Howa Rifles

19 March 2003, 07:36

.358

Howa Rifles

Who are these rifles made by ? Are they any good ? Think I saw one at Wally World. Do they come in a short action?
Where can I find a dealer in SE Mo. that might have somwe to look at ? Has anyone on the forum shot one or used one and whats you view of this rifle ?

19 March 2003, 09:17

markus

They are almost Identical to the Weatherby Vangaurd's.

My Dad bought one for me in 270 win ( A vangaurd that is) It was my first hunting rifle. It shoots very good and he Also has one in 7mm rem mag that shoots well under an inch. Those two have really light barrel contours on them though. Howa's have a bunch of short action models with some nice looking stocks on them. I have read a few articles on them and Sundra has a test in his latest Rifleman Mag. He was getting about 5/8th's groups out of a 308 varminter with federal gold match factories.

Ksduckhunter has more experience with the actual Howa's though. Hopefully he has a better idea of how good the new ones shoot. I am thinking of a howa or tikka for my next rifle.

19 March 2003, 09:43

Orion 1

quote:
Who are these rifles made by ?

They are made by Howa Machinery Ltd, of Aichi, Japan.

quote:
Are they any good ?

Yes, they are a high quality rifle. The Howa 1500 is marketed, with minor cosmetic alterations, as the Weatherby Vanguard, and previously as the Mossberg 1500 and Smith & Wesson 1500. Howa also used to make the Weatherby mark V when it was produced in Japan, and produced the Armalite AR-180 in the seveties as well.

quote:
Do they come in a short action?

Yes.

quote:
Has anyone on the forum shot one or used one and whats you view of this rifle ?

I have had a 30-06 SS Howa 1500 for almost two years now. The rifle is very well made, with excellent machining throughout. The receiver and the bolt are both one-piece forgings. The barrel is relatively well finished inside. The bolt is a push feed design with an M-16 type extractor and ejector, and is very smooth. Definitely a better design than Remington's.

The receiver is flat at the bottom and has an integral recoil lug threaded for the front action screw. The trigger guard/floorplate assembly is aluminum, and nicely done. Magazine capacity is 5 rounds (3 magnum). My rifle came in a plastic Butler Creek stock. The scope base screw pattern is identical to the Remington Model 700. The same exact rifle is sold as the Weatherby Vanguard.

The trigger is adjustable for pull and sear engagement. I set mine at three pounds, but have never been able to reduce creep enough to satisfy me, so I have a Timney unit on order.

The rifle used to shoot about 1 1/4 MOA when new. That went down to about 1 MOA as the bore broke in. I then restocked it with a Bell & Carlson Medalist stock (with aluminum bedding block) and accuracy has improved to around .5 to .6 MOA for three shots and about .8 to 1 MOA for 5 shot groups. I expect the Timeny trigger to help me a little bit more. This rifle, BTW loves Remington Express ammo with 150 grain Core Lokt bullets, but does almost as well with Federal Classic and Estate ammo.

I paid $399 NIB for this rifle. In all, I am very statisfied. Out of the box, it was accurate enough for any big game hunting to any sane distance. After restocking it, its accuracy is simply outstanding.

quote:
Where can I find a dealer in SE Mo. that might have somwe to look at ?

Somebody else already posted a link to their importer, Legacy Sports International. Give them a call and find out where you can see them.

Howa Machinery LTD, product lines

19 March 2003, 09:51

<Hellrazor>

I have a Smith and Wesson 1500 in 243. Was the first rifle i 'owned' for deer hunting, its about 15 or 16 years old. Its a very solid rifle and is decently accurate. It always holds 1.5" or smaller groups at 100yards. Well except for when i tried remington factory ammo. Best factory ammo was Fed BT's or Hornady light mag.

20 March 2003, 03:29

Bob257

I used a Howa short action (243) and rebarreled to 300 Savage. It shoots great! Of course I didn't know at the time that Remington was going to offer the 300 in their classic this year. Bygones.

Bob257

20 March 2003, 04:14

Orion 1

quote:
Originally posted by Bob257:
I used a Howa short action (243) and rebarreled to 300 Savage. It shoots great! Of course I didn't know at the time that Remington was going to offer the 300 in their classic this year. Bygones.

Bob257

You still have a better rifle.