Well a while back there were some locations selling the Howa Mini in the $300. Buy the time I tried to buy I was told they wee no longer available for that price. GunBroker was listing ones for sale all the way up to the $700s.

Found a green 22" .223 listed for $349. Made a bid and bought it.
Fit and finish ere good. Trigger broke at around 3.5# with very little creep.

Installed a scope and ran a couple patches through the barrel and went to sight it in. First 3 surplus FMC grouped just over 1MOA. (about the same as my match grade RRA)
Adjusted the scope and repeated the group.

Switched to loads for my RRA and 2 different loads both around .75" and less than an inch apart. Not bad for a factory barrel with about 20 rounds through it.

Now just need to track down another plastic mag. Houston we have a keeper.

That's got to be satisfying!!!!

It's often a gamble with a new rifle. Usually they work well enough but sometimes they don't.

Well done ramrod!

Zeke

Congratulations and I share your happiness!

I absolutely delight in inexpensive rifles that are far more accurate than their price would indicate they should be. I have 4 that fit that category.

I have a Howa in 6.5. I have it in a GRS Stock, and it is a lazerbeam.

Bought 3 of the 223s for $311 ea than picked up the 6.5 Grendel for just over $400 but what a caliber! Hornady had loaded 140 grain ammo for it that using there chart is still supersonic at 1200 yards with well over 400 ft pds of energy. A lot of rifle in a small package. The 223 I've shot has under a 3# crisp trigger. If anyone want a 223 Cabelas still has them with the 22" barrel for $349 with 10% off that using code STALKUP16.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Well a while back there were some locations selling the Howa Mini in the $300. Buy the time I tried to buy I was told they wee no longer available for that price. GunBroker was listing ones for sale all the way up to the $700s.

Found a green 22" .223 listed for $349. Made a bid and bought it.
Fit and finish ere good. Trigger broke at around 3.5# with very little creep.

Installed a scope and ran a couple patches through the barrel and went to sight it in. First 3 surplus FMC grouped just over 1MOA. (about the same as my match grade RRA)
Adjusted the scope and repeated the group.

Switched to loads for my RRA and 2 different loads both around .75" and less than an inch apart. Not bad for a factory barrel with about 20 rounds through it.

Now just need to track down another plastic mag. Houston we have a keeper.

Paul, good stuff. I hope it holds up. I just found two of them shippable to a store about 45 minutes from where I live. I am a southpaw, but I think these might work as trade fodder down the road, or maybe give one to my son and hold onto the other. Regardless, at $315 per, I don't know how I can go wrong.

Thanks for the honest appraisal. I couldn't find any reviews on line...

Have had the green stocked version in 223 sitting NIB for a year. These reports are stirring a desire to mount glass and see what she does.

Thought it'd fit my son or daughter nicely and work well for predator calling and a low volume prairie dogging; sounds like they are sure accurate enough.

Chris

I got a hold of one of these in 223 with the 22" standard barrel. For the price I think it's a great rifle. I had pretty much the same experiences as reported by others. The plastic stock is not great, and the mag release is in the wrong place. But everything else is really good. Smooth action, good trigger, accurate, nice size, good 10-round magazine, etc.

My example had the stock touching the barrel, so I sanded out the stock some to float the barrel. The stock is a bit flimsy, and while it does have aluminum pillars molded in, the bottom "metal" is plastic. So you're still squeezing plastic under the action screws. Also, the stock-action fit is a bit sloppy and I can't find any sort of glue that will stick to the plastic (so bedding, stiffening, and other mods to the stock are problematic). So a new stock is on the to-do list; I'll probably get a boyds laminate.

I wanted to try this rifle as a cheap way to participate in the local tactical matches, so I installed a cheap rail, atras bipod, flush cups, and an ebay brake. The scope has QD rings and gets shared among other rifles. So for around $400 I was ready to go. I only came in 4th for the initial outing, but I had fun, learned some things, and spent a whole lot less than some of the other competitors. The rifle is pretty light and needs a light touch with the flimsy stock to shoot well off the bipod, but with the brake and some practice it was working well and I could see impacts through the scope. Our local range is pretty short with about 800 yards maximum range. The mini did really well on the 300-500 yard stages with tight time constraints.

