Howa opinions?

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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by Stubbles McBeard » 21 Apr 2016, 5:51 pm

Thanks everybody for your input, might go place my order tomorrow after work.

gunnnie wrote:Have a Howa 1500varmint in 308W. It has the Hogue stock which I've noticed is a tad soft in the front end. So I'll be doing my usual trick of stiffening it by adding lengths of carbon arrow into the channel & glued in. Did this with my Savage tac elite. Worked a treat.


Good idea, easy source of good, straight carbon fibre.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by headspace » 21 Apr 2016, 8:10 pm

I'll vote for the Howa. The ones we're getting now are better than before, especially the trigger. If you want just buy a barrelled action and put whatever stock you want on it. The Hogue rubber thing is pretty agricultural. The pillar bedding on the Howa works OK but down the track you can improve on that. I prefer the floor plate type mag on the Howa, drop out mags have been known to do just that, but at inopportune times. I'm on my 3rd Howa and they all shot well. The action is about as strong as an action gets. It may feel a little rough at first, but they smooth out well with use. My current Howa is a 6.5 Creedmoor and shoots half inch at 100 easy. Oh by the way, Tikka's are OK too.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by scotty87 » 21 Apr 2016, 10:43 pm

I'm pretty pleased with my Howa .308 now, had its first shoot in its new bedded boyds furniture today and i'm pretty happy with the results.

Image

Image

got it shooting just over 1" groups at 100yrds with reloads, off of a front rest only so a little wobbly, I reckon with a rear sandbag and a bit more practice on the trigger groups will tighten to under an inch.

Some further attention is needed, I plan to replace the boyds recoil pad with a limb saver or pachmayr pad as the shoulder was left stinging after only 40 rounds of my 165gr reloads, and i've got plenty of padding in that area too!. I'll probably ship my trigger off to the ebay guy as well, as I found I couldn't get a consistent break/feel of it today.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by WayneO » 21 Apr 2016, 11:04 pm

gunnnie wrote:Have a Howa 1500varmint in 308W. It has the Hogue stock which I've noticed is a tad soft in the front end. So I'll be doing my usual trick of stiffening it by adding lengths of carbon arrow into the channel & glued in. Did this with my Savage tac elite. Worked a treat.


Please can you explain this to me, it sounds very interesting.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by Gwion » 21 Apr 2016, 11:34 pm

WayneO wrote:
gunnnie wrote:Have a Howa 1500varmint in 308W. It has the Hogue stock which I've noticed is a tad soft in the front end. So I'll be doing my usual trick of stiffening it by adding lengths of carbon arrow into the channel & glued in. Did this with my Savage tac elite. Worked a treat.


Please can you explain this to me, it sounds very interesting.


Get some quality 2pack epoxy and some carbon fiber tape to form a matix. Layer the epoxy and c/f tape until you fill the void in the synthetic stock fore-end. 18 hour later, you should have a more stable fore-end on which to mount a bi-pod or use a simple field rest.

Or, see the instructions in the link below, whether or not you use their products:
http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowled ... tions.html
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by bigfellascott » 22 Apr 2016, 6:58 am

scotty87 wrote:I'm pretty pleased with my Howa .308 now, had its first shoot in its new bedded boyds furniture today and i'm pretty happy with the results.

Image

Image

got it shooting just over 1" groups at 100yrds with reloads, off of a front rest only so a little wobbly, I reckon with a rear sandbag and a bit more practice on the trigger groups will tighten to under an inch.

Some further attention is needed, I plan to replace the boyds recoil pad with a limb saver or pachmayr pad as the shoulder was left stinging after only 40 rounds of my 165gr reloads, and i've got plenty of padding in that area too!. I'll probably ship my trigger off to the ebay guy as well, as I found I couldn't get a consistent break/feel of it today.


The trigger job should improve those results - is the barrel fully free floating in the Boyds (they usually require a bit of sanding to ensure plenty of gap. ( piece of dowel or broom handle or something that is roughly the size of the barrel wrapped in sandpaper works fine and is quick to do and then a quick seal with some clear. :thumbsup:
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by scotty87 » 22 Apr 2016, 9:20 am

bigfellascott wrote:
scotty87 wrote:I'm pretty pleased with my Howa .308 now, had its first shoot in its new bedded boyds furniture today and i'm pretty happy with the results.





got it shooting just over 1" groups at 100yrds with reloads, off of a front rest only so a little wobbly, I reckon with a rear sandbag and a bit more practice on the trigger groups will tighten to under an inch.

Some further attention is needed, I plan to replace the boyds recoil pad with a limb saver or pachmayr pad as the shoulder was left stinging after only 40 rounds of my 165gr reloads, and i've got plenty of padding in that area too!. I'll probably ship my trigger off to the ebay guy as well, as I found I couldn't get a consistent break/feel of it today.


