338 Federal Hawkeye

[Bullthrower338]

I’m fond of anything 338 thus my handle, tonight I was picking up a Henry Goldenboy 22 mag as a gift for my friend and on the used rack was a stainless Hawkeye 338 Fed. Had a 3-9 silver Nikon mounted on it and picked it up as well for myself. I haven’t seen a bunch of them in this chambering. I built an AR-10 chambered in 338 Fed and love it. My bench is still set up to load the cartridge so I figure I will load up some 185 Hornady and see what they will do. The vicious cycle of buying guns never ends!

 

[seasterl]

I was always a fan of the 338, too, but had an opportunity to pick up a Hawkeye Alaskan in 375 Ruger and it’s been a great rifle and cartridge for loading.

 

[Bullthrower338]

I was always a fan of the 338, too, but had an opportunity to pick up a Hawkeye Alaskan in 375 Ruger and it’s been a great rifle and cartridge for loading.

I scored an Alaskan in 375 Ruger also, it is a cool rifle, you sure don’t have to worry about it slipping out of your wet hands with that hogue stock. Shoots well too. I put a 1-6 Eotech Vudu on mine and it makes for a nice rig for my next trip to AK.

 

[seasterl]

I had purchased a nice aftermarket stock for mine (Carlson?) but it’s still in the box since I’ve also been enjoying the factory stock. Before installing the scope, I used iron sight to put three shots inside a softball-sized group standing at fifty yards, and felt really confident in it. Then I sighted it in at 100yds with an optic using the factory rings, but for some reason can’t keep the rings tight. (Wonder why, LOL!). I feel like I’m retightening them after every few shots, so I may just go back to factory irons and leave it that way. Honestly, the muzzle blast with the brake (which I can’t seem to remove) makes it hard to get really tight groups, at least for me.

 

[TheDoubleD]

Years ago I built a .338/08 on a model 77 and took it to Africa for plains game. The cartridge was excellent for this use. It was very accurate also.

The gun itself was a problem. Perhaps not gun but twice I short stroked and was not able to make a quick follow up shot. (Un-necessary follow-ups. But that is another story) Yes short stroke is a shooter error. I sold the gun shortly after I came home.

4 years after I made that hunt, Federal came out with the Commercial version .338 Federal.

This is a good cartridge, a very good cartridge.

Loose Ruger factory rings, in 40 years of gunsmithing full time, part time and some times, this is a common problem. The mount screws are soft and stretch. The dove tail nuts are soft also. I believe it was Millett that sold replacement screws and that solved that problem in the past.

I recently scoped my Ruger No. 1 450/400 3" NE using Ruger extended rings. The screws in the rings seem strong and have not deformed. If they were soft I would think issues would have popped by now. 3 years, one white tail, one hog and one bear later, no problems.

Loose Ruger rings , replace the screws if you can or get some one else Ruger rings and problem solved.