Muskeg, looks great, but get that poor rifle some irons for a pre-rut present!
My setup for this sort of thing is a New Haven Classic Stainless in 9.3x62 with NECG front sight, Talley QDs with their peep sight, and a Leupold 2-7 with custom dots out to 400 yards for 286gr Noslers at 2400. It's in a McMillan but for the purposes of this thread factory plastic likely is just as good. What I like about this set up is reliability, ruggedness, and accuracy, in that order. My rifle gets used year round for hunting and bear protection. It's a fishing, hiking, berry picking, camping, trapping, hunting rifle. It gets rained on, dunked in salt water, frozen, fallen on, rubbed on rocks, used as a hiking staff, and so on. It's never failed me and I don't expect it to. It's 50/50 between the scope and peep sight. I think the Hawkeye/77 is equally suitable for these purposes.
I have an '06 and a .375 with the same set up. The only difference is these two have factory front sight ramps.
Someone here referred to Ruger Americans as "backyard rifles" I agree and would include most other rifles made these days in that category. I own some of them, but I don't count on them for real use as my primary rifle for where I live and the places I go.
