roc1

I have a new Hawkeye in 7-08 and it is a good shooter for a standard barrel hunting rifle. I think the action on these are pretty rough in comparsion to my other I own. I even compared it different brands in the store I do not own and it is the roughest of the bunch. to me it hangs if you push a little sideways and does not go into battery as smooth as it should. The problem may be the ejector or just the design I do not know. I contacted Ruger and they say they are a little rough go figure. I sent it back for a feed issue and told them about this as well. The feed issue is ok know but the action is better but not like I would like. This is my first Ruger rifle in centerfire so I do not know what to think. Does anyone else have a Hawkeye and how is yours?
Thanks
roc1

BlkHawk73

It's a hunting rifle, not a finely tuned European double. If you need the buttery smooth feel, you'll need to look elsewhere. Be honest though, in the field, where it's to be used, are you going to take notice of the feel? Remember, when it's used for it's intention, you'll be likely in a level of stress or rushing with adrenaline and not even felling the lack of silky-smoothness.

funman

How many shots do you have throught the gun? I have about 200 or more shots through mine and it has smoothed out a bit.

roc1

Thanks for help. I have about 140 rounds or so. I guess you are right about not being as smooth as others it is indeed a hunting rifle. My concern is it seems to hang if you push the bolt sideways a little maybe it needs more smoothing up. How is this action compared to the Winchester model 70? I mean is it the same basic mauser style or are there distinct differences? Just curious the Winnie is smoother but still a little stiff.
Thanks
roc1

Ahab1

So has mine.

DPris

Last year I was looking to come up with ONE .308 boltgun I could be happy with, as a general purpose NON-WAR MACHINE rifle.
I have other rifles for everything from plinking through people defense to bear.

I sold off a nice little Ruger Frontier that was a smooth cycler, but just not the overall package I wanted. Ditto a Savage Scout Rifle.

I did not see anything in Remington's line-up that interested me for a relatively light & compact gun. Not knocking Remington.
I tested a Weatherby Vanguard Carbine and a new Ruger Ultra Light Hawkeye.

Accuracy was slightly better with the Vanguard, but the Hawkeye wasn't bad at all, even with the pencil barrel.
I prefered the Mauser-style extraction/ejection system of the Ruger, and it carried beautifully in hand, came up on shoulder quickly, and had a nice trigger.
The Vanguard's synthetic stock didn't do much for me, and I'm not a fan of the push-feed system in a gun that might be used on something coming after me on four feet. But, that's not what I wanted the .308 for, and I could live with a push-feeder as a truck & ATV gun, with possible use as a hunter.

The Hawkeye's action was quite rough, not nearly as smooth as the Vanguard's. In looking it over & discussing it with my gunsmith, we noticed the bolt was rubbing on the bolt dismount lever & had rough internal receiver rails. It was nothing like my older 77 International in .30-06 that'd be one of the last guns I'd ever let go. My old ought-six is a very smooth rifle.

The Hawkeye's action as it came was perfectly usable, but not acceptable. I could have spent hours in front of the TV dry-running the bolt, or a couple thousand dollars in shooting the gun to wear the bearing surfaces in together, but I'm too lazy for that. And the cost of smoothing it up would have added at least another hundred in gunsmithing fees on top of the purchase price.

Since the Vanguard shot fractionally better, was shorter (20-inch barrel) & more convenient in & out of a scabbard, had a beefier extractor than the Remington's placing it between the Remington system and the Ruger system in reliability (at least in my mind), required nothing but a scope (new) & mounts (I already had) to be good to go, and was at least a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the Hawkeye to begin with, the Vanguard stayed on here.

It was still very close, and had the Ruger's action been up to the level of smoothosity their older rifles were, it would probably still have gotten the nod. Money wasn't an absolute requirement, but it was an issue.

This isn't suggesting the Weatherby is a better choice than a Ruger or recommending it over a Hawkeye, I'd still prefer that Mauser-based system, and the real wood stock. But....

It was the rough action that was really the deal killer in my case and within the parameters I'd set for my .308, and if this is common to the Hawkeyes now, Ruger needs to get on it.

