Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Howa M1500...Sub MOA for $399 (Review) (Long)

Here is another long post. A forum member messaged me with a simple question, to which I gave an answer which was much too complicated. Without disclosing the identity of the gentleman who messaged me, I have included some pertenent parts of my response. It is pretty much a ramble on capitalistic production theory and why I wound up buying the Howa instead of the Vanguard. In it there are also some mysteries which some of you here might be able to shed some light on. So if you are interested, here it is, for your reading pleasure, feel free to respond with your wisdom or correct me where you see fatal flaws.

Back when I worked at a gun shop I heard all sorts of stories about how the Vanguards were supposed to be more accurate than the Howa's. None of them were ever substantiated though. One of the stories was that the regular production Howa barreled actions are taken of the line and are then put through a regimine of barrel straightening to ensure they meet the accuracy garuntee. Another was that only those Howa's that exibited 1.5 moa accuracy after test firing were taken and to have the bolt fluted and marked weatherby. Whether those stories are true or not is a mystery to me.

What I did know though, is that Weatherby and Howa are both marketing their rifle for $399. So what I had to do to justify buying the Howa was invest a little faith in capitalistic theory. My theory being that if two companies are going to market an almost identical product for the same price, one should be of the same quality as the other. Otherwise Howa would risk creating a bad reputation for themselves and would loose profit in the long run because if the Weatherby's were really that much better nobody would want to buy a Howa for the same price. If the Howa's were inferior then Howa would have to run a promotion running the M1500 for say $50 less.

So here is basically why I bought the Howa instead of the Vanguard.

1.Faith that for a similar price Howa would produce a comodity of similar quality as the Vanguard.

2.It comes equiped with a free floating Houge overmould stock. Vanguards I believe are not free floated. The houge feels better to me than the Vanguard stock because it is lightere, has crazy grip (almost sticky) and doesnt have a monte carlo cheek peice. Also, I know the length of pull is the same on the Howa and the Vanguard, but for some reason any time I shouldered a vanguard I felt stretched way out of my normal shooting position, like a kid holding his dad's rifle. I cannot however quantify why I had this sensation.

3. It was available in my Local Gun Shop in the caliber I wanted, whereas to get the weatherby I would have had to pay more to have it special ordered.

4. I got to stimulate my loal economy rather than a corporate one.

It may be that I just got lucky and the rifle I picked up just happened to be one of those that offered incredible accuracy even in the absence of extensive quality control, accurizing, test firing, and a garuntee.

However, it may also be possible that Howa makes such a quality product that it is easy and economical for Weatherby to contract the production of their rifles from Howa because a large majority of their product consistently produce small groups. If so that would mean that it is easy for Weatherby to garuntee accuracy, and would have a minimum of products rejected for being unfit for the garuntee. This would make test firing only a formality to assure that the product fit the garuntee. It would also mean that Weatherby would not have to incurr extra cost for the price of accurizing, quality testing, hand picking exceptional specimens, etc. It might neccisarily drive the consumer price up if they did have to take those measures. This may also explain why they are marketed for the same price.

It's kinda like the question of how many licks it takes to get to the centere of a tootsie pop. "The world may never know." My mind (as all men's) may go to incredible lenghts to justify itself, but to me,the latter theory seems more inline with the kind of Japanese capitalism and production theory Americans have become familiar with in other areas such as the automotive industry.

However, there is something very reassuring about a garuntee and a factory test group though.

Even for all my rambling about capitalistic production theory, If I had it all to do aver again, and I had the choice between a Vanguard and a Howa in the same caliber setting right next to each other for the same price, I probably would have walked out the store with the Vanguard instead.

For whatever it's worth.