Ruger Hawkeye African Part II

06/29/2020

Crazy days. First there was an unidentified intruder that dug a two foot deep hole in the midst of the tomato plants. Then, while at the top of a twenty five foot ladder killing wasps, the wand blew out from the hose that was carrying high concentrations of commercial grade insecticide under 40 psi of line pressure. I ended up wearing most of the contents from the fifty gallon chemical tank attached to the tractor.

On the bright side, the tomato plants were not at all harmed by the midnight marauder and, I suspect, bodily absorption of highly toxic chemicals will probably render me bug free for the duration of the summer.

The Ruger Hawkeye African. The rifle that makes me smile…

I have no idea where the future of firearms lies, or even stands or sits in the future as my interest resides in the past. The Ruger Hawkeye, despite its very modern design refinements, improved materials, computer controlled precision machinery, and greatly enhanced manufacturing processes, is still a progression of the classic bolt action design. Even the walnut stock remains with improved geometry, capped and tipped with black ebony, clean checkering and classic blued alloy steel barreled action.

For the most part, factory rifles are shipped incomplete, specifically without a sight system. The Ruger Hawkeye, with its quality metallic sight set, can be taken to the range with a couple of boxes of factory ammo, sighted in, shot for proficiency, and then taken hunting.

Still, I like to fiddle with things…

The 6.5×55 Swedish, with 57 grains of H2O capacity, is not a small cartridge. In fact, it has greater capacity than the 6.5 Creedmoor (54 grains) and 260 Remington (53 grains). Relatively sharp shoulders, and with a modest amount of body taper, the 6.5×55 Swede is quite a hot rod for an 1894 design.

What subordinates the cartridge to the others noted, is its low SAAMI MAP of 51,000 PSI compared to 62,000 PSI for the Creedmoor and 60,000 for the 260 Remington. There is no deficiency in the cartridge or the Ruger that warrants this low pressure level. It was created as a ceiling to assure safe operation in the 1894 Swedish military Mauser. Much of the data below increases pressure levels closer to the 58,000 to 60,000 level and is no suitable for use in older firearms, certainly not the pre 1900 Swedish Mauser.

I mentioned in a Facebook post that hundreds of rounds are required to develop safe and useful handloads for a single cartridge with range of bullets. For each bullet, there are tests for power types, then tests for charge levels, then tests for accuracy and then enough repetitions of each test must be run to substantiate results. The process may seem tedious but, in my view, it is essential. I don’t use data people send me, I don’t use social media sources and I am definitely the guy who really begins with minimum loads presented in a manual and then work up from there.

Sometimes old methods of determining excess pressure by chronograph readings, dimensional changes to brass and visual inspection for classic symptoms of excess pressure are employed. Sometimes pressure is checked with a strain gauge and sometimes with a universal receiver, test barrel and piezo transducer. The latter reserved for longer term cartridge load research and follow on production. In this case, it is more VFR than IFR navigation.

Closing note, it is true that social media, rifle with engineers, have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that classic symptoms of high pressure are not valid; flat primers, hard extraction, excessive velocity, odd report, excessive case head diameter increases above the rim….. I am sure they are correct, but I can’t figure out why all of the major component manufacturers, the guys who design the pieces and carry the responsibility still include all of those classic symptoms in the trouble shooting section of their manuals and in their online presences.

All I know is that if you shoot enough rounds with pressure checking equipment or over a chronograph, and closely inspect fired casings, you will be able to hear, feel and probably smell excessive pressure and you will find that the old indicators are still very valid.

Some assembly required

I have long been an admirer of Joliet Jake Blues’s explanation to the Mystery Woman, as to why he was a no show at their wedding. Laying in a puddle, in a sewer, with Mystery Woman holding him at gun point, the end of a long pursuit, he looked up at her with schmutz on his face and a feigned look of innocence he said –

“I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tire. I didn’t have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN’T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!”

In Part 1, I committed to generating original data for nine bullets for the 6.5×55 Swedish. So please see the preceding. Alternatively, I bit off more than I could chew in light of the project schedule and had to reduce the count to six. In context, the six selected are more suited to the Ruger Hawkeye African. The other three were specialized match bullets and not really applicable to a hunting rifle, even if an accurate hunting rifle…. I SWEAR TO GOD!.