almost ready to give up on Ruger

[olympicmotors]

I have a Ruger Hawkeye I bought new in 2010. I have spent quite a bit of money on it so far, but I am still not happy with it's accuracy.

I have had it glass bedded and free floated, the trigger adjusted to about 2.5 lbs., the head spacing in the barrel tightened up.

I have gone through several scopes, ( right now it has a Zeiss Conquest 3.5 - 14 ).

I have gone through many types of factory ammo. ( remington, winchester, black hills, and Hornady ) I likes Hornady by far the best.

I am shooting off a concrete bench, with a ransom rest.

My last trip to the range best group at 100 yards was about 1.25 inch ( 3 shot groups ) with letting the barrel cool down between groups.

But my 200 yard groups were much worse than they should have been. ( 4 - 5 inches )

I am either going to get my gunsmith to re-barrel it with a little heavier contour barrel, or sell it and try my luck with a Winchester model 70.

I am thinking about just buying the Winchester from Hill Country Rifles already set up.

What does everyone think of their work? Does anyone have any experience with them?

Thanks for any information and advice you can give me.

 

[Barrelnut]

I don't know what caliber you are shooting, game, or distance required. But, my advise would be sell the Ruger, keep the Zeiss, and buy a Savage. Seriously, I don't think you could go wrong if you did that.

 

[olympicmotors]

I don't know what caliber you are shooting, game, or distance required. But, my advise would be sell the Ruger, keep the Zeiss, and buy a Savage. Seriously, I don't think you could go wrong if you did that.

Sorry, forgot to mention it's a 300 win. mag. I really want to stay with a controlled feed action too. Is there any consensus on how accurate the Winchester 70s are . I know Remingtons seem to rule the world but why are they inherently so much more accurate than Ruger's or most other brands?

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Sorry, forgot to mention it's a 300 win. mag. I really want to stay with a controlled feed action too. Is there any consensus on how accurate the Winchester 70s are . I know Remingtons seem to rule the world but why are they inherently so much more accurate than Ruger's or most other brands?

Have you changed your bullet weight? Or are you buying multiple makes with the same bullet weight? My Pop's Hawkeye 300win won't shoot heavy pills worth a darn but will shoot lights out with 150-165 grain.
Have you loaded for it? You could have a rifle that doesn't like full throttle loads and stepping down a few fps may make it happy.

 

[gilmillan1]

i used to be just like you when I first got my new sako 270. I tried everything and I could not get it to shoot the way I wanted. well it turns out that the rifle was not meant to shoot that great. Any way, it was a hunting rifle, and now that I think about it, I laugh of it, because I never needed that much accuracy anyway. I could have taken game with that rifle at 500 yards at a minimum with not much effort. The point being is that, if its a hunting rifle, maybe you just need to load some rounds for it. If you are not loading, its hard to findout what the rifle likes. If you are really frustrated, get rid of the gun and get a better one. However, before spending all that money, figure out whats the intended purpose of the gun. If its a hunting gun, then you dont need all the accuracy in the world. You simply need to take game at your available ranges. I

 

[Jluck]

Have you tried joining many forums, starting redundant threads on the same topic then copy and pasting the same stuff in each same thread as a effort to discredit Ruger?

OH WAIT... YEP YOU DID.

You could have sent it back before you started re-engineering there rifle. Now they will tell you to pack sand I'm sure.

If you are not happy with your project, Sell it and buy something else (I recommend something more accommodating to the after market and mods. 700,70,Savage custom).

Good luck on your conquest.

 

[benchracer]

1.25" @ 100 yards with factory ammo isn't too bad. With all of the money you have spent, and are proposing to spend, it seems strange to me that you are not yet loading ammo for your rifle. It seems to me you are planning to throw good money after bad, rather than fully commit yourself to the pursuit of accuracy.

Of the ammo types you have tried, have any of them been match grade ammo? Or hunting oriented loads only? Match ammo might tell you something about what your rifle likes.

In pursuit of accuracy, the idea is to find what works best in your rifle. I don't believe the problem is with your rifle. The problem is with your approach to problem solving.

 

[FEENIX]

Sorry, forgot to mention it's a 300 win. mag. I really want to stay with a controlled feed action too. Is there any consensus on how accurate the Winchester 70s are . I know Remingtons seem to rule the world but why are they inherently so much more accurate than Ruger's or most other brands?

My http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f22/ruger-m77-mkii-facelift-range-report-40952/ in .338 WM shoots 225gr factory ammo under .5MOA. gun)

Shot a coyote at 338 yards with .225gr NAB, 73.5gr H4831SC, CCI250.

