Caribou Gear

Ruger M77 Hawkeye Compact?

BRI

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Sep 30, 2005
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696
Location
Anduhconduh, Montana
Just curious if anyone has had experience with one of these? My brother picked up a 7mm-08 at a good price. With the 16.5" barrel, I've heard there's a bit of muzzle blast. Curious about the accuracy too.

Going to start on some load development for it when I get my hands on it so thoughts there would help too.
 
Yep, she's a'gonna Roar and breath fire for sure!

I'd stay with 120's to start, because it will lose a lot of velocity due to barrel length.
 
I've never handled one, but they have intrigued me. I'll be curious to see how accuracy is. keep us posted
 
Fairly mixed reviews from what I've seen when searching. I was thinking of starting with some reduced recoil loads with H4895 to start but also have Varget and RL15 to try as well.
 
I wouldn't be afraid to try both the 120's and 140's. The 120 BT's are a surprisingly good bullet and you can get them dirt cheap at SPS. The 140 AB is just a flat out great bullet.

As far as powder, if you can get varget or RL15 to work well, I'd stick with either of those. I reloaded for a friends rifle and it liked H4350 pretty well with 140's.

Aidens rifle likes H380 with the 120's and the starting load listed in the hodgdon reloading manual has very little recoil and getting just over 2800 FPS with a 120 BT (20 inch barrel)....not a bad place to be, IMO. His rifle also really liked H4350 with the 140's.

I think you'll be surprised at the velocities you'll be able to get even with the short barrel...
 
Hey Buzz, what’s your take in the 145 grain eldx from Hornady compared to the 140 ABs from Nosler?



I bet those rifles are sooooo loud.
 
I doubt Buzz has used the Hornady. Why would he? Seems the Accubond works well for him. mtmuley
 
I have a 7-08 with a 20inch barrel and it's great, however I did shoot a ruger compact in 308 once and it was a little much.
 
I tried to start a thread similar to this a couple of days ago... my battery died before I posted it.
So I’m not trying to hijack the thread....but..... I have a ruger Frontier in .243. It’s basically the same gun but with a forward scout type mount on the barrel in addition to a mount over the receiver. I shot it at the range but never felt good enough about it to take it hunting. As I remember I couldn’t get it to group better than four or so inches at 100 yds. And I tried a couple of different types of factory ammo.
Any reloading gurus out there have a hot tip for me..insofar as getting a better group? Lighter..heavier end of the spectrum?
 
If groups are 4" at 100yds, I'd be looking into the gun and/or scope. Something seems amiss to me mechanically at that level of "accuracy".
 
I have an ultra light in .243 and really wish I had picked it up in 7mm-08. I don't think a 20 inch bbl can be beat. Good balance, not too long/heavy and still puts out good hunting ballistics.
 
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