Already done a ton of looking at other brands like Savage, Remington, ect........

It's taken me months just to narrow my choices down to the Hawkeye and the Medallion.

The A-Bolts are REALLY hard to find anywhere...especially in left handed models.

Hawkeye's seem to readily available.

The thing you need to ask yourself is what features do you want? And how much are they worth? The Browning A-bolt offers different design features such as 3 locking lugs, 60 degree bolt throw, slick bolt operation, tang safety, X spring in magazine instead of W spring,factory bedded,etc. We're all going to give you different answers according to our own personal preferences, and mine is Browning. I currently own several of them and have adjusted the trigger, mounted scopes,shot a BUNCH more and I've NEVER seen a bad shooting A-bolt. The thing to do is go to a gun store that carries both and handle both-side by side,then choose the 1 that feels best to YOU.

Does anyone know if you can mount a 3X9X40mm scope on the Ruger with LOW Ruger rings and not run into a problem with the bolt hitting the eyepiece when cycled?

Pics would be great if you have any.

Thats one thing that really attracts me to the Browning. The 60 degree bolt throw make low scope mounting a breeze.

Just wondering if I can still go with low rings on the Ruger Hawkeye

My dad and I are both left handed shooters. My dad owns a LH Browning A-bolt Medallion in 7mm Rem Mag with BOSS system and I must say it is a BEAUTIFUL rifle. A great shooter as well. With that said, I myself purchased a Browning X-Bolt Hunter in .270. Growing up I have gotten use to shooting right handed bolt rifles and it doesn't bother me to own one. Now if this would be a varmint rifle I probably would've held out for LH or semi auto rifle just for the handiness of cycling the bolt for a second shot. With big game, its usually one shot downed animal, so a followup isn't necessary. My X-Bolt is lighter, better trigger, better recoil pad, removeable magazine and is just as good a shooter. It doesn't look near as nice but I could've went with the Medallion version and been closer. I say go Browning, but either make a good rifle.

The 60 degree bolt throw on the Browning is a very big plus to me. That plus light weight, bedding, better trigger and detachable mag are my likes. The Ruger is tough and will shoot fine (maybe with some tinkering, maybe not). I'm thinking you would need the medium rings for most 3-9 X 40 scopes. My wife has a Hawkeye Compact 7mm-08 with a Leupy Ultralight 2-7 X 33 (in low rings) and there is only about 9-10 mm clearance between the objective lens and the barrel. However, it is a shorter tubed scope altogether so longer tube scopes MAY just barely clear (if so it will be close). The bolt clears the eyepiece well, but this Leupy has a smaller eypiece than many other scopes typically used. I still think mediums would be the answer.