So I have wanted a good rifle in .308 Winchester for years. To me this is the ultimate scroungers cartridge; blending power, availability, and diversity of components, as well as mild behavior when it comes to shoot-ability. I wanted the rifle to be something I could upgrade later so I didn�t want to spend too much money to start out, but I also wanted the initial rifle to be attractive and useful for its purpose before I upgraded it. For the last couple of years there just simply wasn't any rifle that I thought had the right blend of features and cost effectiveness. Then, about a month ago, I noticed Weatherby and Howa were both advertising their Vanguard and M1500 respectively for $399.
I admired the Vangaurd/1500 since back in the day when I worked at a gun store to pay my bills during college. Back then I think the thing that put me off was that I thought they didn't have a true short-action but instead had a modified bolt-stop and magazine spacer to make a standard length action serviceable for short cartridges.
Then a couple weeks ago I went to my home town and was making the rounds to my favorite old gun shops. On the shelf they had a Howa M1500 in .308 so I asked to look at it.
Things I liked about this rifle when I looked at it.
1. Of course I liked that it was $399
2. This was a M1500 and it was a true short action
3. Sako style extractor
4. Hogue Stock
5. Free-Floating Barrel
6. Adjustable Trigger
7. Fit and finish were very nice, especially compared to a Remington SPS, which would also cost more.
8. Since I worked at that gun shop the Howa/Vanguard rifles have gained a sterling reputation and have become very widely accepted.
The only thing I didn't like about the Howa was that, for the same price, it didn't come with Weatherby's 1.5 MOA guarantee. So I endeavored to find the Vanguard variety in .308 for the same price. Two weeks later, after not being able to find a gun store that carried the Vanguard in .308 who would give me the same $399 price if I did a special order, I decided it was better to stimulate my local economy rather than a corporate one and returned to my Local Gun Shop to purchase the M1500.
So for $399 for the rifle, plus $99 dollars for a Bushnell Trophy 3x9x40 (The Gun Shop threw in a set of Weaver rings and bases), and including Texas sales tax, I walked out the door with a complete shooting setup for $540.
As an aside, from past experience, I have found Bushnell Trophy scopes to be a great bargain for a budget scope. In the future when my optics budget is built up I intend to transfer the Bushnell to my 10/22 and put a higher quality scope with long range capability on my upgraded M1500.
To be sure I had some serious misgivings about the accuracy of my purchase but took it on faith that for the same price Howa would try to sell a product similar in quality to that of Weatherby with their Vanguard.
For the first range session I went to the range with a variety of factory loaded ammo (also all budget conscious). They were as follows.
Federal 150 gr. Power Shock for $16
Federal 165 gr. Fusion for $24
Winchester 180 gr. Super-X Power Point for $20
There was absolutely no wind at the range and I started off with the Federal 150�s at 50 yards for initial sighting in. My accuracy misgivings began to materialize when I, over the course of two 5 shot strings at 50 yards, the rifle strung them with no apparent rhyme or reason.
I decided I�d switch to the Winchester 180�s and immediately saw improvements. After getting zeroed at 50 yards with the 180�s I moved the target out to 100 yards for some accuracy testing. Initially I was cleaning the bore after every 5 shots, but started to clean after every 3 when I started shooting with the 180�s at 100 yards (mostly to give me something to do while I let the barrel cool).
On 3 consecutive strings of fire the 180�s printed groups of 1.5 inches from a completely clean bore. My panic over the accuracy of the 150 gr. load began to subside. So after 3 strings of fire, and without cleaning the bore before proceeding, I decided and give the 165 gr. Fusion load a try.
I was astonished when the first 3 shots with the 165 gr. load grouped at approx. 0.71 center-to-center. (group size estimated by holding a dime up to the group and aligning its edges with the centers of the three separate bullet holes.)
I decided to investigate further. I cleaned the bore and let it cool and decided that for the next course of fire I would fire 4 shots instead of three because the rifle had previously shown a propensity to throw the first shot from a clean bore approximately 1 inch high perfectly above center of aim. The first shot did exactly as expected printing 1 inch above the expected point of impact. The following 3 shots printed a perfect clover-leaf pattern with the center of the pattern being exactly 1 inch below the impact of the first �fowling shot.� I love it when a rifle is consistent and everything goes perfectly according to plan! The overall size of the 3 shot group was estimated at 0.80 from center-to-center by aligning the edges of a nickel with the center�s of all three bullet holes. At that moment, especially considering its performance with low cost ammo, I fell in love with the accuracy and consistency of this rifle.
There were a couple of things that I decided I should change about this rifle after shooting it. First, the trigger is set pretty heavy from the trigger and is gritty before the sear breaks. This made consistent shooting form from a concrete bench require diligent concentration. I cant imagine it would be very easy to achieve consistent form with this trigger while shooting in field positions. Therefore, the first thing I must do is clean up the trigger. Luckily the M1500 comes with a somewhat-adjustable trigger. So while I may be able to adjust it for weight and make it serviceable, it may prove more difficult to adjust to creep and seer engagement to eliminate the gritty take-up on this trigger. Ultimately I may have to go with an aftermarket trigger to achieve satisfactory results. The Second thing I am going to do is have the action glass bedded to ensure consistent engagement with the action and make the stock more ridged under recoil. I don�t think there is any way this could hurt and I believe it may actually even help make the rifle more consistent thereby shrinking the size of my groups.
One might argue that these two upgrades kind blow my budget minded justification for purchasing this rifle. But, when you look at it, for about $70 I can have both the trigger worked and the stock bedded, and after doing those two things the cost of the rifle is just now starting to approach that of an unmodified Remington SPS which would probably have to have those same things done to it also. Further, doing these two things is within my aforementioned spirit of upgrading the rifle as I go along and the budget increases.
In Conclusion, I would Highly recommend the Howa/Vanguard line of rifles, at the current price, to anyone who is either looking for an awesome hunting rifle for not much cash or anyone who is looking for a quality foundation upon which to build a high quality custom turn-bolt.
I�ll try to get some pictures of the rifle up as well as some pictures of the targets so that any skeptics can see the proof in the pudding
Cheer�s All.
