The Last 30-06 Arrives

Thursday

Well, the shaman’s last 30-06 arrived. They called from Hibberd’s in Cleves. The rifle was in. I went over to pick it up. John slid out the box, and then it hit hit me: Exactly when did I do this last?

It’s funny, but I could not figure out exactly when was the last time I went to a store and cracked open the box on a factory-new rifle. Was it 10 years ago? 15? I finally had to shove it out of my mind, because John was looking at me wondering why I wasn’t opening the box. I stuck that question away for later.

The Ruger Hawkeye was a bit darker than I had anticipated. That is a good thing. It comes off as a medium matte gray. It is all pretty well thought out. I liked the way the safety works. It comes around and visibly fits into a notch on the the bolt. Hence, you KNOW the rifle is locked. The trigger was as perfect a fit for my technique. It was crisp, and neither too light or heavy. I peeled off a bunch of dead presidents and off I went.

Let me just add here that I have really enjoyed doing business with Hibberd Armory. John, Dave, and Becky do a super job. This is the most money I have ever plunked down on a firearm, and I really appreciated their knowledge and service.

Dang? When was the last time I walked into a gun store and bought a new rifle? I’ve purchased a bunch of stuff over the years. However, for the largest part, I have always been attracted to the odd and the old. Most of my firearms have a story before they get to me. A lot have been owned by friends. Quite a few have been re-hab projects. That is one of my favorite parts of this hobby: taking something with a mucked up stock or a missing bolt and turning it back into something useful.

It also kind of fits the rest of my life. In the beginning, I was just getting started not just in hunting and shooting, but also in my day job as a bit jockey. It was always a challenge to add to my collection and still keep in budget. Then I got married Satan, then I got kids, then I went broke divorcing Satan, then I did it all over again with KYHillChick. A rifle that did not cost much to being with, but could be re-habbed and rebuilt over a year or two kept the burn-rate down and also gave me something to do.

I had a bunch of candidates to sift through. I DID buy an nice Savage ’06 for KYHillChick back in 2006, but that wasn’t for me. It was a birthday present. There was a new Henry .22, but that was for Mooseboy. There was a Mini-14 back in 2000, but that was a not-quite-new-in-the-box off GunBroker. I finally got all the way back to 1984 and the TC Hawken I bought for myself on my 25th birthday. It was at Cincinnati Sports Headquarters in Sharonville. I still remember Jay behind the counter. The place burned down a couple years later and is now a parking lot. I found Jay at a Swallens back in the 90’s, but lost track of him after that. Yikes! How time flies!

So I got it home and got it down to the bench and started taking the Hawkeye apart. The first thing that had to go was the plastic stock. Mind you, I liked the stock. I could have probably lived with the stock, but this has been a 30-year vision quest. Out came the wooden stock I’d procured a year ago for this moment. On it went. It took a while to get it all back together. This is not your grandpa’s Mauser. The Ruger engineers are fiendish with that angled action screw. At some point, I’ll take it all back apart and relieve some of the top of the box magazine, but for show and for now, it would do.

I stood back. Yes, that would do nicely. 30 years of waiting had come to an end.

Friday

I went to Harbor Freight and procured a torque wrench, an anti-fatigue mat and a shop apron. Something told me it was going to be long day at the bench. It was the annual Tent sale, so all the Mennonites were out looking for bargains. Wow! what an unfriendly bunch! I guess living under that black hat in the hot sun does something to you. It might be that or the fact they have their suspenders too tight. I wear suspenders, but not like that. It’d make me a sourpuss too. Hey Graber! Lighten up there and let me at those gloves.

When I got home, the scope had arrived. I had found a Bushnell Elite 3-9X40 for under @$240 on Amazon. Everyone says it is the best scope out there for the money. We’ll see. I was interested in the positive comments about the ability of the scope coatings to shed rain. It would be a bit daft to buy a stainless rifle that could not go out in the rain, right? The other thing that intrigued me was the claim of 95% light transmission. This rifle will probably do the bulk of its work at last light. If this scope buys me an extra 10 minutes of hunting, I will consider it a bargain.

Saturday

I went down to the bench today, shortly after 0700. It was 1000 before I set crossed back over the moat, closed the door and told Ed, the guard, that I was coming up for a breather. In the meanwhile I had gotten a lot done.

For starters, I went to work on the magazine box. The Ruger site had this tip as an easy accuracy enhancer for M77’s:

M77 Accuracy Tip

Folks were saying a whole 1 mm, but I ground off .02″ or roughly half and tested.I took it out and blued the bottom edge, then started final assembly. It was sloppy and rattled when I first tightened the screws, but when I torqued the front screw to 92 in/ft the rattle stopped. I snugged the rear screw to 60 in/ft and . . . the magazine would not close. I backed everything out and stuck a bit of electrical tape over the catch, then repeated the process. Viola! (how did she get into this story).