Patience - Right powder & 30-06 Can Shoot!!

[beartooth]

Well, as a friend of mine said, "You needed to continue to shoot and have patience taking your time putting different loads through your 30-06 Hawkeye and it would start shooting good the more you put through the Hawkeye." Well he was right and my hopes were founded on the belief that the evidence I was seeing suggested this M77 would begin to perform.

It was very windy today with gust hitting 30mph and a consent wind of 18-20mph but I just had to shoot because of my schedule this week.

I was using H4350 today that Knitepoet dropped off for me, because I was out of the stuff. I will show my worst group today, then the average group and then last but not least my smallest group for the day using 165gr bullets. Worst group was with Nosler BT, the second target is a Speer 165gr flat base SP which represents where most groups were and then the smallest group was 165gr Sierra HPBT which was .430"

I do not believe I will need to bed the rifle for it's use as a hunting rifle. I also believe I will have better groups as time goes on.

Worst group of the day


Average group of the day with fps




Best group of the day with fps

[beartooth]

Turned the group to the side to measure better - minus bore .430"

[beartooth]

Here is a fine looking out of the box rifle that can shoot.

[beartooth]

Yes it is an out of the box keeper and for a hunting rifle it is doing it's job. I think that with a little seating depth manipulation I will get them even tighter. This is good to go for hunting purposes and without any work done to the rifle except load work.


Yes, the 30-06 does have a lot of life in it when you use a modern 06 you can load to 270 and 25-06 pressures and get accuracy also. This is a 22" barrel and I do not have flattened primers, base is not expanded beyond normal, and very easy ejection. Good load. Same load I used in my Mark V Custom 30-06 which had a 24" barrel and gave me 2973fps with this same bullet.

[beartooth]

I have tried 180gr bullets and they shoot like the average group (second target I posted).

The more I shoot the tighter it gets. This is dispelling the notion that the Ruger's can not shoot out of the box and that they need to be bedded. I wonder how many people have not put a 100 rounds or more through their Rugers and assumed it would not shoot or needed to be bedded or freefloated.

I am glad my friend encouraged me to continue to shoot this Cold Hammered Forged barrel, just for the simple reason they are tougher and by the way do last a long time. Even though I knew I needed to keep shooting his advice continued to motivate me to shoot and really find out if this Hawkeye was a shooter or needed to be fixed. Ruger does have it right this is the second Hawkeye out of the box that has shot for me.


You know it took just over a 100 rounds in the 358Win and all of a sudden it began to tighten up and it really did do well. I am all most at the same point and number rounds with this 06 as I was with the 358Win when it started to really shoot.

I will get it tighter and close the groups up even a little more. This is one consistent rifle just like my 358Win Hawkeye.

[beartooth]

I will use the 165gr bullet in the 30-06 for my long shots on gas lines when hunting deer, hogs and coyotes. I will use my 358Win for thick woods and 300yd shoots if need be but also for my heavy and dangerous game needs.

I will have to test this round although it will more than likely do as it has done in the past out of other 06 when actually tested on long shots and not from a ballistic table.

To give and idea of what I will do with it, I am setting it 2.83" high at 100yds.


Yards---------------Velocity-----------------Energy------(above/below line of sight)

0---------------------2914--------------------3110.5----- (-1.5")

100------------------2658.9------------------2589.7----- (+2.83")

200------------------2413.7------------------2134.1----- (+2.22")

246------------------2304.8------------------1945.8----- (Zero)

300------------------2180.4------------------1741.5----- (-4.38")

348------------------2073--------------------1574.2----- (-10.06" Point Blank-hold/top shoulder)

400------------------1960.3------------------1407.7----- (-8.26" from top of shoulder)

430------------------1897--------------------1318.2----- (-14.12" from top of shoulder)