Ruger's Hawkeye® FTW Hunter 6.5 PRC

04/28/2024 – Thursday and Friday were allocated to motorcycle riding classes. I owe it to myself, and the public to work at regaining and gaining proficiency, so I have signed up for a progression of rider classes. It is easy to go fast on an interstate highway or twisty mountainous road. However, low speed maneuvering and precision take a good deal of work to get rid of the wobbles, nose diving and somewhat exciting, right foot down stops.

Life has been surreal, as the motorcycle training days are sandwiched between hearing aid fitting, and diabetes management counseling. Is incongruous a word? Still, despite doctors visits, I’m in pretty good health. Oh, substitute “because of” in place of “despite” and then it makes a lot of sense.

I haven’t really done much with my life over the past two years. I was slow to process but, eventually, I came to the conclusion there is just me now. Which leads to the question of purpose, and to the understanding that decision making reside solely with me. That makes me feel like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming car.

There is a developing logic, I suppose. I ride a motorcycle, I take classes, I extend my riding reach and, eventually, I will think of a riding destination… and that becomes my purpose. In the mean time, Corrina is the beautiful, but expensive girlfriend I can ill afford,.

The first day of motorcycle riding class was not without irony. The first exercise was straddling and duck walking a 600 pound Harley Davidson over a fifty yard stretch, engine off, and then turning the bike around in an abbreviated space as each lap was completed. This was done four time, or for two hundred yards in total. Then four more times with the engine at idle and the clutch in.

I can only assume they think everyone in the class owns a Harley, and is familiar with this type of activity as routine.

Ruger’s Hawkeye® FTW Hunter

Ruger introduced the Hawkeye Hunter FTW rifle in 2016. The model was designed in collaboration with the instructors at the Sportsman’s All-Weather, All-Terrain Marksmanship school. The school is located at the FTW Ranch in Barksdale, TX.

The FTW Hunter has seen several changes since its introduction, with the current iteration the best, even if the changes are subtle. Gone is the heavy, camouflage painted, laminated hardwood stock, unsightly plastic length of pull spacers, and odd recoil pad.

Replacing the laminated stock is a Pro-Series® H-S Precision® tan-black speckled synthetic stock. Over the years, the term “composite” has become synonymous with any type of synthetic stock, even if it is just molded plastic. The H-S Precision stock is an actual composite.

The Pro-Series H-S Precision stock is built around a full length, 7075 aluminum bedding block, which is at the center of the molding process. For strength and durability, Kevlar, fiberglass and carbon fiber are hand laminated to the sides of the mold, and then the mold is injected with dense polyurethane foam.

At 2 lbs 7 oz., the resulting stock is an ideal balance of strength and light weight. How well do they hold up? I have the same model stock on a lightweight 375 Ultra Mag that really takes a recoil beating, but shows no associated signs of wear and tear… even if I do.

The included 20 MOA Picatinny rail positions a scope for long range shooting by keeping elevation adjustment closer to mid point. The rail is secured with four, #8-40 screws, however, the receiver is scalloped to accept Ruger proprietary rings that are available at Shop Ruger.

For folks looking for a more traditional appearance in a hunting rifle, Ruger also offers a non-FTW Hunter with walnut stock, bright stainless and one less round capacity resulting from the slightly different stock profile. This model has been previously covered on Real Guns®.

Making a sort story shorter… The Table

 Hey, weight a minute…

OK, Joe. So if the stock is so light, why does the standard walnut stocked model weigh 15 oz less!..!! Well, the magazine well, under the hinged floorplate is deeper, and the magazine box is larger to hold more rounds but, I’d guess, most of the additional  weight is tied up in the 2″ of additional barrel length and slightly heavier barrel profile. In any event, for a rifle made for long range shooting, the weight gain isn’t noticeable.

Things I have said before, many times, but for those just joining us…

The Ruger Hawkeye Predator, with its full length, non rotating extractor is a controlled round feed design.Controlled round feed is an alternative to push feed found in rifles such as the Remington 700, Weatherby Mark V and Savage 110.

When a cartridge is picked up from the internal magazine, the round’s rim is guided into and secured against the flat bolt face by the extractor claw and the slot in the top bolt lug. Regardless the position or angle of the rifle, the rounds position and travel are always… controlled. Driven by the bolt, push feed actions float the cartridge from magazine to chamber and have some reliance on gravity and firearm position and angle to feed reliably.

The Ruger Hawkeye, with its full length non rotating extractor, is a controlled round feed design. Controlled round feed is an alternative to the push feed Ruger American Rifle, and other manufacturers push feed product. Bolt lift is 90°.

When a cartridge is picked up from the internal magazine, the round’s rim is guided into and secured against the flat bolt face by the extractor claw and the slot in the top bolt lug. Regardless the position or angle of the rifle, the rounds position and travel are always… controlled. Driven by the bolt, push feed type actions float the cartridge from magazine to chamber, and have some reliance on gravity and firearm position and angle when cycling.

The Hawkeye FTW Hunter has a hinged floorplate, which is convenient for unloading without having to cycle every round out with bolt operation. Magazine capacity at four rounds is good. The 6.5 PRC is another 375 Ruger derivative cartridge and, subsequently, has a comparatively large diameter. Compared to what? Compared to the 30-06 Springfield cartridge family.

 

The LC6 trigger is non-customer adjustable. I don’t care. Pull is hunting rifle light, let off is clean, creep and overtravel are virtually non-existent. About twenty years ago, I stopped fiddling with trigger adjustment, or doing trigger jobs on personal rifles, because it was less work to adapt to each rifle. Practice, practice, etc..

The 5/8″-24 muzzle end threads come in handy. Personally, I use a silencer whenever possible. Even if report is not silenced, the db reduction takes the audible stress away and better preserves my hearing. The Ruger Hawkeye FTW Hunter comes with a brake, thread protector and weight that simulated brake mass at the end of the barrel.

