Howa owners?

kc

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Joined
Jan 7, 2003
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970
Location
Swartz creek Mi
Would you buy another Howa Rifle?
What are your likes and dislikes if any?
If you could make a design change, what would it be?
Are they very accurate?


Thanks...Keith.
 
Keith, I have owned several and still own two. They are the Weatherby Vanguards and are the same action as the Howa. All of mine shoot very good. One is in 25-06 and is a real tack driver with 115 Bergers. I like the action smoothness and the rifles feed and loads easy. I have a 6mm br going together right now with the same action.

Hope this helps.

Jeff
 
Would I buy another one? Yes I would, very good value and mine shoots every bit as good as my rem 700s and model 70s.


What would I change? The trigger. In hindsight when I bought mine the first thing I should have done is replace the trigger w a Timney. When I changed mine it went from shotting good to excellent.

Hope it helps.
 
Definately, I just built one and replaced the barrel, stock and trigger and rechambered to 6.5 Gibbs and the thing is really accurate. I have not even finished load development yet and it is a tack driver. I am already looking for another one to tear appart and do another build on. It would be nice if there were a little more aftermarket parts out there for them though.

SES50
 
I have S&W M1500 7mm RM which is a Howa and I like it. It's about 28 years old, so I dont know if there have been any changes it the actions since then, but my trigger was easy to adjust and feels great to me. The last Time I had it out it shot a sub 1/2" group @ 100 yds.

I've handeled a few Sub MOA Vanguards (Howa's) in the stores and their triggers seem good to me. One had a little creep in it, but could probably easily fixed.

If I was going to do a build off a factory action other than what I have, it would be of a Howa.

-Mark
 
I like your input guys, I am buying a new Rifle for my Granddaughter this spring(243) she will be 10 and she has been with her dad in the blind since she was 2..She has helped with gutting and even helped to pull the deer out to the trail.
She even promised me she will never have a Boyfriend who won't hunt(thats my girl).
We have been messing with her head telling her she will be using the old Springfield 03A3.
I won't buy her a rifle that wont shoot..the Savage is a tack driver right out of the box, but my
friends say, its a Rifle for later, they even said the Howa is a keeper.


Thanks.... Keith.
 
I like your input guys, I am buying a new Rifle for my Granddaughter this spring(243) she will be 10 and she has been with her dad in the blind since she was 2..She has helped with gutting and even helped to pull the deer out to the trail.
She even promised me she will never have a Boyfriend who won't hunt(thats my girl).
We have been messing with her head telling her she will be using the old Springfield 03A3.
I won't buy her a rifle that wont shoot..the Savage is a tack driver right out of the box, but my
friends say, its a Rifle for later, they even said the Howa is a keeper.


Thanks.... Keith.

For a nominal difference in money, I'd consider the new Weatherby Vanguard youth model for her. Street prices on Howas vs. Weatherbys for almost the same rifle aren't much different and the Weatherby name should carry more "presitge" with it too.
 
Keith;
I inherited a Vanguard some years ago. It was made before they started the MOA designation. The factory target was .310". It is chambered for 300WBY. I could only get slightly under 1" on occasion I think due to recoil. Tried some 210 Bergers last fall and was able to get down to .266". I am considering a new trigger and a stock replacement. The wood stock moves too much to maintain a zero for any length of time. I thought about pillar bedding but after a good look it seems that the rear action screw doesn't have a large enough area around it to install a pillar so I'm shopping for a synthetic of some kind.
In short I like the one I have enough to do the couple of things to make it a little better and if I needed another rifle a Vanguard/Howa would be high on the list.
Cliff
 
I recently picked up another Howa 1500. This one was a Howa Lightning 1500 in 270 win. For $265 I couldn't pass it up. Funny thing is the first Howa I bought was a .223 and after trying everything I couldn't get the trigger to a satisfactory level and replaced with a Timney. This most recent one actually with a small amount of tuning is pretty decent and I don't think I'll need to replace this one.

I've yet to have one that didn't shoot as well or better than any other factory rifle I've owned and always for much less money. IMO, Howa is the best bang for the buck.
 
Do you guys want me to post a quick tutorial on honing the Howa trigger to get it down to the 1-2.5lb range/? If so, do you want it as a seperate thread, perhaps in the smithing section?
Nathan.
 
Do you guys want me to post a quick tutorial on honing the Howa trigger to get it down to the 1-2.5lb range/? If so, do you want it as a seperate thread, perhaps in the smithing section?
Nathan.

That would be great by me. It might be a good thread ofr the Gunsmith Forum.

On a side note... I have a S&W M1500 (Howa) that I bought in 83. The trigger seems very easy to adjust and I have it set at what I'm guessing is about 1 - 1 1/2 lbs. It seems very crisp. Is it a different trigger than the newer Howa's?

Mark
 
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