 

[AZShooter]

I would suggest to you that you thoroughly go over the rifle to see if you can find anything wrong.

A friend recently showed me his Ruger that wouldn't shoot. The local gunsmith bedded it and it still wouldn't shoot. The gunsmith condemned the barrel. He installed a new Kreiger and it still didn't shoot.

When my friend handed it to me, I first checked the action screws and immediately found a problem. The front action screw was bottoming out in the action's blind hole!!!! This is something that can easily get passed up. I went to his grinder and shortened the screw. The rifle shot great after that. Imagine that. The gunsmith is well known and has a great reputation but is not keen on Rugers.

Here is my check list I go through when I find a rifle that won't shoot. If all these are addressed and it still won't shoot it gets moved along. I have posted this before.

Check front action screw hole if it is a blind hole for epoxy which will cause a false tightness.
Another friend had the "booger" in a $7000 custom that was missed by another big name gunsmith after hundreds of rounds through barrel.

Ruger rings not properly placed in intregal bases

Action screw bottoming out in blind hole

Poor crown, optimal way is to check with bore scope

Action screw holes in stock too small, drill larger so sides of action screw won't touch

Bolt handle touching stock

Mag box must not bind

Recoil lug making early contact in bottom of bedding (rocking action)

Trigger group must not touch stock

Trigger guard must not touch trigger

Uneven bedding--- tightening one action screw to see if the action pulls up at other end.

Action screws improperly torqued

Barrel having adequate clearance where it is supposed to be floated

Clean bore check with bore scope

Poorly cut throat/chamber or something wrong with rifling like missing lands. Check with borescope

Please let us know if you do get it to shoot better.

 

[Mike 338]

How can you tell if your action screw is bottoming out?

 

[Tikkamike]

First the obvious things need to be eliminated, loose and bottomed out screws, make sure the stock isnt wedged in the stock weird etc, next and most highly suspect to me is the mounting system... ruger rings plain suck. the little half round clamp on mickey mouse crap they have it hands down the worst design I have seen which is why I put an eabco slip on mount on my #1. what I would do if I wanted to use that rifle is go buy a set of talley 1 piece rings and go to a competent gun smith and tell him to mill the bottoms so the rings sit equal in height then drill and tap the receiver and see what that does. if that doesnt work then rebarrel it..... or go buy a m70 which is usually a good shooting gun

 

[AZShooter]

How to tell if a screw is bottoming out? I guess experience helps, you can tell by feel that it isn't getting any tighter.

You could get some plasti gauge at an automotive shop and put a tiny piece in the hole and tighten down the screw. The plasti gauge will flatten down to where you can compare the width on the provided paper chart. It is used to check engine bearing clearance among other things. To understand look here: Genuine Plastigauge - How It Works

Sand or file off enough of the blueing on the end of the screw so you can write on it with a sharpie. Tighten it down then remove to see if the mark was removed.

-----------------

TikaMike that is interesting. I have also been frustrated with Ruger scope ring. Almost had one receiver milled and tapped for some talleys. I truly understand. It IS easy to get those 1/2 round bolt ends improperly sitting in the integral base recesses. The reason I wanted to do it was to lower the scope for a proper cheek weld. Even the lowest rings are sometimes too high.

 

[ChipEaton]

My brother In-law just recently had the same problem with a savage 110 ba 300 win mag. We couldn't get it to shoot consistently at all with any factory ammo. I'm still not sure why... Im starting to think that the factory loads are terrible for the 300 win mag. I suggested we do some reloading for it and bingo! It now shoots through the same hole at 100. We used the hornady 168 match bthp bullets and imr4895. Played with the powder charge and coal. He went from a 12" group at 100 to shooting out to 1760 yards in a couple outings.

 

[benchracer]

First the obvious things need to be eliminated, loose and bottomed out screws, make sure the stock isnt wedged in the stock weird etc, next and most highly suspect to me is the mounting system... ruger rings plain suck. the little half round clamp on mickey mouse crap they have it hands down the worst design I have seen which is why I put an eabco slip on mount on my #1. what I would do if I wanted to use that rifle is go buy a set of talley 1 piece rings and go to a competent gun smith and tell him to mill the bottoms so the rings sit equal in height then drill and tap the receiver and see what that does. if that doesnt work then rebarrel it..... or go buy a m70 which is usually a good shooting gun

Murphy Precision makes a picatinny rail for the Model 77 MkII/Hawkeye rifles. You would just need to have the receiver drilled and tapped to install the rail. It's not a cheap way to go, but you would have a known rock solid mount system.

I haven't personally had issues with the Ruger scope mount system, but I would feel compelled to go with a canted picatinny rail for use beyond 1000 yards.