Hawkeye Compact 7.62x39, Again

[Big Bubba]

Posted some info before on my Hawkeye 7.62x39, but since then I have done some more shooting.

Changed from a Burris 4x scope to a new Burris 2-7x scope. Shooting a load of AA2015 with both Hornady .310" 125 gr. SP and 310" 123 gr. V-Max. (I have found from alot of trial and error and money over the years, that Burris and Leupold scopes adjust correctly and hold up under alot of use and misuse. I stick with these two brands,)

Three shots from a cold barrel will consistantly group into 3/4" at 100 yards with no difference between either bullet.

The trick to shooting this little carbine is the same as when shooting lever action carbines and light weight Remington Model Seven rifles. You have to hold the rifle tight, like you are shooting a .300 magnum. With a loose hold, the light weight rifles tend to bounce off the sandbag rest due to recoil, causing gruops to open and zeros to wander. I also grip the fore-end securely with my left hand to keep the rifle more consistant under recoil.

Recoil is light, but I should call it a "jump" or a "bounce." As I said, I found this method of gripping a light weight rifle by shooting leverguns and Model Sevens.

My Hawkeye is a stock rifle, no bedding work or trigger work. The New Ruger trigger is fair, but I would like to polish it up and lighten it some.

This rifle is a "keeper"! It wont be sold or traded.

 

[EVR]

In my opinion a 7.62x39 bolt gun is one of the handiest and most practical tools a fellow can own.

I've never owned a Ruger in 7.62x39 but owned a CZ 527 for a some years and we used that rifle hard around the ranch here till its magazine unreliability forced me to sell it after I lost a shot at a big feral dog that was checking out its packmate I'd killed near it. My oldest daughter used that 7.62x39 to shoot her first deer, a very big and massive 5x4 whitetail and we killed other deer, coyotes, feral dogs, ground squirrels and much butcher stock with it and gained high respect for the cartridge in a bolt gun. No recoil and a good killer at normal ranges.

Ours was scoped with a Burris 1.75-5 variable, so it was set up quite similarly to yours. Yes, the cartridge is very accurate. We obtained 2 3/4 inch center-to-center 5-shot groups at 200 yards with Wolf steel-cased HP loads with handloads shooting into MOA.

Your compact sounds about perfect and your shooting technique is exactly and precisely what we have found with similar carbines as in the Ruger Ultralight in .308 Win that replaced the CZ, as well as our Ruger MKII 6.5x55 with the barrel chopped back to 17 1/2 inches.

Nice shooting, and makes me want another bolt 7.62x39 which would be the exact model you own. Thanks for posting.

 

[SHOOTER]

I'm very interested in the Vmax ammo for deer...