I thought I posted here yesterday, but I guess it was cyberized. I bought one about 4+ years ago in anticipation of a return hunt for cape buff. Health put the skids on that a bit. Mine is the Houge stock and 24" SS. My only complaint is the trigger which breaks at about 4# and has a bit of creep, that most people wouldn't notice, it is adjustable and word is that the newer model is better. I have shot the rifle extensively, I never bought a factory round . I did this because i wanted to work into the recoil slowly rather than start with with full power. My experience has been that most loads will shoot <MOA for 3 shots, however different weight bullets do not shoot the same point of aim @100yd. I use a load of about 70-72 gr of one of the 4895's and the 225gr Hornady spire point. This puts it in the power range of a 300 mag. Damage to deer is comparable and little meat is lost. Recoil is like 3006-300mag. The Houge stock seems to mitigate recoil, and the rig weighs a bit over 9# with a Leupy 1.75- 6 scope in Burris steel rings. I never shoot more than 6 or 8 full throttle loads because I don't want to develop a flinch,as even though recoil is mitigated 300 gr at~2650 generate recognizable recoil. It hasn't hurt yet, but being a "wus" I respect it. Usual pastime is shooting 16 oz soda/tea bottles at 330 yds from different positions. The bottles are losing. I originally bought the rifle because Ruger would not do a stuff on the assy line and give me a laminate stock wit a SS 23" set up. Id buy the Howa again. Oh one of the things Ive done is to shoot Lee 255gr 38-55 cast bullets, tumble lubed over a light dose of shotshell powder. These are just "stuffed by hand" ; bullets unsized into unsized cases. This gives a velocity similar to the 38-55 . this is just for plinking practice or even deer at short range. They will group under 1 moa at 100-3hots.
