My new M77 Hawkeye - Blued/Wood

[lik2hunt]

Picked this one up from a another fella who had set it all up and only fired 12 rounds. Decided he didn't want to deer hunt after all and so I bought it from him. Not a handling mark on any of it, gun or scope, also got all the boxes and paperwork, even the unfilled warranty cards. The scope is a Leupold VX-II 3-9x40 with duplex reticle. I am really impressed with this gun. I've looked at, and almost bought several of the 80's model 77's and this one is definitely a throwback to that era. Red recoil pad, really nice wood, hinged floor plate in steel now instead of aluminum, Ruger insignia on the floorplate (nice touch), matte stainless bolt and trigger, matte black finish on the rest of the metal, 22" sporter weight barrel, nice light, carry gun.  Can't wait until tomorrow when I'll be seeing how it shoots for me.  It's a .308...........................

[Lawful Larry]

What caliber???  Is it that new .375 Ruger?

[bigjeepman]

Very nice setup ... please give a range report when you can.

bjm

[Zachary]

Nice gun, nice scope.  How much did you pay for it?

Zachary

[lik2hunt]

Here's 3  -  3 shot groups I shot this morning. Was all I really had time for. Not great but will do for now. I'm happy.



This was with some Federal Premium loaded with Barnes Triple Shocks in 165gr. Was only shots 13-21 down the tube of this one too. Probably will shoot in later as it approaches the 100 mark. I have several different factory offerings to still try in it including some Winchester Supreme 168gr. Silver Ballistic Tip, some Remington Premier 165gr. in both the Swift Scirocco offering and the 165gr. Ballistic Tip, and some Federal Fusion as well. I plan to have a VX-II 4-12x40 AO on it and all sighted in shooting sub-MOA by the time rifle season starts here the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Just as a BTW, I also picked up a near mint 1979 ADL 700 in .243 recently. Sweet little gun! I'm waiting to be able to mount a VX-II 4-12 on it also before sighting it in. Oh the bucks we can tie up in these rigs sometimes sure adds up. Sure is fun though ain't it? 

Sent ya PM Zachary

[EVOC ONE]

Very Nice!  Congrats. 

[Lawful Larry]

Oops, didn't  see the  .308 cal at the end of the post. 

I thought I read that the Hawkeye was supposed to be for heavy rounds?!?  .308 is a good round and one of my favorites.

[flintlock]

What's the trigger like on that Hawkeye??? I had heard they had improved it and it's easier to adjust, is that true??? Thanks...

[lik2hunt]

Trigger has just a hair bit of creep right now and seems to be breaking at around 3 lbs. I haven't even attempted to adjust it. I have heard (and I haven't read the manual yet either) that the new L-6 triggers are non-adjustable. I'll post more on this later though. Gonna do some reading up on it today.

[Zachary]

I got your PM.  Thanks.

Zachary

[quickdtoo]

Very nice, John!!

Tim

[SuperstitionCoues]

You're gonna love it!

I have one in 7mm-08 with a Nikon Monarch UCC on it, and love it.  You can't go wrong with your combo.  BTW, I got mine shooting a 1/2 inch group.  Bet yours will too.

[lik2hunt]

BTW, I got mine shooting a 1/2 inch group.

Is that with factory or handloads?

Trigger info is non-existent in the manual pretty much. Just some diassembly and assembly info and it's really brief. The LC-6 triggers are new so I'm gonna call the factory home office soon to see what info I can find out about them. Probably are not designed for folks to fiddle around with too much I would imagine. No.......I haven't had my action out of the stock yet......too close to rifle season to start tinkering with it too much. 
If I can get it to shoot MOA or sub-MOA with the factory offerings I currently have then it will suffice for this season. I have checked the action screws to be sure they are good and tight, the scope mounts and scope are alligned properly and tight also. Just need to to shoot it more I think.

[Lawful Larry]

  BTW, I got mine shooting a 1/2 inch group.  Bet yours will too.

Did you have your gun sent off to a gunsmith and reworked or did it come from the factory with this accuracy?  If it came from the factory with this accuracy, I would think that you are one in a million and also one lucky guy.  Getting that kind of accuracy from a production gun is unique, very unique.     

Good hunting!!!

[Daniel]

I bought a 7mm-08 All Weather (S/S) a couple of months ago for my son to use while deer hunting. I like it a lot so far. The trigger is pretty decent for a Ruger, though I'd like to have it lightened a bit. It breaks at 4 lbs. right now. After this hunting season is over, I'll take it to a smith and have him bring it down to about 3 lbs.

I've been loading 120 gr. Ballistic Tips for it and accuracy is plenty good enough for the kind of deer hunting we'll be doing with it. I've been getting 1.5 to 2" groups at 200 yards with the 4X Nikon scope mounted on it.

BTW, nice looking rifle there lik2hunt.

[SuperstitionCoues]

liketohunt & lawful larry,

Mine is an off the shelf Ruger that hasn't had any special attention.  I was shooting factory Win. PP 150 grains, haven't had a chance to set up my own hand loads yet.  Yes, I think you are right that
i got lucky with this one.  When sighting in @ 25 yds the same day, I put two on top of each other - had a heck of a time measuring the group.

BTW, my method for measuring involves taking the mm distance from the center of each (3) hole to the next until all distances and combinations are measured,dependent on the number of shots fired.  I then average the mm measurements, and convert the average to inches to the second decimal place.  I have found it to be the most statistically reliable method.  It prevents any weighting of a shot (wide or narrow), such as you might get by simply measuring the span of the holes.  It is also similar to how I handle data at my lab.

Point is, is that I haven' had as good of a "cheap", out of the box rifle since my first Win. Ranger 30-06 twenty years ago.