Elk/deer/antelope rifle for Daughter #1

[Coyote Hunter]

Posted this on another site but thought folks here might appreciate it more:




Daughter #1 has been using my M77 .257 Roberts for antelope but is moving back to Colorado and wants to hunt elk this fall. Although I had a Ruger Hawkeye All-Weather .280 Rem I thought she would use, she decided she liked my Ruger Scout .308 instead.

I decided it was time for her to have a proper lefty rifle of her own and convinced her to get a Ruger Hawkeye in .308 Win. Ruger has dropped these from their line-up but we found one on Gunbroker. It arrived at the LGS Tuesday afternoon and I picked it up on my way home. Daughter #1 took an immediate liking to it but didn't get to spend much time with it as she had a flight back home the next morning.

Yesterday I tuned the trigger (which was already pretty good for a factory rifle), free-floated the barrel and resealed the barrel channel. All the trigger required was a mirror polish on the trigger and sear mating surfaces, breaking the sharp corner on the trigger and a tiny dab of Teflon grease when it was reassembled. It came out very, very nice.

Here's a slightly blurry cell phone photo taken after I mounted a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x with Ballistic Plex reticle that was laying unused on an ammo shelf:

While I have two Hawkeye rifles (a .308 Scout and an All-Weather .280 Rem), neither has the standard walnut stock and I don't have a .308 with a standard length barrel. I like Daughter's walnut Hawkeye .308 so much I'm thinking about getting one for myself - but in a right-hand configuration.

 

[rangerbob]

I don't see how one could go wrong with a M77 in 308. There's nearly 200 different factory loads and handloading the 308 is almost limitless between all of the powder/bullet combinations available. I have a scout and a Hawkeye in 308, as well as an American predator. When my daughter wanted a rifle, I got her a Browning BLR in 308 since she lives in California and ammo is hard to get. Bob! 8)

 

[Don Lovel]

.308 with 180gr Nosler Partition will definitely do the job on a big Elk.
165 Gr Nosler Partition in 308 is pretty flat shooting and high energy dump on target

 

[PebblePimp]

The selection of M77s sure has gone down. Nice find!

 

[rugerjunkie]

Looks good! The only thing I have to say is you never ever grease or oil the trigger or bolt. Run them dry. 25+ years ago before I knew any better , I had one that started firing as the bolt was closed. No mods were done to the rifle at all. I took it to the gunsmiths so he could check it out. Nothing wrong with it at all except I oiled the bolt n trigger parts. He scolded me and said never do that again and to run them dry. A cleaning with some Hoppes every now and then is all thats needed and wipe the parts dry afterwards.

 

[Coyote Hunter]

Looks good! The only thing I have to say is you never ever grease or oil the trigger or bolt. Run them dry. 25+ years ago before I knew any better , I had one that started firing as the bolt was closed. No mods were done to the rifle at all. I took it to the gunsmiths so he could check it out. Nothing wrong with it at all except I oiled the bolt n trigger parts. He scolded me and said never do that again and to run them dry. A cleaning with some Hoppes every now and then is all thats needed and wipe the parts dry afterwards.

Was that a Ruger M77? I use teflon grease on all my triggers and have never had a problem.

 

[SweetWilliam]

I've never hunted elk but my vote would lean towards the Barnes 165gr. TSX or TTSX bullet. Almost 100% weight retention & expansion.
And the 165gr. IMO has the best velocity/energy in the 308.

 

[Coyote Hunter]

I've never hunted elk but my vote would lean towards the Barnes 165gr. TSX or TTSX bullet. Almost 100% weight retention & expansion.
And the 165gr. IMO has the best velocity/energy in the 308.

I run the 168's in my .30-06s and 180s in my .300WM. I plan to try the 168's in the .308 along with the 150g Nosler AB.

Last (only) elk I shot with the 150AB was with a .30-06 and it was on the ground before I recovered from the recoil.

 

[smitty_bs]

That's a dandy setup. If you handload get some 165gr or 180gr nosler partitions and she'll be good. Premium factory loads from Federal or one of the other big names otherwise.

Good luck to her!