They are not rare but scarce, especially in excellent condition.
3296 were made in 1963 and 1964. Some of them have a different feature; a removable breechblock stop pin in the earlier models but sporadic thru out the serial range like mine. And of course with lower serial numbers are worth more, especially with box and papers, of course.
They have a reinforced 'buttressed' ejector rod button seen below with a rifle type case rim extractor on the chamber end, and a wide style SBH grooved trigger.
I've added a Ruger Black Powder Old Army steel grip frame to my # 2516, fitted and polished but decided not to blue it:
Another belonging to a friend:
I installed a steel ERH to replace the alum one and have kept all the original parts. I can shoot it a lot w/o concern for showing wear on the alum grip and ejector housing which are most susceptible. Plus the added weight made a huge improvement in balance with its 8 1/2" barrel!
It's an exceedingly accurate, low recoiling firearm that's a blast to shoot! They had no issues, the cartridge was chambered in the rear of the barrel like a rifle and spent cases easily extracted. Originally priced at $87.50, about the same as a 6 round SBH, so being a single shot, that hurt their sales potential.
The .357 case necked to .256 with sharp shoulder was a flawless design and factory loadings can be loaded up. But there were and are better performing cartridges in its class. And with only two regular produced models chambered for .256; the Hawkeye, and a Marlin rifle, it did not have a huge following. That didn't help cartridge availability either.
So it's been relegated to the shelves of firearms history as the unique and reliably designed pistol that it was. Albeit these Rugers are loved by their owners and still have a cult following of handloaders! Original factory Winchester ammo can still be found on the auction sites in the ~$75 range per box of 50. Considering they sold in the range of $19.95 a box originally, that might be considered a steep price, but in the recent market of factory ammo high prices, it's not that bad! And you have once fired cases to reload.
I hadn't shot one for over 40 years but I remembered liking it. And just finally found the affordable one above in the past two years. Some gun shops that had these when they were new and couldn't move them, actually had brand new Hawkeyes re-chambered for other cartridges. People run into those from time to time and think they are factory rarities.
If I ever found a junker for cheap I would consider a custom barrel chambered in another or newer cartridge like .17 Hornady Hornet or 300 Hornady Whisper. Even a 204 Ruger is readily loadable thru the breechblock.
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Been looking for a shootable Hawkeye for some time. Thought this one looked too nice but no box or paper and the price seemed OK. It's a factory re-blue with Ruger work order confirming it. Looks like new and I can shoot a re-blued Hawkeye w/o remorse; and put steel parts on it;.