Ruger Options…

In a moment, I will begin rattling on about the 6.5 PRC. It is an interesting cartridge I like handloading and shooting. That said, the benefits associated with the Ruger Hawkeye FTW Hunter can also be enjoyed in 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm PRC, 308 Winchester, 300 Winchester Magnum, and 375 Ruger. The 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC and 308 Winchester Magnum are also available in left hand version.

If you are not familiar, Ruger builds rifles on a cyclical basis. So any one of these configuration could be listed as “Available”, “Limited Availability”, or “Not Available” at some point in time, and this status is constantly changing. When a product is discontinued, it is removed completely from the online listings.

The resident hawk… Views can be distracting

My office looks out onto my front yard. Heavily wooded other than a modest front lawn and garden, there are always lots of song birds and humming birds perched in the Japaneses maple or crab apple trees located not far from the window.

We also have a resident peregrine falcon that is not shy. Sometimes its presence is a little distracting in the form of a fly over shadow, or shedding a dove in B horror movie fashion. It certainly keeps the rodent count down. Today’s air show has been no exception. OK, back to work.

The littlest PRC

Other PRC cartridges, like the 300 PRC and 7mm PRC have a capacity that is very close to their corresponding belted magnum counterparts, the 300 Win Mag and 7mm Rem Mag respective. The 6.5 PRC, however, with 68 grains of capacity, is closer to that of the 6.5×284 or 6.5-06, rather than the 82 grain capacity 264 Win Mag. Based on its case geometry, it is more of a 6.5 Creedmoor Magnum.

There was a time when people writing about cartridges would refer to the 6.5mm caliber as oddball, which was clearly a misnomer. Beyond the myriad of 6.5 military cartridges, there are a healthy number of 6.5mm cartridges with a civilian bent.

Photographing cartridge is always hit or miss. Usually, one case is reflected in another, making for a messy look, or the ceiling is reflected as black at the shoulder. Not bad this time, using a white bounce panel, and fortuitous luck. The two studio lights are still in the reflection.

Left – Right in case capacity order: 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Remington, 6.5×55 Swedish, 6.5×284 Norma, 6.5 PRC, 264 Winchester Magnum.

For out and out 6.5mm reach, the .264 Winchester Magnum still reigns supreme. Despite the criticisms it received when introduced in the Winchester Model 70 Westerner in 1959, it is a heck of a cartridge. It did take a while for bullets of adequate structural integrity to catch up.

I have owned several from different manufacturers, and they all performed admirably. They were also loud, a tad harsh in recoil, and it took a good deal of powder to generate its velocity edge over others. By comparison, the 6.5 PRC produced approximately 260 fps more muzzle velocity than the 6.5 Creedmoor, without bringing .264 Win Mag level of bad habits along with it.

Like the 6.5 Creedmoor, the 6.5 PRC has developed a reputation for long range match competition in the seven years it has been in production. To what degree has it garnered popularity? Where the 6.5 Creedmoor is backed by ninety seven factory loads, the 6.5 PRC has twenty seven available, about a 50-50 split as match or hunting ammunition. The 264 Winchester Magnum has dwindled to six factory loads.

Performance? Yikes!

Berger 156 Grain Elite Hunter
Near-Zero – yards.		27		Mid Range – yards.		144
Far-Zero – yards.		256		Max Ordinate – “		+3.0
Point Blank – yards.		273

Yards		0	100	200	300	400	500	600	700	800	900	1000
Velocity – fps		2960	2815	2675	2539	2407	2280	2156	2037	1922	1811	1703
Energy – ft.-lbs.		3034	2745	2478	2233	2007	1800	1611	1437	1279	1136	1005
Momentum – lbs-sec		66	63	60	57	54	51	48	45	43	40	38
Path – “		-1.50	2.57	2.25	-2.93	-13.50	-30.08	-53.35	-84.10	-123.23	-171.79	-230.97
Drift – “		0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Time Of Flight – sec.		0.00	0.10	0.21	0.33	0.45	0.58	0.71	0.86	1.01	1.17	1.34

No, I am not suggesting the 6.5 PRC be used for elk plinking at 1000 yards. I just wanted to illustrate the effects of a 0.655 ballistic coefficient ahead of 2960 muzzle velocity. For 273 yards, the bullet would rise no more than 3″ above line of sight or fall below. Even at 400 yards, best zero put drop at only 13.5″.

22″ barrel versus 24″ barrel

I wanted to see what sort of difference they FTW’s additional 2″ of barrel over the standard Hunter barrel, so I left handload data as previously developed.

Warning: Bullet selections are specific, and loads are not valid with substitutions of different bullets of the same weight. Variations in bullet length will alter net case capacity,  pressure and velocity. Primer selection is specific and primer types are not interchangeable. These are maximum loads in my firearms and may be excessive in others. All loads should be reduced by 5% as a starting point for development where cartridges have greater than 40 grains in capacity and 10% for cartridges with less than 40 grain capacity following safe handloading practices as represented in established mainstream reloading manuals. Presentation of these loads does not constitute a solicitation for their use, nor a recommendation.

It looks like the 2″ barrel pickup was 100 +/- fps. That is significant for the long range shooter although, for anything but extreme range, the 22″ barrel would seem fine, and it would cut almost 1 full pound from rifle weight.

There are many more component combinations for the 6.5 PRC. As indicated earlier, these combination were selected only to compare this 24″ barrel rifle with 22″ barrel results.

Overall

Nice rifle, good cartridge, suitable for virtually any thin skinned North American game including elk and moose. Definitely a combination with a good deal of reach, but without the handicaps of heavy recoil or muzzle blast prevalent with larger magnums.