A couple of days ago I stumbled onto a small gunshop that had three (count'em, three!) LH Mark II's and Hawkeyes. All were pretty nice to my eyes, like perhaps someone had scoped and sighted them in but never hunted them One was a .300 WM which had no interest to me but the other two were .30-06's, one a walnut/blue Mark II, the other a laminate/stainless Hawkeye. I didn't jump on them since I knew about the NIB ones from Bud's, which of course are gone now. Classic case of Snooze-Ya-Lose.

Anyway, after comparing their prices to Gunbroker, I'm thinking the 06's I looked at were reasonable and am debating going back for one.

My question is this, is the laminate Hawkeye particularly more desirable than the walnut Mark II? Wood on the Mark II was nothing special, kind of normal for Ruger these days. Utility of the the Laminate/Stainless is obvious, is the LC6 trigger really much better than the older ones?

I have both and here is my take...

The Hawkeyes have better stocks and triggers, the MKII's have better metal finish in my opinion.Other than that, the floor plate is the only other difference I can see. Aluminum on the MkII and laser etched steel on the Hawkeye.

My elk rifle is a SS MKII, 30-06 (lefty of course) in a Hawkeye stock with a trigger job.

SS Hawkeyes in standard calibers have been gone for a while and getting harder to find , if you want one and find one I would buy it.

Like the look of a SS Hawkeye in a wood stock, cant warm up to the weight and look of the laminate. But they are stable and shoot well. Bought an xtra LH wood Hawkeye stock and swapped out the laminate in a LH 270 Win Hawkeye, very nice looking and shooting rifle.

I have several of each LH MK2 and LH Hawkeyes , My favorite 06 is a LH MK 2 SS, Bead Blast finish, in a RH Rimrock stock converted to LH. Prefer it to my LH Win 70 in 06 with same stock.

The Dude summed up the differences. The MK 2 action seems smoother to me ,than my Hawkeyes, which also has been used more. So that smoother action may be due to more use. The trigger on the MK 2 can be easily fixed to be the equal of the Hawkeye, but the Hawkeye is usually just a spring change.

Having said all that the Ruger American will usually out shoot both without any drama or mods.

I have two of them, both laminate / stainless. Both stocks cracked right at the tang. One is a 375 the other is a 308.

to avoid cracking stock especially on the 375: bedding works well.

laminated stock are heavy but they work great on even a 30-06.

I just found a lefty stainless laminate Hawkeye in 25-06 and snapped it up. Needed a twin to my blued walnut one. If anyone is interested there's also a lefty 300 win mag there too. Cypress creek range in Florence Alabama. Also on gunbroker.