I had good luck with berger 70gr VLD at 3000fps. These were pretty accurate, not horrible in the wind, and fit the magazine. I also found a nice load with 50gr Vmax for pd popping.

I've been playing with the mini some more. It now has a warne 1-piece base and a vortex scope. There's still clearance for the bolt handle with warne medium QD rings. It could go a little lower, but not a lot. Anyway, fun little package!

It was nice out yesterday so I took the mini on a hike. I shot a group at 200 then rang steel at various distances out to 1100. It's nice when things work.

The turrets on the vortex scope are still a bit annoying (more than one rev to get out to 1100), but they seem to track well at least.

Shooting a light rifle with a flimsy stock off a bipod is good practice!

What load are you using to get the 70 gr. VLD to 3000 fps? I am having so so results with the 75 gr. BTHP Hornady out of my 20 inch barreled lightweight. Not sure if it is a stability problem, light barrel or load. 1 1/4 inch at 100 yards is the best so far.

quote:

Originally posted by Palidun:
What load are you using...

It's nothing special. LC brass, russian primer, and WC846. I tried a few different bullets and most were too long to fit the magazine and get close to the lands. I loaded them to fit the mag (something like 2.32") and tried anyway. I didn't see anything spectacular, so I've just been using the 70VLDs and 50Vmax and haven't spent much time trying other stuff.

Are you loading them with a big jump to the lands? You could try single feeding a few long ones to see if that makes a difference. Also, I had to sand out my stock quite a bit to float the barrel.

My groups seemed to improve with the bipod and brake installed as well. Most of my other rifles are heavy target type things and I've noticed that the howa mini is more picky about technique. Oh, and make sure the action screws are pretty tight. The receiver seems to have a lot of wiggle room in the stock.

The 75BTHP might be on the verge of stability in a 1-9 twist. Have you seen any difference on hot vs. cold days?

I notice a real accuracy degradation on really humid days.

quote:

I notice a real accuracy degradation on really humid days.

I'm just trying to think why humidity would enlarge your group. Don't remember having that issue before.

Denser air might need a better stabilized bullet? Or maybe being rained on affects my ability to pay attention.

Humid air is less dense that dry air. Are you seeing increased vertical stringing in more humid conditions?

I just quit shooting the 75 grain bullets and all is working out just fine.

I got some of the 70gr RDF factory seconds to play with. To fit the magazine, they jump about 0.080" to the lands. This did not work well at all. I used up almost 100 of them trying a variety of combinations. I finally tried a few seated out long, and single feeding them I got some nice groups. So they'll work well for long range single shot plinking but won't work out of the magazine.

We also tried them in a CZ527 and got similar results. They don't like to jump.

Wish the mini came lefty. Want a grendel for my grandson.

quote:

Wish the mini came lefty.

My son-in-law says the same thing. He love my Grendel but is left handled. He did put in a claim for the grandson.

Another review of the howa mini:

http://rifleshooter.com/2017/0...-miniaction-7-62x39/

I picked up a boyds laminate stock for the mini. I guess it's not bad for a cut-rate stock. It's definitely stiffer than the plastic OEM stock. The worst part about the fit is how the bottom "metal" sits. You can see that the tool paths are in different planes, which would tweak the the part as the screws are tightened. Good thing it's plastic I guess:



I think I'll shoot it like this just to see what it does, but I'd like to stick a bipod on it for a better comparison to the plastic factory stock. I have not seen anyone else post about the performance (difference?) of a howa mini in a boyds stock. Then I'll re-do it with some aluminum pillars/blocks and epoxy to see what that does. If nothing else, the weight should make it more like what I'm used to shooting.

Didn't know Boyd was doing a Mini. I still have plans on my list to cut a wood stock for mine.

I shot another match with the mini today and it worked well. The wind past 700 yards was a challenge. I can get at least a match worth of accuracy using 846 without fouling problems. I'm still looking for a replacement powder for when I run out.

