I was wondering why you don't see more hunting, target or varmint rifles built on Howa 1500 actions. I recentely transferred a barreled action for someone and it looked like a lot of value for the money. A brand new barreled action for just over $400, has a sako type extractor, descent bluing and a good trigger. I'm just curious, with the lack of commercial actions on the market, I would think these should be flying off the shelf. It's hard to find a beat-up donor rifle for that kind of money.

Howa's are are basically Sako copies and are very good, solidly built actions and are not much different from those on the Nosler custom rifles.
Maybe the fact that they don't buy full page adds in the shooting magazines might have some bearing on their being "undiscovered"

I think Bansner was building a less expensive rifle off of the Howa action for awhile.

The Howa 1500 is also marketed as the Weatherby Vanguard rifle. They are identical, built on the same assembly line. I owned a Howa 30-06. It was quite accurate and never gave me any grief. One of those rifles that I will always wish I had not traded away.

I've stocked a half dozen of these over the years. at one time Smith & Wesson put their name on them and later Mossberg did. If you want to stock a rifle and not have to bother with any metal work, this is one way to go.

quote:

Originally posted by kaboom:
I've stocked a half dozen of these over the years. at one time Smith & Wesson put their name on them and later Mossberg did. If you want to stock a rifle and not have to bother with any metal work, this is one way to go.

That's the road I've taken. I've got a Vanguard 7mm08 that wears a Sako classic McSwirly and I've got a Vanguard 240 Weatherby coming and that will have the same pattern stock but with Edge fill.
The way Howas and Vanguards shoot it's pretty hard to improve them by re barreling, depending on cartridge choice of course.

I've been hunting with a Howa 1500 in 30-06 for the past 10 years. I have only had one issue with mine and that was the bolt release lever. It's held on by a screw and the screw sheared off. I was able to get the old screw out and buy a new one from Howa (Legacy Arms Int'l or something like that), but I would like to get a more robust screw installed. Aside from that one issue, I really like the rifle.

I bought a SS barreled action in .30-06 some five years ago. First I attached a Bell&Carlson Medalist stock to it. The stock had some sort of soft rubbery coating that became sticky from hand sweat over time so I ordered a Boyd's laminated in grey. I also installed a Timney trigger because I could not really get the creep out of the factory trigger. The creep turned up every now and then and I hate creep!
Since I am a ´one man one rifle´ kind of character I got stuck with this package and never regretted it.
Over here in Europe 'serious' hunters buy Sauer 202 or Mauser 03 or some other fancy brand for triple or four times the price of a Howa.
My Howa outshoots most of them on the range.....
My only negative comment on the carbon steel Howa´s is that the polishing before blueing is not meeting today´s standards. The polishing looks like it is done with a steel brush wheel.
As for value for money I doubt there is another rifle on the market that can meet the Howa´s.
And when you ever look for a replacement stock for you Howa, buy one from Boyd´s. Cheap, rugged and nice to the eye!

I have built 3 rifles on Howa actions; as stated they are copies of the Sako. They make great rifles (push feed is fine). Only problem was getting the old barrels off; they are torqued on with 150 pounds. Why aren't they more popular? Name, made in Japan, not well known. Lots of reasons.

One thing mentioned is the creepy trigger, I noticed all of the older models have creep. The new models have a two stage trigger that is one of the best out of the box triggers I've tried. I also like that they offer detachable magazine and bottom (metal?) for $100.00

Compared to some of the other stuff I'm seeing, these are a bargain, MHO. Never will they be the basis for a high-end Rigby or DGR, but for an everyday sporter, varmint or hunting rifle they seem hard to beat.

I have one that has the Smith & Wesson name on it, in .223.

It shoots my handloads consistently under .3 " all day long; best group ever was a 5 shot .087.

I don't care how much you want to spend it hard to beat that!

The coyotes around here don't like it much though........

quote:

The new models have a two stage trigger that is one of the best out of the box triggers I've tried

I.ve tried the new two stage trigger and I hate it. The first stage is just a lengthened and more or less controlled creep. I really like my Timney and will stick to it.

quote:

The new models have a two stage trigger that is one of the best out of the box triggers I've tried.

I've just bought a S2 Vanguard in 240 Weatherby and I agree, the trigger's a gem.

I picked up a 30/06 S&W 1500 in mint condition at an auction for only $300. I adjusted the trigger just by turning the adjustment screws and it shoots great. The first load I tried with H-4350 and Hornady 165 Gr. bullets kept all the shots touching at 100 yds. Easiest load development work I ever experienced.

quote:

Originally posted by silvertip1:
I would think that the lack of a controlled feed type action would have something to do with it.

Doesn't seem to stop lots of people from customizing R700's and tang safety Ruger's

why? well, lets see
no bragging rights
fairly plain, if not ugly, action
few accessories available
few stock choices

however, the action is a darn good one

I've got a tuned Howa 1500 with a Lothar Walter barrel and a Manners stock that shoots really well.

Good value for money in the standard version as well, IMHO.

I find that more and more accessories are becoming available, including detachable magazines and stocks.

They're getting quite popular here in the UK, don't know about the US.

in the states they have been sold as, amoungst others
howa
weatherby
SW
mossberg
colt
and at least 2 others i can't recall

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
why? well, lets see
no bragging rights
fairly plain, if not ugly, action
few accessories available
few stock choices

however, the action is a darn good one

Not trying to get into pissing match, but one of the things that impressed me about the howa was the high polish and rich bluing. In an age where most manufactures are trying to sell bead blasted and parkerized as their standard finishes, howa does a very respectable job. As far as ugly, that's a personal thing, they look like any other PF action, mho. They are one of the few that sell a barreled action, which is good.

