Groups from my new Ruger Hawkeye in 06

W

Win94

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Well after free floating the barrel this is what its shooting at 100 yards with 165 grain sst's and 168 grain Nosler balistic tips. Shots #2 and #3 touch pretty much with the 1st shot off. No matter what recipe i use it shoots this same pattern time and time again. Kind of maddening. Scope hasn't been zeroed yet. I may hunt with it as is and bed after hunting season. I also bought a 3-9x50 Elite 3200 yesterday to take scope problems outta the equation so i'll try again with the new scope.

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how fast do you shoot your groups?

have you tried shooting a five shot group with the barrel stone cold each time?
 
Looks to me that your gun doesn't like to shoot with a cold barel. Tey putting some cardboard shims under the barrel about 2" back from the forend so there is a little upward pressure and try again. Some guns just don't like to be free-floated.. My 300 ultra is like that. Went from 2" to .75" groups by putting about 5 lbs of upward pressure on the tube.

Trial and error.
 
Three shot groups are shot with maybe 10-15 seconds in between each shot then i pick up a couple other rifles and shoot them till the barrel on the Hawkeye is cool and try again.

No i haven't shot a 5 round group yet. Maybe i should load up my recipes at 5 shot at a time.
 
Not likely the scope. The pattern is too repeatable. What makes a gun accurate is the barrel vibrations...if the barrel vibrates exactly the same way, every time, the bullets will go to the same POI. In your case the barrel is vibrating differently when hot than cold...tells me either the harmonics change with temp, or the barrel sits slightly different in the stock when warm. Add more shims, take them away, tighten the action screws to different degrees....try untill it shoots the same.

Kind of a PITA to figure it out, but once you find the "sweet spot" it's all good :)
 
Have you tried it with no cardboard? Gotta try it all.

As far as the epoxy goes, yes...but thats AFTER you figure out what works (lots of pressure, no pressure, etc.)

No point is bedding over and over to figure it out. The cardboard works well to determine how much of a pressure point you need before making it permanent.
 
Actually i free floated the barrel and threw a shim in. I should try without the shim and start from scratch with just the bit of wood i took out and go from there. Finicky little #####.:D

.............good thing the range is only 7 minutes away:dancingbanana:
 
So you floated the barrel...then un-floated it with the shim without shooting it first? Yeah...you need to start over :D

Step 1: Make sure the barrel is completely floated (with action screws tight, try and slide a piece of paper under the barrel right from the forend to the reciever and remove wood as required to attain free-float. Shoot a group. This may solve your problem right there. If the three shots open again, move to step 2.

Step 2: Insert a single shim 2" from the forend, shoot a group. If it still opens up, slide the shim back another 2" and shoot another. If it still opens up go to step 3.

Step 3: Repeat step 2, only increase to 2 shims...then 3. If it shoots better with any of the above combinations of shim location/thicknesses, note the thickness and location and replicate with epoxy. If it doesn't move to step 4.

Step 4: Sell rifle to Wrong Way cheap. WW sees that based on shots 2&3 with the 168 gr. load the gun has potential to be a serious tack driver ;)
 
Are you cleaning the barrel between groups?? If so the first shot would be fouling the barrel and the POI changes with a fouled barrel. Try putting 6-8 shots through it, let it cool, then shoot for groups with a fouled barrel
 
By my experience, if the flyer is the 1st shot, the gun needs a bedding job. Someone mentioned "not liking to shoot cold", that doesn't make sense. If this was true, then it would be pretty well useless as a Canadian rifle. I wouldn't sell it either simply because it needs a bedding job. The one you buy as a replacement may not necessarily be any better.
 
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