I have been on a hunt for a Ruger Hawkeye Compact Magnum in .308. I came across something that will fill its shoes.
A near-pristine early production M77 RS tang safety .308 made in 1970.
https://imgur.com/LQ8LfyuThis one has the flat bolt handle. As far as I could tell when I bought it, the rifle had never been shot. The only wear to my eyes is the polishing on the bolt handle which was well done. I will be reblueing it.
It has been to the range twice now to shoot groups. It shot regular 150 gr 7.62 fmj into 3," 180gr soft point handloads into 1.5" and 165gr soft point handloads into 1.25," and perhaps most shocking, it shot 170gr rnsp (30-30 bullets) into 3/4 an inch. All 5 shot groups, all medium loads of Varget.
It shoots and handles like a dream.
I do wish it were CRF like the modern M77s but this rifle is so cool I don't care all that much. I will be doing more testing on it and may free float and bed later. I also may not because it shoots fine as is.
Perhaps the best part about this rifle, however, is that I picked it up for far less than half the cost of a new standard Hawkeye.
It is topped with a 1979 production Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x36, another low-priced classified find.
