Ruger M77 Hawkeye Tactical range report and pictures.
I recently picked up the new Ruger tactical rifle in .308. I dunno, I like it so it became mine.
It came with a Hogue rubber stock, Harris bi-pod and usable scope rings.
Fit and finish are nice. It is a well made rifle. No complaints. Trigger guard is solid and the floor plate for the magazine is nice and meaty with a nice Ruger logo on it. Yeah it has the typical Ruger paragraph on safety on the barrel but since the finish is flat it is not noticeable much. Bolt action is smooth but maybe at the very last edge of full open it's a little sloppy. Ammo feed feels and sound solid.
The trigger is okay. I may look into having some work on fine tuning it but not bad. It's a two stage. I'm not sure of the terminology but here is goes; when the first stage is gone, the second stage has some travel before finally breaking. I don't know how to properly describe it but that's how it feels. Is that creep? It's nice and light and when it does let go it is snappy.
I mounted a Leupold VX1 4-12x40 scope and hit the range. I'm not sure I like this scope.. My eyes are going on me and I can either see the reticule solid and the target slightly fuzzy with my glasses on or the reticule slightly fuzzy and the target crisp with my glasses off. The problem does clear up at 200 yards and only happens above around 9x. I'm going to write Leupold for advice, they may just tell me to get new glasses. Cool
Shooting..
First off, it was freaking cold out, nostril freezing cold.. Penguin walk back and forth to the targets cold. 12 degree fahrenheit before wind chill I think.
Well, it's a tack driver, that's for sure. I'm not in the best of health at the moment but I managed to pull off some fair groups after a little sighting in. Better health with better control and this rifle will shoot very well.
It is a soft recoiling .308. The ergo's of the stock is nice. The heavy barrel helps too. The bi-pod works well. If I had the money, I could shoot this rifle all day long.
Ammo used: Federal 168gr matchking BTHP
I forgot to throw in a ruler for scale and forgot to label the 200 yard target "200 yards".
For reference, the 100 yard target, first group, the two shots close together is just a shade under .5". Also, group three is only two shots. The flyers off to the right are me pulling the scope into zero.
The 200 yard target. Group one was me aiming for the center target with no drop compensation. Group two, aiming high to compensate. That third shot was more off that I thought. I knew I blew it but not that bad.
I really like this rifle. It is now my favorite and I may just start hand loading as a result.
Anyway, here are the pix.
