Originally Posted by human_pine_tree
Thanks for all the suggestions! The Ruger Hawkeye is a cool gun. I've only owned a push-feed rifle, so just running the action on a Hawkeye is kind of fun. There's a wood-stocked 270 Hawkeye at a local gun store that my wife always says is "pretty." I'm always pleased with my one-inch groups with my Howa (it might be normal to you guys but I feel proud of myself every time), so I'm hesitant to purchase a rifle that will cause me to doubt my abilities by being less accurate. Whether it's fair or not, the overwhelming impression I get with the Ruger is that it's "accurate enough for hunting" but not to expect much more than that.

As far as the calibers go, the 30-06 is appealing. I've shot 30-06 rifles before and wasn't left traumatized. I've never shot a magnum of any kind - I will need to make some magnum-shooting friends and see if I'm man enough!




Some Rugers out of the box are fine some need some tinkering or hand loading to get 1” groups. The Tikka is guaranteed to be more accurate out of the box.