Ruger Hawkeye 30-06: Short Throat Question

[Bill J H]

I picked up a 2009 mfg Ruger Hawkeye 30-06 today. It’s in pristine condition, but it has been shot.
I was about to load some of my standard “new ‘06 loads”, but when I measured to find the lands, I noted the throat was very short. (I use a Hornady OAL gauge.)
For instance, I’m shooting Sierra 165gr SBT and the book says the OAL is 3.320. However, I hit the lands at 3.286.
Looking at the data for my other ‘06s, the lands were always past the 3.320. This is the first gun over ever had that had such a short throat.

Question - I was curious if any of yall have had a gun with a shorter than normal throat?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Schüler Jumbo]

Yes, a Savage chambered .338 Lapua and a Remington 700 Sendero chambered .264 Win Mag. No big deal; I handloaded dummy rounds for the bullets I wanted to use and went to my gunmaker and had the throats lengthened to my specification. Worked out perfectly.

 

[deewayne2003]

My 1999 77MKII .270 was not short throat but didn’t have much to spare and was incredibly accurate.

I think people make distance to lands a bigger headache than deserved.

 

[Bill J H]

Although I was a little concerned about the short throat, I’m pretry happy with the rifle’s performance this afternoon. Just under an inch using an old, vanilla, starting load that I’ve used on other 06s in the past.
(165gr Sierra Spitzer BT; 56gr H-4350; Lapua case; CCI-200 primers)

With the “potential” it showed today, I’m optimistic that I can stroke it a while and find out what it really likes.

I’m 2gr under book max, so I have a lot of room to work with. I’m 20 thousandths off the lands, so room to move there as well. However, for this gun I think I’ll develop a 180 or 200gr “Thumper” and top it with a Leupold VX-6HD, 1-6x24 Patrol.
My 308s have the 165gr market pretty much cornered…

 

[Schüler Jumbo]

The main issue with a short throat occurs when the rifleman wants to employ heavy for caliber bullets or longer length bullets designed for long range shooting or monometal bullets that because of the short throat have to be seated deep into the case invading powder capacity space.

 

[leslie hetrick]

i had a ruger #1 in 45-70 that was short and would not take a 525 gr postol bullet. but i have a older ruger #3 in 45-70 that will.

 

[AZDAVE]

You can have a gunsmith take a throating reamer and lengthen the throat.

 

[Bill J H]

Thanks for the suggestion; I think I may do that.

 

[ldmay375]

I cannot say that I have short throated ones, because I have not checked nor hand-loaded for all of them. But, I do have 4 rifles in 325 WSM, 2ea Kimber Montana's and 2ea M70 Classics that have 3 different throat lengths. Loading for one of the Kimbers allowing for some bullet jump will not work for the other 3 with 200 grain TSX.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I picked up a 2009 mfg Ruger Hawkeye 30-06 today. It’s in pristine condition, but it has been shot.
I was about to load some of my standard “new ‘06 loads”, but when I measured to find the lands, I noted the throat was very short. (I use a Hornady OAL gauge.)
For instance, I’m shooting Sierra 165gr SBT and the book says the OAL is 3.320. However, I hit the lands at 3.286.
Looking at the data for my other ‘06s, the lands were always past the 3.320. This is the first gun over ever had that had such a short throat.

Question - I was curious if any of yall have had a gun with a shorter than normal throat?

Thanks in advance.

@Bill J H
Easy fix just take it to your local smith and get the throat lengthened to your needs.
Bob