Gamerancher wrote:At the risk of offending all of the Howa fanboys out there, you have a rifle that is built to a price, not a standard. Machining is done to a pre-set tolerance not precision.
The bolt lugs and receiver are not mated up perfectly, like I said, tolerance. It is what it is and you get what you pay for. It 'aint a Stolle...
Agreed it ain't a Stolle but at the same time they have a sub-MOA guarantee which their first rifle didn't meet and the replacement had a huge gouge in the bolt and was hard to open. No bolts and bolt lugs are mated up perfectly but obviously what was going on with my rifle wasn't "normal" even for budget rifles.
I think HOWA rifles made a lot more sense back when you could get the lower end models for about $400 on sale. The original HS Precision rifle I bought, that didn't shoot to their sub-MOA guarantee, cost about $640 but it had an HS Precision stock which has an MSRP of about $400-$500 so it seemed like a really good deal. That said, it obviously turned out not to be, at least in my case. The action design is actually really robust and they have a very good trigger.
The HOWA Oryx (which replaced my original gun) sells for about 1,000 USD. At that price point you would almost certainly be better off getting a Bergara B-14 or a Tikka of some sort. $1,000 isn't a "budget" rifle, even in today's market. As such, you'd expect at least mid-tier level quality. Regardless, I am glad they decided to make it right and refund my money.