I bought a Howa lightning in 308 a while back for a project just to see how it would be. I bedded the action in a high tech specialties stock, Talley lightweights, fixed 6x weaver scope and a lightweight black sling. With 3 rounds in the gun it weighs in at 7.5lbs ready to hunt which for me is about where i like a hunting rifle as a struggle to shoot ultralights as well as I would like.
I had some 150 grain Barnes ttsx loads laying around so i ran them through them in the gun and it shoots about 3/4" - 1" groups at 100 yards with no load tuning at all as all the reloads I have been shooting were for a Remington 700 I had a while back. The potential is there for a pretty accurate rifle if played with more but I am happy with what i have to this point.
I don't particularly like the 2 stage trigger on the rifle but Timney makes a replacement that is good and might be in the rifles future.
Overall I am very pleased with the rifle and would buy another one in a heartbeat if I could just get them to make an 8 twist 223 I would dump my Ruger American in a heartbeat for another one since the gun feeds like butter and handles pretty well.
