I have an old (1970's) Howa in 30-06 that originally suffered a broken trigger guard. I have since replaced the trigger guard assembly with one meant for a Weatherby Vanguard.

The new trigger guard assembly itself fits incredibly well within the stock, unfortunately the accompanying magazine box was a little bit too tall. The walls of the new magazine box were also much thinner than the original, and I was concerned that it wouldn't sit straight between the floor plate and receiver bottom.

Being mechanically disinclined, I had a local gunsmith work on it. He filed down the box, and made everything 'fit'. Even said he checked for proper feeding. Trusting too much, I didn't bring any dummy rounds to verify this before picking the rifle up.

Now at home, the rifle will not reliably feed either aluminum snap caps or dummy rounds.

The problem is when you load two or more rounds into the magazine. Upon extraction of a case, the first round in the magazine is fully ejected from the magazine and sits on top of the feed rails. The second round down sits perfectly below the rails, ready to be picked up. Thus if you push the bolt forward, it will pick up that second round, as well as the first round that popped up over the feed rails. Hope that all made sense.

My best guess is that the new magazine spring is too strong? There was no mention by the gunsmith of doing anything with the feed rails, and I see no signs that they were altered in any way. I'm tempted to look elsewhere to get the rifle fixed. Regardless of who I go to next, I'd like some suggestions on what may be wrong. Also, any good gunsmiths in the Seattle/Tacoma area that might work on it?

Thanks.

Out of curiosity, have you contacted Legacy Sports about a new floorplate/magbox? They are the importers of Howa and just south in California. Might be as simple as dropping in the right parts instead of making something work.

My understanding is that Howa makes the vanguard parts, thus the ability to interchange. This rifle pre-dates the 1500 model, so it's not a perfect match.

The lesson is, never trust a "local" "gunsmith". I never do. They are usually hacks, but the ones far away are experts at everything. Hear about it all the time.

quote:

The lesson is, never trust a "local" "gunsmith". I never do. They are usually hacks, but the ones far away are experts at everything. Hear about it all the time.

Life never tires of teaching me new things. But it goes to reason that those distant gunsmiths are local to someone. Guess it's just not me this time.

Who might do good work?

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Originally posted by 35whelenman:
My understanding is that Howa makes the vanguard parts, thus the ability to interchange. This rifle pre-dates the 1500 model, so it's not a perfect match.

The reason I asked is that the model that precedes the 1500 is the Golden Bear. Is that what you have? I had one for a few years but it was a RH model and I am LH and I sold it. It is my understanding that this rifle was a clone of a Sako L61 Finnbear. Internet searches revealed that the bottom metal & mag boxes were different. Makes me wonder if the L61 mag box and bottom metal might work. Bound to be some of those out there.

You are right, it is a Golden Bear. Weatherby vanguard parts work as well and are much easier to find, and cost significantly less. Spending $500 on Sunny Hill bottom metal for a $250 rifle didn't seem like the best move.

I'd rather put that money towards a good gun Smith, and in this case I think the parts match the purpose. Now I just need to find a good smith who can fix it.