I carried a .416 Ruger M77 Hawkeye Guide Gun around a shop for about an hour with the intent to buy it. Then, like your own ideas, I decided that it just wasn't QUITE the right rifle that I wanted - and that "Lamo Camo" stock was part of my motivation. Adding it up in my head, saving money on the base rifle for my semi-custom build was what makes the most sense...

So instead of buying the Guide Guns...

I bought two Ruger M77 Hawkeye All-Weathers in 300win mag and 7mm Rem Mag (stainless & synthetic), have a cheap economy grade walnut stock from Richards Micro-Fit gunstocks that I'm revamping as a pattern stock to get a pair of exhibition grade English walnuts duplicated by Macon Gunstocks. I have Shilen barrels getting spun up in #5 profile. Between the bedding, the dense walnut stocks, and the heavier barrel profile, I should bump these rifles that tip in just under 8lbs right now to right around 10lbs before the scopes.

Sure going to be a lot more expensive than the Guide Gun would have been, but I was after a custom/semi-custom build for these rifles. Blueprinting and setting the barrels back on the Guide Gun would have cost me some length also, since I'd have had to turn a full turn due to the rear sight being sweated AND screwed.

If I find myself with about a grand burning a hole in my pocket, I may need to buy an M77 Hawkeye someday soon too, but for now, I'm looking for a more classically styled set of safari rifles.

A friend of mine has a .416Rug Guide Gun, been over the pond twice with it and taken some very respectable game with it. Everything I have seen out of the .416Ruger is that it lives up to what it claims to be - a standard length action version of the .416Rigby or Rem Mag. Equally, the Ruger M77 Hawkeye Guide Gun, for what it is - meaning a fast handling, immensely powerful, budget-friendly safari rifle, is everything that it should be. I'd highly recommend it. Boyd's does a walnut drop-in stock for the M77, as does Richard's Micro-Fit gunstocks, either of these can be had for $70-200.