Howa v/s Lithgow v/s Tikka?

[bigfellascott]

Ya killing me Bigfellascott

Ive had 3 Sako's yet none find a home in my safe anymore legends in their day, Howa is now the real deal and fit my budget.

each to their own SCJ429, Tikka make a great product ( the VW of rifles) but plenty of flaws and and a RRP that I find slightly delusional, they are a $700 gun but a hell of a profit earner for SAKO.

Yep got rid of my Sako too, still got all my Howas though! The one thing I like about my Tikka is it's weight, she's a nice light rifle for walk about hunting which is the reason I bought it over the Howa - I generally don't walk around much with the Howas these days (did when I was a young fit fella) most of my Howas are used shooting off bipods or out car windows which they are brilliant for.

To me the way I look at the two brands is ones unpretentious and well made for the $$ the other is better finished but way over priced for what you get in comparison to the other (I could have bought 3 Howa Barreled Actions for the cost of the Tikka Hunter Fluted I bought.

[Bill]

He has a Boyds laminated stock on it.

Howa factory stock are HTI with Alloy Pillar bedding, laminate too heavy for my liking

[bigfellascott]

He has a Boyds laminated stock on it.

Ah right, have you played with backing off the front action screw? Iv'e found mine seem to like it when I just tighten the front screw up with just a bit of light pressure, not torqued up using king kong tensioning.

One of my mates bought 2 sakos a few years back now (both within mths of each other) and both had to go back as they had really bad chatter marks in the barrels - we just couldn't get them to shoot and finally he got a bore scope and found the reason why. He was not a happy chappy but they were both replaced under warranty so all good.

It doesn't matter what brand, you will get duds in all of them. I also have a mate with a 308HB Howa it shoots very well (he uses it for long range shooting (1k type ranges) also have a mate who won a Howa in 243 from memory and it wouldn't shoot either so he got it rebarreled and she shoots real well now, he owns sakos and tikkas and his go to rifle for the foxes was the Howa. He used to use the Sako 204 with heavy Mab barrel but prefered to use the Howa in the end (I assume it was more because of the cal not the actual rifle.

[bigfellascott]

Howa factory stock are HTI with Alloy Pillar bedding, laminate too heavy for my liking

I like the Boyds cos they are cheap to buy, I never buy the Howas with stocks on em, I just buy the barreled action and put the dress I like on em. Another reason why I like Howas.

[Sergeant Hartman]

All this talk of gun culture America vs Japan. Answer me some questions

Who makes the best scopes.. America or Japan?
Who has better reputation of precision work America or Japan?
And I am surprised you don't include an American brand like Ruger etc in the comparison.

Anyway back to my story all three guns are good, but they throw the odd bad ones as well. And regarding the $400 barreled action....is only available at a certain gun shop near Brisbane. All other shops you looking around 800+ for a howa..... still quite a bit cheaper than a tikka