Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Impressed with Ruger Hawkeye in .243 Win

Back in October I was trying to decide on a .243 in either a Remington CDL or Weatherby Vanguard 2. Well, I ended up getting a Ruger Hawkeye, one reason because I liked the 1-9" twist. I mounted a Vortex Diamondback 4-12X that I had on hand looking for a home and the rifle weighs 8 lbs., 5 oz., a bit heavy because of the scope. My gunsmith adjusted the trigger to 2.5 lbs. and it breaks like glass.

I FINALLY was able get to the range today after it sat in my gun safe since November, now that the snow has melted. I had loaded up some Sierra Pro-Hunter 100 gr with 39.5 gr of H4350. I shot 3, 5-round groups which averaged .961" with a MV of 2759 fps. That was a little slower than expected, so I may just bump up the charge by .5 grains. I also had some Hornady factory 100 gr BTSP Interlocks which shot .997" for a 5-round group at @ 2840 fps.

I'm next going to load some 100 gr Hornady Interlocks to see how they do. All in all, having never shot a .243 in my life, I found it a joy to shoot. Now that I can get back into our property, I'm going to have to do some coyote hunting.

Nice looking rifle....I think Ruger 77s are some of the most attractive rifles made.

They are very good hunting rifles. Might not be the tops for target shooting games or other pursuits, and they're a bit heavy, but IME, dead reliable based on three SS models. Good shooters, and the LC6 triggers on the two All Weathers were just fine out of the box. The 2-stage on the Predator is stellar, IMO.

My AW .243 went to finance something else that was a mistake, and I should have left well-enough alone. Yours is very nice. Enjoy.

BTW, 45gr of RL26 (a couple under max) was pretty good corked with those PHs in my AW and a Vanguard S2.

I think the Hawkeye stock is among the most handsome of the factory production stocks.

Beautiful rifle!

I concur!

Fine looking rifle.

Does the magazine box length allow for the seating out of longer bullets?

Thanks for the compliments and load advice, guys. I was surprised at just how nice the blueing was when I got it, as I thought Ruger had gone to a matte blue with the Hawkeye, but it is a semi glossy blue.

OSU, I don’t really know right now. I’ll have to measure it later.

Sweet looking rifle.

Is that one of the anniversary limited edition 243s? It looks like it has the blued bolt handle in the picture. Nice looking rifle regardless.

Limited Edition Hawkeye 243 Win

Good looking rifle. Have fun with it.

I like the finish they're putting on them now. Back to the deep blued finish instead of the matte finish. Great looking gun.

Whose data and what brass are you using? With the usual caveats you should have a bit more room to work up. With H4350 under a 100 grain bullet about 41 grains is pretty standard.

^^^Data is from Hodgdon’s site. Brass is Winchester. Thanks for recommendation, I’ll work up to that charge.

In the .243, yes. The Hawkeye SA mag box is right around 2.9" (just over 2.9" IIRC) and even with long bullets most .243 OAL's end up under 2.8". Ruger tends to put fairly short throats in their rifles as well so it's not a "stretch" to reach the lands.

If I recall correctly the Hodgdon data used a 100 grain Speer boat tail. For a while that particular bullet was noted for generating more pressure than others of similar weight and construction. I don't have my references handy to give specifics. A careful workup with the Sierra shouldn't give trouble.

Winchester brass is usually capacious compared to others, so you're good there.

Work up to 37.0 of Varget with an 87grn Vmax, I bet it will do half inch.

mathman, you’re correct, the data is using the Speer BTSP.

Thanks Jim.