Howa opinions?

[WayneO]

Thank you very much for that.
P.S its a great addiction to have. I dont care what i have to do, but I have to have one of those stocks. My .223 now looks so mundane

[bigfellascott]

Too right mate only addiction worth having.

[WayneO]

Too right mate only addiction worth having.

Well that and being addicted to hunting, fishing, knives, camping and the outdoors.
Fortunately there is no rehab for what we have

[brett1868]

Looking at the bigfellas groups they are as good or better then my Sako 85 .204 Ruger with a rifle probably costing half as much. Proof positive that you don't have to spend big bucks to buy quality or accuracy. Pictures talk and these are a great endorsement of both the Howa's capabilites and the bigfellas skill behind the trigger. Great stuff mate

[brett1868]

@WayneO...can you change your profile pic please? I'm falling in lust with her and can't concentrate on

[scotty87]

I'll give my opinion tomorrow after I shoot some groups with my Howa .308 in its new Boyd's furniture, hopefully will have it shooting MOA or less.

[happyhunter]

hahaha.. shooting MOA. I love that one.

[Gwion]

I like my Howa a lot but there are a few things to be aware of with them.

Firstly, the bolt is heavy and the screw holding the bolt release is minuscule: if you are heavy handed with cycling the action, the screw can and will break (mine did and many others have from what i hear); it will then float around and completely bugger any accuracy until you realise it is fouling between the action and the stock.

Secondly, it is not uncommon for the locking lugs to have uneven contact with the action in battery. If you are chasing bettter accuracy than just under 1MOA and cant get it no matter who shoots the rifle or how much load development you do, this may be the reason. It can be lapped out or cut even by your smith. You can see the contact your rifle is getting by marking the back of the locking lugs with a permanent marker and working the bolt a few times with a spent (that's FIRED) cartridge in the chamber. Where the texta rubs off is where you are getting contact. Mine was only getting full contact on one side and maybe 10-20% contact on the other side. I couldn't get it to shoot sub 0.5MOA until i fixed this. I know it's not a big deal for hunting and plinking but i wanted it to be reliably sub 0.5MOA for shooting club level F-class out to 600yards.

Finally, the trigger can be a bit rough and heavy and inexperienced tinkerers can disable the safety. Good news is there's a reliable guy who can sort it out very well and very quickly for around $60 including return postage!

Also, be aware that the heavy barrel jobbies are HEAVY and it is not the simplest action in the world to bed for yourself.

Other than these known foibles, they are a great affordable rifle from my experience and everything you read about them. Unless you're an obsessive tinkerer, you will probably find no issue with any of the above..... except the bolt release; it will break if you are in he habit of slamming your bolt through the cycle.

[WayneO]

@WayneO...can you change your profile pic please? I'm falling in lust with her and can't concentrate on

how do you think I feel, she is my screen saver.

[scotty87]

hahaha.. shooting MOA. I love that one.

lol i think i know what you did there...I'm a bit late in the game to be shooting MOA hopefully it groups under an inch at 100yrd for three shots, is all I really want out of this rifle as it's only a sporter barrel.

[bigfellascott]

Looking at the bigfellas groups they are as good or better then my Sako 85 .204 Ruger with a rifle probably costing half as much. Proof positive that you don't have to spend big bucks to buy quality or accuracy. Pictures talk and these are a great endorsement of both the Howa's capabilites and the bigfellas skill behind the trigger. Great stuff mate

Cheers Brett, my Howa 204 (the one on the log with rabbits) cost me $780 from memory including shipping, scope, mounts, boyds stock and action of course - I bought it new 2nd hand so wasn't expensive and she's been a rippa little outfit (I've removed quite a few bunny heads out past 300m now) so it does everything I need it too do as do my other Howa's, they just work, I've never had any issues ever with any of them, I just drag them out of the safe and go hunting which is all they have to do (I do get my triggers tuned by the Glen Coughlan (Ebay Trigger Guy) and that's the only mod I've ever done to any of them, I haven't bedded any of the yet, may do it one day when I can be bothered but they shoot fine without doing it hence why I haven't bothered, mind you if I wanted to shoot targets all day I would do it to improve consistency etc but for hunting I don't find it necessary.

[gunnnie]

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.

[Stubbles McBeard]

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

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.

[headspace]

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.
JD

[scotty87]

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.

[WayneO]

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.

[Gwion]

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

[bigfellascott]

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.

[scotty87]

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.

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.

[gunnnie]

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.

[Usurper]

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

[bigfellascott]

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.

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. 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.

[WayneO]

Thank you very much Gunnie,

[MalleeFarmer]

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

[bigfellascott]

Nothing wrong with that result MF - that will certainly put holes in fur no worries at all.

[Gwion]

Gotta be happy with that, Mallee!

[MalleeFarmer]

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.