.338 Federal Ruger Hawkeye Factory Repair

I recently sent my Ruger Hawkeye .338 Federal bolt action rifle back to the Ruger folks in New Hampshire. I had not shot the rifle much in the last two years and did start again to have some trouble with cycling the bolt and feeding cartridges into the chamber. This occurred mainly with the Federal 210 grain Nosler partition factory loads. I had taken the rifle to a local gunsmith when I first purchased it to lighten the trigger and check to see if there were any feeding problems with the gun. IF I lead any readers astray with my initiall post some time ago about no apparent feeding problems, I APOLOGIZE. As mentioned I did not do a lot of shooting with the rifle and probably should have before announcing mine did not have a problem. IF you own a Hawkeye .338 Federal and you are having bolt cycling and feeding problems, Ruger will absolutely take care of it and it will cost you nothing including shipping both ways.

Contact:

Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc
411 Sunapee St.
Newport, NH 03773
603-865-2442
(Have your model and serial number available when you call as they will assign an RMA number to your order and they will email you a shipping label as they pick up the charge both ways for UPS.)

I did a couple of range sessions after purchasing the rifle  mostly with the Federal 200 grain fusion load. I didn't have any recurring problems till I started running the 210 grain Nosler Partitions through it. In any event based on reading the gun forums and realizing that there were some real issues with the Hawkeye series rifles in .338 Federal, I decided to ship the gun to Ruger to take a look at it.

I was very impressed with the whole process. They had the gun approximately two weeks. They sent me by email a shipping label and an RMA number to identify the gun while it was in their possession. they paid the shipping both there and back so it ended up costing me zero.

Notes included in the box with the rifle which arrived yesterday indicated they had replaced the existing trigger with a NEW LC6 trigger, NEW sear, NEW spring, NEW stock screws, repaired feed ramp, rails, bolt and trigger pull is at 3.5-4 LBS.

They then test fired the rifle at their range with NO mention of the distance involved. The photo copy of the range target indicated that Federal 185 grain factory load was used and it shows a nice tight 3 shot clover leaf group.

There was also a note which solves the mystery on at least the front stock screw. The note indicates "THE FRONT MOUNTING SCREW SHOULD BE TORQUED TO 95 INCH POUNDS".

This for me solves the dilemma of endless opinions on line concerning the tightness of the front screw. As mentioned previously my Wheeler Fat Wrench only goes to a MAX of 65 inch pounds and I was getting 3/4 inch groups with the Factory fusion load at 75 yards at last testing. I have never tried the Federal 185 grain load, however may make the switch based on their attached target.

I will likely NOT mess with the factory setting and for the most part have NO need to remove the barreled action from the stock anyway. I will leave that alone.

Observations:

It appears the feed ramp has been polished, along with the rails, and a note of the bolt being repaired without any specifics.

I have NOT been to the range and likely will not get there till after deer season in NYS. I did cycle 8 rounds of the Nosler 210 grain Partitions through the action without incident and noticed that the rounds sit in the magazine better and snap into place smartly which they did not do previously.

The trigger is more than okay and has no over travel and is very crisp. I am happy with the work they have done and the professionalism and courteous folks I talked to at the repair center.

I have remounted the Bushnell 3X9X40 elite 3200 scope and am anxious to get back to the range and do some accuracy testing off the bench. (CLICK on the target photo to enlarge and read the note concerning 95 inch pounds of torque on the front mounting screw)

Dan