Can anyone tell me about the Howa rifles?

Va varminter · Post by **Va varminter** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:18 pm

Are the as accurate as the Savages and CZ's?

Rick in Oregon · Post by **Rick in Oregon** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:30 pm

gwglave....(Gerry)....care to comment on this one buddy?

Va Varminter: Go back a few pages and check out the targets his Howa 1500 204 produced, and that will answer your question pronto! (Can you say "bug-holes"?)

Gmoney · Post by **Gmoney** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:31 pm

Rick in Oregon · Post by **Rick in Oregon** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:38 pm

Gmoney: Yep, that about sez it all.

glenn asher · Post by **glenn asher** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:59 pm

My .223 was a .3"shooter awhile back, it won't do it now, but that was thousands of rounds ago, too, so I don't begrudge it anything at all, I've had a lot of fun with it.
Howas are fine rifles, or Weatherby wouldn't have them making their Vanguards and older Mark Vs. Howa makes fine shotguns, too, their pumpgun was so good, Remington had to copy some of the features on their 870s (the 3000 was a sorta copy of the 870, with marked improvements in some ways, and Remington noticed!)

20-250ai · Post by **20-250ai** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:08 pm

Gmoney,

I have no hands on time with the Howas, But a few(more then a few) people at the range I shoot at have had the same results with other calibers(.223, 22-250).
It was what I was going to buy before the local shop got in the nice little CZ that followed me home.

gwglave · Post by **gwglave** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:50 pm

Va varminter
I have a Howa 1500 SS HB in .204 Ruger and .22-250. With loads it likes, the .204 will shoot consistently in the 2's and 3's (if I do my part).
The .22-250 will shoot Nosler 55's in front of a healthy load of IMR4064 in the 4's all day long.
I've posted this group before, but here it is again:

5 shots, 100 yards, 0.142" without the flyer.
Howa 1500 SS HB, Win case, WSR, Sierra 39BK, 24.6 grs. Re-10x

So, I'm thinking they will shoot right along with the rest of 'em. I only have about 300 rounds thru each of them, so they're not quite broke in yet. It only gets better from here

.

Hope that helps. Are you considering buying one?

Rgds, Gerry

Va varminter · Post by **Va varminter** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:39 pm

I just went to the Bud's gun shop web page and saw they had a varmint supreme for well under $600. Very good lookin' gun w/ thumbhole.

Gmoney · Post by **Gmoney** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:16 pm

Rick in Oregon wrote:Gmoney: Yep, that about sez it all.

I was going for the pictures speak louder than words idea...

In all seriousness, Howa's aren't worth a darn..
Please don't buy them and spread the word as they may go up in price...

-Greg

nzs204 · Post by **nzs204** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:38 pm

Hey guys, I have a howa 1500 in .204 with a sporter weight barrel and the hogue overmolded stock.
It wears a leupold vxII 6-18x40ao and i have absolutly no complaints about this rifle. It shoots great, couldent ask for more!
I only ever shoot it off a bipod and can shoot about .75 moa with any factory hornady ammo ( i dont reload yet and have only tried hornady).
The rifle shoots excellent, the bolt action is extremly smooth, the trigger is easily adjustable and breaks cleanly, and their stainless barrels are the easiest barrels to clean i have ever seen, not that im full of experience or anything =)
I say you cant go wrong with a howa, it an affordable rifle that shoots great and wont let you down.

TD-Max · Post by **TD-Max** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:45 pm

I have a Howa 1500 Varmint supreme here in 22-250. I find the trigger to be very crunchy and creepy. My 10/22 with the VQ target hammer is as good or better than the Howa.

Timney makes a trigger for it and I have one here to install soon. The reviews of the trigger are good and lots of comments about "how in the world could Weatherby use such a POS?" on the Midway site.

nzs204 · Post by **nzs204** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:59 pm

when i got my howa 1500 the trigger had no creep although it was obviously heavy. It was just a case of simply loosening a screw to reduce the pull weight and that was it. After that the trigger has been completly satisfactory. I suppose it would pay to test the trigger of the rifle your looking at before you buy it, make sure its got no creep so you can adjust its pull weight yourself. I hear adjusting the creep is a tad more difficult to get right so try to find a howa with no creep so you only needa adjust the weight of the pull.

gwglave · Post by **gwglave** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:20 pm

I own three Howa's; .204 Ruger, .22-250 Rem both SS HB and a sporter in .30-06. Two of the three had great triggers altho they needed some adjustment before I got them where I like them.
The third one had some creep that I just couldn't get rid of. I installed a Timney. Great trigger! No creep and set at 2 1/2 lbs pull. I have Timney's installed in several of my rifles (Rem 700's, Sako's, etc). Never had a bad one yet. They're not difficult to install but on the Rem 700, pay close attention to location and direction of parts that you take out. A diagram or photo really helps so that you can get everything back in place the way it was originally.

Rgds, Gerry

Arizona Hunter · Post by **Arizona Hunter** » Wed May 16, 2007 3:28 pm

Accurate and beautiful!
Last July I got a Howa 1500 Varminter Supreme. SS bull barrel and Boyd Thumbhole laminated stock-a thing of beauty. The bolt is smooth as silk but the trigger was heavy and creepy, too. I had a gunsmith in town lighten it to 3.5 lb. but that is as far as he could safely take it. So I called legacy Sports (the importer) and asked who they reccomended for additional trigger work (I did NOT want a Timney just because I really like the 3 position safety of the Howa), I sent it to Ultimate Firearms in Mich to Ken Johnston. He cleaned up the trigger added another screw and lightened the pull to 2.5. He does very fine work and is very affordable and fast.

Sooo, after Ultimate added that extra screw, I actually adjusted the pull even a bit lighter, to 1 lb 14 oz. and zero creep and breaks as clean as glass. Now I can hardly wait for P-dog season to re-open next month!

Robert harrel · Post by **Robert harrel** » Wed May 16, 2007 4:12 pm

i have the howa 1500 .223 it shoots a really good group the trigger does have a little bit of creep but not to bad