll figure out, only fails to feed if I load more than two rounds. Guess that's not really a problem, lol.

[35 shooter]

Thanks, not really my style but I like it. Didn't dare take it off the porch, be hard to find in the swamp that surrounds me these days. ;-)
Found an objective scope cover and loaded up some more test ammo, now all I need is a little range time. It doesn't much care for the big flat meplat of the RD boolit but I'll figure out, only fails to feed if I load more than two rounds. Guess that's not really a problem, lol.
Just out of curiosity, have you tried cycling one of your old Thor boolits through it?
That boolit really shot well in my rifle. It was right there with the rd 230 gr. in accuracy.

[square butte]

Often thought about putting a set of irons on the two I have. I really like the 1/4 Ribs that Ruger puts on the #1s and some 77s. But I wonder if they ever did them in the darker gray style stainless steel on the Hawkeyes. I have older eyes - But would like to have the option of irons. I can still do them with just 1.50 reading glasses.

[TXGunNut]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried cycling one of your old Thor boolits through it?
That boolit really shot well in my rifle. It was right there with the rd 230 gr. in accuracy.


Funny you should ask, I almost loaded one that was on my bench. My Winchester had more troubles with the Thor than it did the RD. I'll puzzle over it a bit more this afternoon and let you know.

[TXGunNut]

Often thought about putting a set of irons on the two I have. I really like the 1/4 Ribs that Ruger puts on the #1s and some 77s. But I wonder if they ever did them in the darker gray style stainless steel on the Hawkeyes. I have older eyes - But would like to have the option of irons. I can still do them with just 1.50 reading glasses.

I wish I could still use irons for hunting, just learning to appreciate them in recent years but too late. My parts box is full of carefully labelled rear sights pulled off leverguns in favor of receiver or tang sights. I've seen the rib you speak of on a #1, very graceful look for this rifle.

[TXGunNut]

140970140971
Guess I shouldn't be surprised but must admit I was. Took the Hawkeye to the range today and it likely won't go again until closer to hunting season. Almost a letdown but it sure is nice when a project comes together so fast. :D Rifle shot like it was made for me. Scope eye relief and focus was perfect. No adjustments were necessary, at least until I can get it on a 100 yd range. Just finished load development for Ellie May and was hoping the Hawkeye would like the same load, especially considering it's planned role as a bad weather backup for Ellie. All I can say is wow. Other than the aforementioned feeding issues it didn't do anything wrong, a guy from the next range did come over to see what was rattling the roof tin tho, lol.

[35 shooter]

Nice shooting! Can't wait to see the 100 yd. results. Won't it be great if both rifles shoot the same load and it's sure looking like it? That would make life simple and good!

[TXGunNut]

Certainly looks good so far. Had one load that didn't make the transition from 50 to 100 well but suspect that had more to do with the load than the rifle. My other Ruger needs 7-10 fouling shots to settle down, this one didn't need one. First shot is in that three shot cluster.

[Yodogsandman]

WoW! That was fast load development! Good shooting! What load did you use?

[TXGunNut]

No load development, just grabbed what I had. It's a backup gun so that's important! 54grs IMR4350 under the RD boolit, RP 9 1/2 primers. My other Ruger "bad weather gun" comes pretty close to outshooting my primary 30-06, suspect this one may just give Ellie May a run for her money too.