Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Ruger Hawkeye Feeding Problem

I'm having issues with a Ruger 77 Hawkeye in .358 Winchester. It ejects the spent case without problems, but the cartridge being fed from the magazine will sometimes jam against the back of the barrel instead of going into the chamber.

I thought it might be caused by my handloads -- a 200 grain Hornady roundnosed bullet seated to the cannaluer. So, I made up a couple of dummy rounds to try. Well, if you work the bolt slowly, all the geometry looks good and the round feeds cleanly into the chamber every time. But if you work the bolt sharply, as you would in a rapid-fire situation, the round will sometimes jam. It seems to be happening only when a round is feeding from the right side of the magazine, but I can't say that for sure that it will never occur when feeding from the left side.

I had this malfunction once on the range and dismissed it as an anomaly. But this past weekend, it happened BOTH times I was shooting in the field. That was either coincidence or perhaps the cold temperature had aggravated the problem -- it was around freezing.

If anyone has had this problem, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Also, if you know of a gunsmith who tunes Ruger 77's, that would be helpful. Thanks.

Same as my 25.06 Hawkeye . The top right 5th cartridge jams against the end of the barrel at about the 11 oclock position I thought it was the extra length of the Ballistic tips, I will try Rem corelokt 100 gn next week regards to all from Australia

My .308 feed flawlessly!

Try moving your magazine spring where it slides in to the underside of the follower.
Sometimes minor feeding issues are caused by the spring shifting.

Also, a weak spring can cause feeding issues.

Once this is eliminated as a possible cause you might want to contact the factory.

They will advise you against using hand loads in the first place but might have further advice for a quick fix.

BTW
I can't get 220 gr RN loads to feed at all from my Remington 721.

Spitzers feed fine though.

Where did you buy your 358 at? I have been looking for an
outlet chain that handles them, but cant find anything.
I thought Bass Pro or Sportsman Warehouse would have them
but no luck.

Jericho, I ordered it through Reed's in Walker Minnesota back in January. I saw it on the Ruger website and jumped on one.

Nice gun in a great caliber. Gotta get this feeding thing worked out though.

I experienced more or less the same thing with a Ruger in 223. It doesn't really "control" the round until it's been pushed for a half inch or so, and that sometimes gives the round time to nose dive or lift off or in some other manner not be aligned straight.

The long action Rugers seem to feed better IMO. The easy cure is get a nice Winchester FWT.

It seems that rifle samples from EVERY brand occasionally have feeding problems, usually when things aren't put together quite right. That seems to be the case with both push-feed and CRF actions.

I had problems recently with a used Winchester M70 CRF Featherweight in .280 Remington. It was made in the 1990s and had been mostly residing in a safe before I purchased it. The jamming was similar to what you've described with your Ruger. Go slow and things were fine. Go fast and things too-often hung up.

My gunsmith cured it with a stiffer follower spring. You might try that. My Featherweight now sings.

When things don't work, don't bitch, don't bash, just fix it. It's easier on your heart.

Already sold the Ruger; back to using my Win FWT pushfeed again, which has never bobbled a round in decades of use.

My CZ 550 had a feeding problem when I first got it. Turned out to be the magazine spring was not seated all the way back in the follower. A little time gave me a better understanding of my gun, and cured the problem.

These things are not assembled by old world craftsmen anymore, we are not willing to pay for that type of quality assurance.

About thirty percent of my guns gave other people problems. Only one, a model 60 Marlin, gives me any problems, and often the only issue was the failure of people to clean their gun. This includes removing all factory applied lubricants and starting over.

Could be. I've got a couple of long-action FWT's. The '90's vintage .270 has never failed to feed. I've also got a Custom Shop '06 built in about 2004 that will occasionally misfeed in the same way as this Ruger, except from the left side of the magazine! I'm beginning to suspect that CRF may be a better system in theory, when properly executed, but that push-feed is the better way to go when manufacturing cost dictates a minimum of skilled handwork. Also, I too have noticed that short-action CRF actions are really more of a "somewhat controlled-round feeding" action.

I concur, that if you want a cheap action that is easy to feed, pushing is the way to go. CRFs seem to need tuning to find their full potential.

PM Redneck and get his input. I have a MK II .243 that will do it IF I seat the bullets out too far (even thought they aren't too long for the magazine. Maybe the rond nosed bullets are the problem.