Just bought my first rifle :-)

[MickGC]

So took the new rifle down to the Belmont range in brisbane on sat morning.
Wow it gets busy there early! got there as they opened and there where so many already there!
ran a few rounds through it, got it hitting paper, then tried for a few 5 shot groups, best i got was about 26mm as the largest distance between the centre of 2 holes, pretty sure the rifle is still capable of much better!

It is def a slippery slope!
Now the part of trying to find somewhere to hunt

[brett1868]

Mick,
Nice choice of rifle, I have the S/S Varmint version of the Howa 1500 Mini action .223 and have so far been impressed. Mine seems to like the OSA 55gr Blitz Kings which group around 1" @ 100 which is fine for small game. I'll do some load development when time permits as I'm sure it's capable of shooting better with some tailored loads. Mine came as a package with a Nikko Panamax 3-9x4 scope but I ended up fitting a Bushnell 4.5-18x40 223 BDC Reticle as I prefer a little more magnification in my old age. I did have only 1 minor issue in that the barrel was binding on the synthetic stock, 10 mins to fix with a screwdriver and deburing tool.
Enjoy the rifle and keep us posted on your progress

[Xerox]

Welcome to the club Mick