Personally, I think it's their name that is their biggest detractor. Sounds like a piece of crap, kinda reminds me of the car company Datsun. Same as a Nissan but nobody wanted a Datsun because it sounded cheap.

I'm not really loyal to any one brand, but I do like what howa is doing.

Biggest reason I don't use a Howa action for a project is my American made lathe does not cut metric threads. I know I can find a feed close to the same tpi, but it is only close and this isn't horse-shoes or hand grenades.

Well it (Howa) sure beats the pants off anything that Winchester group is putting on the market.

quote:

Originally posted by DuaneinND:
Biggest reason I don't use a Howa action for a project is my American made lathe does not cut metric threads. I know I can find a feed close to the same tpi, but it is only close and this isn't horse-shoes or hand grenades.

Ran into same problem with Brno. Inch came soooo close to 13 TPI, Determined diffeence was .026 in over 5/8". So, I turned the compound parallel to bed and timed the hand crank as carriage was feeding. After a couple passes you get the cadence/timing down and viola! you get metric thread.

quote:

Originally posted by ztreh:
Well it (Howa) sure beats the pants off anything that Winchester group is putting on the market.

opinions vary, i guess -- their new stuff has been outstanding for factory, better than ANYTHING they made for the better part of the last 20 years ...

I am seeing at least a few Howa rifles, in the precision target (tacticool) world. Some of the accuracy results are also quite impressive, with match grade ammunition, with some models (varminter) achieving sub 3/4 MOA 3-shot grouping. Twist rates, however, according to the same source, in both .223 and .308, were listed as 1:12", so depending on the desired usage, this may not be optimal. For the money, it is worth consideration, at any rate.

I have used Howa actions building custom rifles for several years. I used to get a barreled action for $225, it was a great deal for such a quality action. The trigger can be made into a very fine trigger with a little work. The barrels are difficult to remove, as someone stated, but can be removed, especially if a few pipe wrench marks on the barrel are ok. For those who care, the threads are the same as an Arisaka action. I have a friend who takes all my take-off barrels for his Arisaka actions. On those that won't come off except with a pipe wrench he just machines the marks out.

I like their extractor and the over all quality of the action. I have made several long range rifles using the Howa action and the customers love them. Since Weatherby Vangard there are alot more stocks and triggers available......Tom

When I attended the Colorado School of Trades the standard "issue" action for your custom rifle you build at the school was a Howa action. I opted for more work and less cost and purchased a Mauser.

It has been a hard fall ever since.

Nathaniel...that was a good choice...stay the course!

Always wanted to take a howa/sako and broach out the right lugway some more and make a claw extractor to convert the action to CRF.
In a nutshell the Howa/sako is a 96 Mauser
w/o the claw extractor, but better steel.

Good information guys. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Timan:
Always wanted to take a howa/sako and broach out the right lugway some more and make a claw extractor to convert the action to CRF.
In a nutshell the Howa/sako is a 96 Mauser
w/o the claw extractor, but better steel.

That would be an interesting conversion... A modern metal/manufacture CRF M96 action would be a very nice slim action to build upon...

A Howa 1500 can be made to look fairly NICE.....













[/QUOTE]

The make a great Mini action!
IMG_3965 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_3964 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

your mini looks great....but when I went searching for them, all I found was the extended magazine box which IMO ruins the looks of the rifle.

Did you do some magic to yours to achieve the sleek looks?

And what about that safety sleeve, if I might ask.

The safety lever is a factory Winchester I used just to prototype. The rest of the parts , bolt handle, shroud, floormetal, grendel follower & trigger I just whittled out of chunk of steel. The Mini Howa is such a great little action for building a slim trim bolt gun. I bought a Mini Howa Grendel and prototyped it to feed from a staggered magazine as well. Grendel will need a magazine assembly like a M98 but the 223 uses a folded magazine and they both feed very well from staggered. Receivers need a little machine work (not fiddling with a dremel) for the rails to work from left and right. Stock is programmed in my "new" CNC for both inside and outside machining.

It's just a personal project at the moment. So it doesn't get too much attention at the bench.

The stock I "ripped off" from my Brno Mod1 pattern. I digitized it and programmed the inlet for the Mini Howa. Took about 15 or less minutes to scrape it in off the machine. Running a manual duplicator is just too much work these days. Why do that when you can just push a button?

Here's the Brno.

When the Howa Mini first came out I picked up a 223 for $325 or so, since that time I ended up with 10 of them, all the others in 6.5 Grendel and 7.62x39. Most were $330 down to $250 for barreled actions on sale. I’ve been building Grendel wildcats on them and they are great little Rifles. I have done 22, 6mm, 6.5, and even a .311 bore Grendel with the factory 7.62 bbl.

Have done quite a few full sized rifles on the 1500 actions too.

James, how much to run a stick of wood through your cnc to profile/inlet for a mini??? Bottom metal can be blank.

Matt
I was thinking around $150 to CNC machine stocks. My pattern is too slim for the factory magazine. not sure what you're going to do for the floormetal on your project.

quote:

Originally posted by gunmaker:
Matt
I was thinking around $150 to CNC machine stocks. My pattern is too slim for the factory magazine. not sure what you're going to do for the floormetal on your project.

Well that would be a great start but sounds like I would have to do some fabricating if bottom metal..that I’ll have to think about.

I’m not James, but many of the cnc’s Have a probe now days and it’s a matter of setting up your finished part and running the probe along many points of the part/stock. The closer those points are to each other the more accurately the program can map them into a 3D model. You don’t have to program every coordinate and curve, it’s a matter of probing enough points that connecting the dots will oroduce a continuous curved surface mirroring the original. It CAN take awhile to probe it all out though. I believe there are also laser scan tools that do the same thing only much faster.

The inletting is much simpler I think because you can program that off of definite measurements.