I bought my first brand-new hunting rifle in 30 years just the other day. It was a Ruger Hawkeye in 30-06. I bought the all-weather version and put a wood stock I already had.
I had 30 years to think about this purchase. Most of all, I wanted a rifle that would take whitetail deer out to 200 yards, and keep doing it until they have to dart me in my treestand and ship me off to the home.
1) 30 years ago my tongue was hanging out for a Rem 700 BDL. As time wore on I became less enthused.
2) I was ambivalent over CRF vs. Push-feed.
3) I really grew to like the 3-position safety on my Winchester M670.I like the Hawkeye's even better.
4) I liked the trigger on the Savage, but never liked the tang safety. The Hawkeye's trigger seems just fine.
5) I read a post on this forum a while back about how you could clean up marks on the stainless Hawkeye with a Scotch-brite pad. That sounded like my kinda rifle.
About my only beef with the Hawkeye is that they don't sell a stainless/wood combination. As it was, I found a nice lightly used stock on Gunbroker and had it waiting when the rifle arrived.
Here are some more thoughts on it, in case you missed it.
The shaman and the last 30-06 
