Howa

[coloradoan]

Curious what your experiences are like with Howa rifles (or the Weatherby Vanguard). They can be found for pretty cheap but feel like a quality action. I have a Vanguard that I liked quite a bit, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about guns to give a good reason for why I like it.

How do Howa actions/barrels compare with other popular rifles like the Remington 700 or Tikka? I know that Howas are heavy and that there aren't a ton of aftermarket accessories, but what else? What do you think about the trigger, the quality of the barrels, the overall reliability? To me, the biggest problem seems to be that Howa doesn't sell stainless rifles in the US. Weatherby offers some stainless steel Vanguards, but caliber selection is limited.

 

[SaltySailor]

I have a Howa 1500, and yes, it drove me nuts that it wasn't stainless. That blued barrel took a butt whoopin from the Alaskan elements. I finally had it cerakoted, and it seems to be holding up. My buddy set me up to reach out range wise with some reloads, and after putting rounds down range I would call it a MOA gun, maybe a little wider. I certainly don't think it will ever compare to some of these rifles putting 4 rounds in basically the same hole.

I do like the action, but hate the safety. I'm a big fan of the Ruger 3 position safety, there's been too many times I've come out of the alders and a buddy told me my bolt was open

I got a 5 round mag box for mine, and a Boyd's stock. the mag box crippled me a little on load length options, but I did like having 5 rounds when we started shooting at bears. We were smacking bear sized rocks with it out to 1200 yards last year, but that has more to do with the reloads and scope.....

 

[SaltySailor]

Its a heavy beast.

 

[KHNC]

i have a heavy barrel 308 1500. Put a boyds stock on it. It is a shooter for me out to 500. I just dont get to shoot a lot at that distance. i wouldnt carry this one around all day hiking though.

Edit: I used a fence post to shoot an antelope a few years ago, the 5rd mag fell out on the ground. The mag release is in a terrible position. I ended up removing it and going back to the standard mag cover and spring.

 

[tdhanses]

The actions are very true, my gunsmith loves building off of them. I bought a worn out stainless 223 that was shooting 3” groups at 100, rebarreled it with a carbonsix in 6.5creedmoor, put a McMillan game Scout stock on it and a Timney trigger. It’s a shooter.

The Howa has decent aftermarket support imo, great actions to do your first semi-custom build off of.