Custom Hawkeyes

[Johnnybear]

Thought it would be neat to see what folks have done with their Hawkeye's. I was thinking about putting a McMillan stock on my .30-06 left hand and have it powdercoated, trigger work, free floated and bedded etc.

Anyone have any information or photos to share in regards to customized Hawkeye's .

 

[EVR]

I do not have a "custom" Hawkeye but do have a Hawkeye I have modified a bit, as I do with all my Rugers;

freefloated barrel

epoxy-bedded action

trigger crispened

side sling stud

ejector beveled and ejector slot edges on bolt head beveled

It is a .264 Win Mag. Great rifle.

Same mods on a Predator, except no trigger work done there as the double pull trigger is superb.

Here's the Predator and a pile of coyote bait. 25 for the year, a good start to bolster the coyote sets.

 

[Johnnybear]

I do not have a "custom" Hawkeye but do have a Hawkeye I have modified a bit, as I do with all my Rugers;

freefloated barrel

epoxy-bedded action

trigger crispened

side sling stud

ejector beveled and ejector slot edges on bolt head beveled

It is a .264 Win Mag. Great rifle.

Same mods on a Predator, except no trigger work done there as the double pull trigger is superb.

Nice set up EVR. My buddy has the same rifle with almost the same modifications (sans bolt work). He shot a blacktail here on the rock at about 300 yards last year and it went down like a sack of potatoes .

Maybe I should have said "custom or modified" as the title to this thread.

Great photos EVR! Thanks for sharing.

 

[EVR]

I had problems with my .264 at first and Ruger rebarreled and rebolted it for free. It blew primers for some inexplicable reason. All's well now and shoots MOA at 300 meters.

Great rifle.

The .223 {is it technically a Hawkeye?} is a super rifle, the first year I have it for the bait shooting season. Wow do I really like it. GREAT rifle and IMO Ruger ought to adopt the double pull trigger for all their rifles.

 

[sp]

I only have 1 Hawkeye, a .223 with a plastic stock this has been epoxy bedded and has a trigger job.

The other M77's MKII's have had:

add on barrels - Lilja, Hart, McGowen (.17 Rem, .22-250, .243 Win, .6.5-.308, 6.5-06, .308. .30-06, .300 RSAUM, .300 WSM, .375-.338) -- square up action and lap lugs

add on stocks, .243, .22-250. .308

trigger jobs including 1 Timney,

epoxy bedding & free float

The M77 MKII is one the less complicated actions to rebarrel -- no coned breach, extractor cut, or recessed cuts on barrel face.

The trigger is simple and uncomplicated and can be easily slicked up by one who knows what they are doing.

The little factory barrel .223 shoots almost as good as the best of the bunch and generally shoots as well as any of them.

 

[EVR]

The trigger is simple and uncomplicated and can be easily slicked up by one who knows what they are doing.

True. I do my own trigger work.

The trigger is an unabashed ripoff of a commercial Original Mauser design from the '30's. Very simple, but as straight from the factory, less than perfect...normally.

 

[sp]

I have been struggling to achieve perfection all my life but have always fallen short.

I think almost all triggers have some degree of creep if you want to find creep and you pull on them long enough.

I would be surprised to see a M77 MKII with a Ruger trigger at a major bench rest shoot but they they have the potential to be good enough for me to hit tiny targets way out there some times from awkward shooting positions. The Ruger trigger business consists of 2 pins, 1 spring, a sear, and the trigger -- easy to clean and maintain.

The Mauser 98 is sure a well designed simple weapon -- just about perfect for a bolt action battle rifle.

 

[sp]

Might I add the Ruger M77 recoil lug and the angled front action bolt, floor plate and trigger guard are a challenge to inlet when making a stock. Every thing gotta be adjusted so the floor plate opens and shuts normally.
But no $300 plus bottom metal.

Another item: when the M77, MKII first came out they were push feed rifles (the extractor snapped over the cartridge rim). These made up into nice single shot rifles -- no floor plate and the front action bolt fit straight up into a hole drilled and tapped into the bottom flat of the receiver ring. Same size bolt as used in the Remington 700. This made for a simple inletting and fitting job. These rifles have a low profile and when fitted with a normal size scope are a pleasure to handle.

Ruger also must be complemented for their investment cast receivers.

 

[Lloyd Smale]

ive got a little project going right now. Far from a full custom but should be a neat gun when done. Its a hawkeye 264. Originaly was one of the limited run thumbhole stock guns but i detest thumbhole stocks. Got it at a steal though so pulled the stock and found a takeoff walnut stock. My buddy whos a stockmaker is floating and bedding it and stripping the cheap ruger finish and doing an oil finish with a black forearm tip and a black limbsaver pad. Hes refinished a bunch of rugers for me and it allways amazes me how much grain figure is hidden in that crappy finish that ruger uses.

 

[EVR]

Sort of dumb, but I forgot to add I had a Limbsaver installed. The caliber doesn't kick much but I like long stocks and it added a bit of that.

Having said that, with the thing on there recoil isn't really much different than a 6.5x55 with the regular stock.

I agree about some Ruger walnut stocks. Not bad looking at all. I do not like the feel of plastic stocks {especially in winter} so even plain wood is preferable to me.

 

[sp]

I believe Ruger stocks (MKII's) were designed by the great Lenard (sp?) Brownell and have been slightly modified over the years.

To me these stocks are just about (95%) perfect with smaller scopes (40 mm objective lens and under) with low mounts.

I have 2 Ruger factory stocks that unfortuately have large amounts of sapwood that Ruger skillfully concealed with thick coats of stain. But eventuallly the stain was scratched and worn through revealing very light colored sapwood. I would not be surprised to learn that Ruger either sprayed on their stock finishes or dipped them -- one shot stock finishing followed by more than adequate checkering. Yes, when the thick somewhat murky Ruger finish is removed even a plain Ruger stock will look much better, the problem is if light colored sapwood is there it will be also more noticeable.

I am not much of a fan of Ruger's diagonal bedding/front screw/bolt setup.
One of my rifles, a short action MKII had a front bolt/screw, installed at the factory, that was so tight I had to use a large screw driver, filed to tightly fit the screw slot with a square shank then use a cresent wrench on that to turn out the screw. Upon epoxy bedding and reassembly the usual task of fitting the floor plate needed to be done. I wish Ruger would make a new version of the Hawkeye/MKII with conventional bedding, a straight up screw threaded into the bottom of the receiver ring - M70 style.