The "Police Model" Howas have always had 1-9" twists in .223. There was an Interarms dealer local to me at the time Interarms was going belly-up, and they sold a bunch at pretty good prices.

The Varmint Model I had had a 1-12" twist, and loved H-322 and 50gr. SPSX bullets, but would shoot 50VMs acceptably well, too. It would shoot into .3" without any heartache, and splatted prairie dogs for me quite well. I wore the pipe out on the thing.

You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.