Henry Rifle Forums

The other day I was passing through a small town about an hour from home and stopped for gas at a BP station there. When I went inside, I found that it was also a gun store. Actually, a pretty good sized gun store. Naturally, I found myself looking around a bit, and I quickly spied a nice Ruger Hawkeye Standard that was on sale for $649.


I chatted with the owner a bit, who was very friendly, and told him I’d be back. Today I did go back, along with a nice Leupold 3-9 scope I bought a year or so ago. The store happily mounted and bore-sighted my scope, and back home I came with my new rifle.


At the range, I took 3 shots at 50 yards, and then moved out to 100. The light was terrible this afternoon- bright sun shining on the benches, while the 100 yard fence was in deep shade. Still, I was able to get about a 1.5 inch 3 shot group with some Federal 165 grain ammo. Presumably I will do better with better light- today I couldn’t see well enough to know if I was holding in the same spot each time.

So far I’m a happy camper.

It’s just a standard Hawkeye, so I suppose I don’t really need to post a picture. But here’s one anyway:

Very cool "happy camper" story, Ditto. I've not yet bumped into an LGS at a BP!

A 1-1/2" three-shot group at 100 yards is very nice shooting.
Congrats on both the shooting and on your new rifle!

good buy .... both of our sons have 20+ year old Ruger M77 stainless 30-06's .... both are fine rifles .... looking forward to your coming reports

Pics are always welcome, here, so please post them when you can. All part of the fun.

Good for you. Have had several Ruger bolt guns. Most were good shooters. Definitely looks like you got one of those. Congrats.

Nice gun, fer sure.........

Congrats on a great rifle and some great shooting. Looks very nice! If there was a gun store at my usual gas station, I'd be in big trouble...

Ruger M77 + Leupold Scope = good, reliable all-American hunting rifle. Congrats.

PT7 wrote:Very cool "happy camper" story, Ditto. I've not yet bumped into an LGS at a BP!

Lol. Next time you’re in Wisconsin, let me know and we’ll go there.

North Country Gal wrote:Pics are always welcome, here, so please post them when you can. All part of the fun.

Good for you. Have had several Ruger bolt guns. Most were good shooters. Definitely looks like you got one of those. Congrats.

I hope to post a real range report later this week.

Range report time.

I have shot two or three varieties of factory ammo, and have also tried a couple of different handloads. The biggest thing I have found is that I need a lot of practice learning to shoot this thing well. It clearly can shoot way better than I can.

I’ve tried 147 grain SPBT bullets and 150 grain SPBT bullets. I’ve mainly used IMR4895, but I’ve also loaded some with IMR3031. The latter is far from the top of the list of “go to” powders for 30-06. It’s actually my go to powder for 3031. So far, though the best groups I’ve gotten are with 3031.

It’s clear that with ordinary projectiles my rifle can easily do 1 inch groups at 100 yards. Can I do my part in shooting those groups? Well... not every time, that’s for sure. But, I’m getting better. I also suspect something like some heavier Sierra Matchking bullets would help.