The trigger job should improve those results - is the barrel fully free floating in the Boyds (they usually require a bit of sanding to ensure plenty of gap. ( piece of dowel or broom handle or something that is roughly the size of the barrel wrapped in sandpaper works fine and is quick to do and then a quick seal with some clear. :thumbsup:


Yeah it's floated down to where the bedding starts in front of the recoil lug, gonna play with seating depth at 42.6gr of AR2208 pushing hornady 165gr BTSP.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by gunnnie » 22 Apr 2016, 10:03 am

WayneO wrote:
gunnnie wrote:Have a Howa 1500varmint in 308W. It has the Hogue stock which I've noticed is a tad soft in the front end. So I'll be doing my usual trick of stiffening it by adding lengths of carbon arrow into the channel & glued in. Did this with my Savage tac elite. Worked a treat.


Please can you explain this to me, it sounds very interesting.


Too easy mate.
Measure the channel in the fore-end to get the length needed. Get some carbon arrows cut to that length. Best if 10-15mm shorter.
Roughen the channel with some sand paper or a rotary burr in a dremel. This provides a "keyed" surface for the epoxy to adhere to.
Put a layer of epoxy down in the channel, about 10mm, let it start to go off, then lay the carbon rod.
This stops the rods from sinking to the bottom of the epoxy.
Once the epoxy is starting to go firm, pour the next layer over it to cover the rods.
If you want thinner carbon rod, check out a kite store.

I was told about this procedure when I bought my Savage Tac Elite 308. Made a big difference to using the rifle with a bipod, at next to no added weight. Plus it was a cheaper option than a new stock.
If there is an archery club nearby, drop in and ask if anyone has a couple of busted carbon rods they can spare.
When you cut it, use a fine tooth hacksaw blade under running water as the dust is not nice.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by Usurper » 22 Apr 2016, 10:35 am

zobster wrote:My mate has a tikka and I have a howa, both 223. I've shot his quite a lot and I must say performance wise both is just as good on factory osa ammunition. But as what others have said in the previous post, the finish of the howa is a little on the rough side.


It's all compromise.

At half the price they do a damn good offering :thumbsup:
.308 CZ 550 American
.222 Tikka Varmint
.357 Mag Marlin 1894
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by bigfellascott » 22 Apr 2016, 1:59 pm

scotty87 wrote:
bigfellascott wrote:
scotty87 wrote:I'm pretty pleased with my Howa .308 now, had its first shoot in its new bedded boyds furniture today and i'm pretty happy with the results.





got it shooting just over 1" groups at 100yrds with reloads, off of a front rest only so a little wobbly, I reckon with a rear sandbag and a bit more practice on the trigger groups will tighten to under an inch.

Some further attention is needed, I plan to replace the boyds recoil pad with a limb saver or pachmayr pad as the shoulder was left stinging after only 40 rounds of my 165gr reloads, and i've got plenty of padding in that area too!. I'll probably ship my trigger off to the ebay guy as well, as I found I couldn't get a consistent break/feel of it today.


The trigger job should improve those results - is the barrel fully free floating in the Boyds (they usually require a bit of sanding to ensure plenty of gap. ( piece of dowel or broom handle or something that is roughly the size of the barrel wrapped in sandpaper works fine and is quick to do and then a quick seal with some clear. :thumbsup:


Yeah it's floated down to where the bedding starts in front of the recoil lug, gonna play with seating depth at 42.6gr of AR2208 pushing hornady 165gr BTSP.


Yep I would be playing with the seating depth too, should get them tightening up once you find what it likes. :thumbsup: Have you tried any diff bullet weights/types? perhaps before doing any adjustments use a rear bag to ensure all movement is minimised/eliminated, see how it shoots then go from there that's what I'd be doing. :thumbsup:
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by WayneO » 25 Apr 2016, 5:51 pm

Thank you very much Gunnie,
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by MalleeFarmer » 27 Apr 2016, 8:06 pm

This was a good group for the 125tnt always shot about .5moa I've just worked up a load for 168gr Amax and on my first three test loads I got 1 load at under moa and 2 at under .5moa both had 2 bullets touching and the third about 1/3" away from the other 2. This could be my poor shooting or just need more development. Howa Heavybarrel Varmint .308
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by bigfellascott » 27 Apr 2016, 11:19 pm

Nothing wrong with that result MF - that will certainly put holes in fur no worries at all.
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by Gwion » 27 Apr 2016, 11:58 pm

Gotta be happy with that, Mallee!
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Re: Howa opinions?

Post by MalleeFarmer » 28 Apr 2016, 9:59 am

That's what I thought. It's my most accurate factory rifle. Wish I'd bought my .22-250 in the same instead of the M70. Anyway back to the OP I've used both Howas and Tikkas. Howas are cheaper and in my opinion have a better action than the tikka. Perhaps not as pretty but they're a strong action. I don't like the plastic bolt shroud or magazine on the tikka not do I like the 2 piece bolt but they have a lot of lovers. Both will out shoot me and I'd say take the one YOU like best. Probably 2 of the best value rifles available.
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