One of the very first centrefire rifles I purchased as a budding young deerstalker was a brand-new Ruger M77 MkII in .308. I dragged that rifle around big Southland beech forest, Central Otago tops and even Stewart Island for some years. First introduced in 1989, the sleek lines of the classic stock, smart cut checkering, controlled round feed and three-position safety were all top-notch features. Priced as absolute value, the M77 MkII was a standout in pointability and cartridge-feeding reliability.
In 2006, the MkII Hawkeye model was introduced – featuring Ruger’s LC6 trigger and a slightly different stock contour, the rifle was true to its original design. Fast forward to 2024 and the latest Hawkeye model, designated the Hunter, turned up in .308 for review. Immediate impressions were that little had changed in the 20 years since I’d purchased my original wood-blued model, and so this really was a ‘Back to the Future’ feeling.
With Ruger American model rifles featuring heavily in hunting camps around New Zealand, their value-packed, no-nonsense reliability and enviable accuracy had set a solid benchmark for comparison against the more-expensive-to-manufacture MkII action that the Hawkeye uses.
Let’s have a look at the Hawkeye Hunter in detail – a rifle best described as a facelift to the original MkII.