I did try out one of the first "rubber" Hawkeye Alaskans in .375 Ruger when they came out, and its action was as good as the pre-Hawkeyes were, so there may be a trend at the moment that should be addressed.

Denis

eVictor54

roc1,

I have started using a light application of Mil-Comm TW25B Gun Grease on the bolts and locking lugs in my guns. The thought of a heavy lubricant in the chamber may trouble some gun experts, but it sure does smooth out the action and makes the lock work better.

srg81

My brother and I both got Hawkeyes in .308 a couple years ago. The bolt definitely has some wobble when extended (open position) that can make it rough to close (speaking for both rifles). I've only got about 50-60 rounds through mine and it's definitely still there. Hopefully shooting it more will break it in. I have learned to just commit to the extraction/loading motion and keep a straight fluid motion and you will avoid any hangup.
This is definitely my favorite hunting rifle, however, it just feels, carrys, and shoulders great. And everytime I've used it when it mattered, I didn't need a second shot.

Paladin43

I recently purchased a brand new Hawkeye compact laminate/blue in .223 rem. 16 1/2" barrel. It balances sooooo nice w/a compact scope on it. The trigger was heavy, with creep. the action was sticky, and with the wobble was really rough. The safety stuck on safe twice w/a cartridge in the chamber. It would not chamber and feed with 4 rounds in the magazine. Was not a happy camper. But I got to thinking, most factory guns aren't 100 percent as they come out of the box. I took it to my local gunsmith to have these ills cured, as I couldn't get groups under 1 1/2" as it was. $50 and 3 days later (read ONLY $50 later!) I got my Hawkeye back. 3lb trigger. Smooth as butter. Slick, slick, slick. Took it to the range. Shot it in the rain, so my expectations weren't very high of coming up with decent groups. What did I get? 1/4" groups!! Am I in love with this Hawkeye or what?!! Holy moly. Do I have a keeper. Sometimes a little fiddling will do it. BTW, this is with standard factory ammo (55gr. soft points). I love the performance of this gun so much, I just went for a Hawkeye Safari in .375 Ruger. And guess what? That sucker is going traveling to the Dark Continent within 2 years. My gun for everything. I'm sold on Rugers, and the Hawkeye in particular. Now the Safari, I'll tell you about that one in the future. Meanwhile, my little .223 Hawkeye, with just a little bit of TLC is the cat's meow! Accurate, light, smooth as silk, light crisp trigger. Doesn't take much to make an excellent shooter of an excellent platform.

funman

Heres an update on my bolt, i now have about 600 or so rounds thru my gun (had to go to garage and count empty boxes of primers to find out) and my bolt is alot smoother than when i first got it. Heres one reason for that i switched to eezox and clean and lub my bolt with that alone. Now the bolt runs much smoother. I just moved out here to new mexico and the amount of sand and dirt that was blowing into the action was mixing with the oil. After making the switch to a dry lubricate i am very pleased. I have a freind the just bought a remmington 700 , well i played with it a bit and i must say my next purchase WONT BE A REMINGTON.

roc1

Funman what is wrong with the Remington I might ask? I was considering one is the reason for the question. My Hawkeye is getting better with use.
Thanks
roc1

funman

Fair question, of the three remingtons that i have shot (all 700s) the finish on the barrel look parkerized or something and one of the guns (which was brand new) had some of the finish flaking off with rust underneath. Ok the bolts did not seem that smooth on any of them, of the two that i shot both failed to load a round in the chamber took several tries on one occasion. The triggers were not any better to me than ruger, not saying alot. On top of all this i have had several gun shop owners tell me remingtons have gone down in quality and up in quantity. to be honest i dont think they are terrible guns, i just thing their are alot better choices for the money. Remington has so many after market options to buy its hard not to want to buy a remington, hard to find things for ruger.

funman

Before you dig in.........i know all manufactures have lemons, maybe i got all three of them

Nomad44

Roc1, I used Tetra grease on my Hawkeye bolt and it helped mine. Maybe it will help smooth yours out.

swampfox

i got a .308 mark II that does exactly the same thing, i will be trying what i've learned reading this post thanks to all