Anyone out there run these on their hunting rifle??

I was looking to get a MCSwirley for my Ruger Hawkeye BUT with chose to go with a Hogue with the full length bedding block - around half the price of the McMillan.

It wont look at flash as the McSwirley - but should make my 270 shoot a bit better than with the factory stock.

Gus

You could also install pillars and glass bed the factory stock to make it shoot even better. You could do that first and then if you are not getting optimum results you could try freefloating it. I run a hogue overmolded stock (factor stock) on my fn pbr xp 300 wsm that is just pillar and glass bedded and it does a good job. They are pretty heavy and kind of bulky. They do help with soaking up recoil though.

BSA,
whilst the factory stock was Ok, I chose to flog it and go for the full bed block on the Ruger. I have two Howa 1500 in 223 and 243 which have the normal pillar bed Hogue's and am happy with these - but for the ruger , decided to splurge on the full bed version.

Got to take it out to the range and see how the 130 grain Federal Premium Ballistic Tips behave with this?

Cheers
Gus

Good luck with it Gus. Remember it's only you who you need to satisfy when it comes to your stuff .

Thanks for that BSA - as long as it puts the first shot where I want it to go - all good!!!!

Gus

I guess I'm dead in the water with my hogue overmoulded then . I had to adjust after the first shot at 160 yds with my 300 wsm, the other 9 were alright though :

I own 4 of them... I like them but do not use them all the time...I sure do in bad weather tho...

Mmmmmmmmm not bad shooting at all there bsa!!!!!!

I've taken a couple off rifles that came with them. They shoot OK, but the ones with full bedding block weigh around 3 lbs. The ones with pillars weighed 2.75 lb. Not just heavy, but chunky and clunky.

For about the same money I replaced the last one with one of these www.hightech-specialties.com Shoots just as good and only weighs 1.5 lbs.

Thanks Gus, one thing that I had to do to get this thing to shoot good and consistent is skim bed and put some bedding under the chamber area (about 1"). I've heard you may have to do this to the full bedding block one too. Just something else to keep in mind. Here's what I had to do to mine, but it was well worth it:



Here's what it looked like before the bedding:


Good luck with it.

It sounds like you've already got the hogue stock but I wanted to show you what I did to my synthetic hawkeye all weather stock. I know some guys have had good luck with these things in factory form, but I tried and tried to get a good load and the best I could do was 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards with my 308 win. I glass bedded this thing and now it shoots lights out. Take a look:







[img]http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x401/chiefbsa/001-5.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x401/chiefbsa/002-4.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/x401/chiefbsa/015-1.jpg[/img]

It's also freefloated and shoots pretty good now. Didn't know if your hawkey had the wood stock on it or the synthetic but this is what I do to mine if the factory pressure (at the forend) bedding isn't working.

Ok, looks like this answers my question. Had to do a little digging though :



This is how my 308 hawkeye shoots now with the bedding modification. I know some guys here say their hawkeyes shoot this good in factory form, but I was like you and getting vertical stringing and erratic groupings before. I'm pretty pleased now since it hangs with my new SC model 70 fwt for accuracy (group shot in the rain):


Tit for tat these rifles shoot like this and up to around 1 moa when they start getting dirty ( I know most of you guys don't believe in cleaning em). These 2 are shooting the same load too which makes it very nice and convenient:

bsa,
thanks for the feedback.
Whilst i am quite a handy man, I would rather give the hogue stock to my gunsmith and get him to fit it - and ensure all is A-OK and the tension on the screws are all correct. As long as the barrel free floats thats all I want it to do. This rifle I primarily will use shooting out of my truck or sitting in a hide - hence opting for the tough as nails rubber hogue.
The gun did show vertical stringing of shots due to the barrel being in contact with the stock (with the original Ruger stock)

I will let you know how I get on - the stock should be with me in 2-3 weeks.

Gus

Sounds good Gus. I'm pretty sure you will be very happy with the hogue if that is primarily how you will be using it. I really like mine on my 300 wsm as it is very comfortable to shoot off the bench. I'm thinking it would also be great if it had a nice harris bi-pod attatched too. The full aluminum block hogue is also a better stock than the one on my pbr. Take care.

bsa,
how do you personally find the South Carolina Featherweight M70's? What calibre is yours???

Gus

Hey Gus, I love my FWT. It is a 308 win. The SC shop does them right IMHO. I didn't have to do anything to mine except for put glass on it. It's a shooter too.

Now the hawkeye that was a differnt story. I had to polish the reciever race ways, bolt and extractor, to smooth the action out. I had to bed it, freefloat the barrel and install a lighter trigger spring to get the lc6 trigger where I liked it (atleast I didn't have to hone and polish that like I do my MKII's). Now I honestly don't know which one I like better since they are both great rifles that I'd trust my life on. Can't beat either one for reliability and durability.