Turning a Ruger M77 Hawkeye into a ELR gun

[BoulderE89]

So I was fortunate and recently my grandpa, bless his soul, gifted me a Ruger M77 Hawkeye chambered in 300WM. I shoot PRS style local matches regularly and have nothing quite this size of caliber, my largest being 6.5 Creed. I've always wanted to shoot to a mile and have a dedicated ELR gun so I want to try and turn this gun into that so it gets used and doesn't just sit in the safe (this isn't a super special gun that needs to stay factory spec, it was just one of his many guns).
So my question is this!
1. What would you recommend doing as far as stock choices go? currently it's in a plastic chinsy stock. The choices aren't great so I'm leaning to Boyd's pro varmint. Is it possible to get the Ruger M77 hawkeye LRT stock from ruger?
2. I've seen the idea of lengthening the throat of the barrels in 300WM to accept larger grain bullets. What's everyone's experience with doing this?
3. Any other recommendations to turn this thing into a long range beast? I plan on getting the Timney trigger first before I do anything else.

 

[spife7980]

New barrel, yours will walk after a couple shots.

Get the boyds if you want, I wouldn't recommend pillar bedding, with the angled action screw its a pain. Just a bit of surface bedding up top around the lug will suffice. I used my factory wood one and the pillar install stress free requires you to also install the bottom metal at the same time to ensure it actually fits right but to do so without torqueing. Nightmare. The upper action part is just like anything else.

Timney trigger install.

 

[myronman3]

i took a m77 in once upon a time to get a trigger put in it....the smith said he could slick up the existing parts. for $25, i said “go for it” and figured if i didnt like it, i’d continue on to the timney. it was the best $25 i ever spent.

 

[Steel head]

What spife said
New barrel in cartridge that you want with appropriate boltface, 300 WM throated and twisted properly is quite capable.
Slap into whatever stock that would work with a trigger and then go to town at steel at a mile.

 

[Bandit320]

I have the Pro Varmint on a 243 and a At-One stock on my 300 WM. I like the Pro Varmint better. I only got the At-One for the 300 because of the adjustable cheek piece.