The Boyds stock is not ready yet. I have an idea on how to do the bedding that gets around the plastic magazine holder. I'll post another update when I get around to that...

Just to follow up, I got the bedding done:



This fixes the problem with the plastic magazine holder. I've been using it like this for a while now and the zero doesn't change. I can take the scope off, take it out of the stock, put it all back and it's right on.

The wood laminate is much stiffer than the plastic stock and I have an easier time shooting it off a bibod now.

Howa Mini may come out in their HCR chassis:



From here:

http://www.65grendel.com/forum...699-Howa-Mini-Update

jpl, any updates on either the bedded plastic stock or the Boyd's laminate?

I can't get mine to shoot better than a bit over an inch. If I get a Boyd's I'd go for a solid walnut since I'm a traditionalist.

No updates really; it's working well. A couple more matches, some prairie dogs and plinking. I guess it's around 1000 rounds through it now. I've got some blc2 to try.

I didn't ever bed the plastic stock. I could not find anything that would stick to it. I did open up the barrel channel because it was touching the barrel and was very sensitive to shooting technique, especially off a bipod. I had to open it quite a bit, because with a bipod, even the weight on the fore end, or twisting the grip against the friction of the bipod would twist or warp the rubbery stock significantly.

I could get it to shoot well, but it took concentration. It was probably good practice, but I just got a boyds and bedded it as shown above. Wood is much easier to glue and screw. Now it's more stable and the action screws (bolts) stay torqued and don't squish plastic. I can take the scope off with the QD rings, take it out of the stock to clean out all the dirt and sand and rust, put it all back together and the zero is right on. The new stock is much more rigid and heavier, so it's easier for me to use in matches.

So I would first suggest floating the barrel by opening up the stock. Then I'd keep an eye on the action screw torque. If you tighten the screws too much the plastic will squish or crack, but at least you can make sure they're snug if accuracy is poor. Also, I did not have good luck with scope bases or rails. That took a lot of fiddling around so that there was not tension between the mounted scope and receiver. Do you hand load? You could try seating bullets out long to touch the lands. They might not fit the magazine like this, but you could single feed them just to test. There are all the usual hand loading accuracy techniques to try.

I saw that whittakers had them on sale again for low 300's. I'm tempted to get another one in 30 commie and try a 6ppc build.

Before buying a Boyd's stock I thought I'd try doing what I could to the original plastic one. I have the ebook by Nathan Foster at http://www.ballisticstudies.co...%26+Maintenance.html "The Practical Guide to Bolt Action Rifle Accurizing and Maintenance" which I find extremely valuable. He addresses lightening the Howa trigger and bedding the plastic stock.

I had on hand some West System Epoxy, microballoon filler and JB Weld. I used the filled epoxy to fill the forearm, first melting tiny holes to lock it in place. Foster details how to do this in his book. I also followed his procedures to bed the action with JB Weld.

I'm very pleased with the result. I'm still working up loads but I can already tell that group size has shrunk considerably. The forearm is now much stiffer.

It looks like CDI has a bottom metal for the mini now:

http://www.cdiprecisiongunwork...500-mini-action-dbm/

They don't really give any details on the modifications required to use the larger magazines though.

Someone posted pictures of the CDI DBM here:

http://www.65grendel.com/forum...Mini-Action-Upgrades

This seems like a problem to me:



...which is why I was wondering how they'd done it. I guess if you can make/modify magazines then it's an improvement over the plastic howa part.

Another review with handloads for the grendel mini:

https://rifleshooter.com/2018/...n-a-howa-miniaction/

I just pulled a 6.5 Grendel barrel off of one and rebarreled with a Heym .224 1-11.75 twist lightweight barrel. Chambered in 224 LBC (22 Grendel). Barrel was one of the Heym blanks available on Numrich for all of $50 and they are REALLY good looking barrel blanks. Looks like I'll be able to get somewhere north of 3500 fps with a 53gr VMax in a nice 5.5lb rifle with 22" barrel. Initial results look to be an easy 1/2 MOA shooter. I have a couple 6mm barrels also, and next up is a 6mm Grendel.