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The Ruger M77 Hawkeye lineup offers something to just about anyone who wants a reliable bolt-action rifle without getting into premium pricing. The M77 range spans 13 calibers: 22-250 REM, 223 REM, 243 WIN, 204 RUGER, 7mm-08 REM, 6.5 Creedmore, 7mm REM MAG, 6.5 PRC, 375 RUGER, 30-06 SPRG, 338 WIN MAG, 300 Win and 300 Win Mag. Whew!

A key component of great design is minimizing part counts. Including every main part, screw, washer and anything else, Ruger keeps the M77s to under 50 parts. Thus, for instance, there is a one-piece stainless steel bolt and the front and back scope mounts are integrated into the upper receiver.

Somewhere there must be a giant sign at Ruger that reads “Let’s design something for everyone…” because Ruger lineups are expansive and reach easily into so many niches.

The Hunter, Long Range Hunter and Long Range Target groups come standard with a 20 MOA Picatinny rail that bridges the scope mount bases above the extractor. This makes perfect sense given the extraordinary vision of hawks and other raptors giving this lineup its name.

Some M77s have the beautiful radial-port Ruger Muzzle Brake. These come with a thread protector for when the muzzle brake is not in use.

These guns have a non-rotating, Mauser-style round feed extractor that gives the user tremendous control over how forcefully (and how far!) spent cases are ejected. The bolt arm ends in a classic round knob. Behind the bolt sleeve is the three-position (FIRE, LOAD-UNLOAD, SAFE) safety selector.

The floorplate latch is on the trigger guard’s front face. Of course, the hinged steel floorplate is just in front of it.

Some of the guns come with spacer pads to adjust length-of-pull. Behind them is the recoil pad, attached via two screws to the rest of the stock with any spacer pads in between. They also have two swivel-studs.

Most M77 Hawkeyes feature an LC6 trigger that’s factory set to 4.0 to 4.5 pounds of trigger pull. In all cases, the 5R rifled barrels are cold hammer-forged and free-floated. Let’s look at the groups:

The standard Hunter group has 22” and 24” barrels, reddish American walnut stocks, matching red rubber buttpads that integrate beautifully with the stock, and satin finish stainless steel barrels. They are threaded and have both left-hand and right-hand models. The FTW Hunters have hardwood stocks with Natural Gear camo.

The Long Range Hunter moves up to 26” barrels, 48.5” overall lengths and fully adjustable speckled black/brown polymer laminate stocks. The cheek rest is adjustable for height and can also be adjusted back and forth. This group uses boxes magazines that range in 3-round mags for the 6.5 PRC to 10-round ones for 6.5 Creedmore, 204 Ruger, 308 Winchester with the 5-round 308 Winchester Magnum slotting in between.

The shortest of the groups are the Ruger Hunter Compacts. These come in a wooden stock or black laminate stock and feature 16.5” barrels, 12.5 length of pull, 35.5” overall length and weights ranging from 5.7 to 6.2 pounds.

The Hunter African group features 23” long blued barrels fronted by the radial-port Ruger Muzzle Brake, American walnut stocks, 44.88” overall lengths and a 7.8 to 8.0 pound weight. They couple a white bead elevated front sight with a shallow V-notch windage adjustable rear sight located mid-gun instead of further back as is usual. The forward swivel stud mounts under a barrel band, but the forend is drilled so you can also add an optional third stud.

The Hunter Alaskan lineup echoes the African Hunters but uses a matte stainless 20” barrel, black polymer Hogue overmolded stock, measures 42” long and weighs 8.0 to 8.1 pounds depending on caliber. Otherwise the sights, studs and muzzle brake are identical.

Hunter Predators have stainless steel 22” or 24” barrels, corresponding 42” or 44” lengths, Green Mountain laminate stocks, two-stage triggers in lieu of the standard LC6), etc. There are five models in this group, but the last one differs by having a spacer-adjustable length of pull. It has a 24” barrel, but an overall length that’s 43.25” to 44.75”. This series weighs 7.7 to 8.1 pounds.

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