Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Howa Mini Stainless

They probably had no plans for 1/2-20 threading either....grin...

I was already thinking about one of the blued ones in .223 but have held off. Stainless would probably sucker me in.

I called brownells yesterday to get the mag they forgot to ship to me. I told them about the issue with the threading. They then forwarded me to a manager that I spoke with about the threading. I told him it could be an inconvenience for some because the 1/2-20 isn't that common here but many people have suppressors or muzzle devices that are 1/2-28. I suggested that many will just live with it because we're all pretty excited to have a stainless option.

Then I mentioned to him a bit of my background in marketing and told him if it were me I'd call those that got the barreled actions and at least offer to return them or see if they can do something to make it right. I told him my instinct was that most would just keep them but would appreciate the offer.

He was wondering how they messed up on the threading so I mentioned that until now the stainless had only been available in New Zealand and Australia so maybe that's the thread spec they used there. I got a phone call this morning first thing with them offering to send me a call tag and return my money. I told them I'd just be keeping mine as is but thanks for the offer.

Bb

Might be an opportunity for someone to sell a nice smaller muzzle brake in stainless threaded 1/2-20 and or some thinner thread adaptors from 1/2-20 to 1/2-28.
It would be interesting to know how many of the barreled actions with 1/2-20 went out. I think brownells would tell a person how many of them they've sold. I'm guessing more guys will be interested in am adapter than a brake but my little kids love muzzle brakes because they don't like recoil. I personally hate brakes do to the noise but had planned to let my kids use one on the minis.

If mine had came at 22" I'd probably be wanting to cut it and retread it but I think it balances pretty well at 20". There's probably a 1/2 -20 brake out there so I'll have to look around.

Bb

Yes, I am holding out for now also… Joe

Seems like Legacy just cannot stop stepping on their dick with these minis...unfortunate.

Probably reflects my Fudd/Boomer bias, but a Grendel isn’t what I consider a prime candidate for a can. I’d be just as happy with no threading at all.

I suppose now I have to pull out my Carbon Stalker .223 and see if the protector from the SS Grendel fits.

That might be a minor issue, as a .22 suppressor is on my maybe list, as I have several that came threaded.

Yep. Despite that, the mini's are still sweet enough little rifles that we'll buy them and spend $ to make them what we want. With a Stocky's and HPK's bottom metal they are hard to beat for the $...even with the $ for the add-on's. I'm not sure if there is a slimmer, trimmer rifle for the mini based rounds...or any rounds.

All Ruger has to do is rechamber that hawkeye hunter .204 to the x39 family and bring back the boat paddle stock option also and that would solve all this legacy howa nonsense.

And while sako 85 had the short xs action for .223 they too could make the be all end all on the x39 family with the new 90’s. A peak Grendel would be pretty sweet.

The first proper manufacturer of a .223 length stainless rifle in these will be a winner imo. Kimber would be another natural. I bet arcs would fly off the shelf.

The popularity seems to be there now. It’s just project gun until then.

Pass on the Ruger and Sako if they did happen. A Kimber would be a no brainer but won't hold my breath.

Will continue to piece together a mini the "right" way in the meantime.

You have no choice lol.

These arc’s will help create the demand necessary.

And the new Hawkeye’s shoot and have out 70’d the 70. Fixed literally any [bleep] from older 77 variations. So a walnut and synthetic would be awesome. Find an older x39 boat paddle and barrel swap would be a decent one too but that’s needle in haystack. Modern options what we want, off the shelf.

Heck a browning off their .223 xbolt would raise my eyebrow and I’m not a browning guy at all.

This is my Howa 1500 mini in .223. Put it in a Stocky’s carbon stock.

Don’t know how to make my pictures bigger

looks to me like you could reverse the rings and get some decent spacing......

Yup. I have about $1100 in each of mine, the SS 6.5 and a factory Carbon Stalker .223, plus optics. Hard to find anything factory about 6lbs all-up for that, and what there is will be in a .308-sized action, not to scale. The other rifle I have about the same weight is my Fieldcraft that cost $1800 2017 pre-Biden bucks. It’s somewhat nicer, but I can’t really say it’s all that much better.

They seem to be gone from the website...wonder if they are updating the specs, or it was a one time run...

I spoke to someone at legacy and they said this was a one time run from one of their sister companies. I'm guessing that sister company is an international distributor. They said the only stainless they received were some barreled actions in 6.5 grendel and 7.62x39 and they all had 1/2x20 threads. He said once these are gone they're gone.

I asked if they had any future plans to do anything else mini in stainless and he said no because there is no demand. I said most of the people I know would prefer stainless. He said he has data from all over the US and Canada showing everyone wants blued and a very miniscule amount want stainless. I asked what the data was based on and he said sales. I asked if he thought more people bought blued because that was the only thing available. He said no people just dislike stainless rifles in general.

I guess I'm just an outlier in my strong preference for stainless rifles. I always prefer at least a stainless barrel when given an option. I find it hard to believe so many people don't like stainless. Is it just the color of it? If you nitride stainless so it's black would people like it then.

I think it would be interesting to do a conjoint analysis on hunting rifles to see what features and attributes people prefer. I know many people still want long barrels which I don't but other than that I thought I'd be pretty in line with most others. I also prefer faster twists but think the average buyer doesn't know the difference that's why they don't care.

Bb

I suspect most folks choose a rifle purely on price and stainless generally runs about $100 more for the same rifle.

I wonder what data they used to quantify better...

So much to unpack lol.

I don’t believe their horseshit data at all, that’s why they can’t seem to get anything right is they have terrible sources lol. That answers that. Maybe read this thread legacy...idiots. Maybe spend a few minutes after that at 6.5 Grendel forum and see how often they are chewed on. Maybe see how well aftermarket is doing to fix all the retarded garbage they keep putting out lol. Man that is epic...’our data’....bwahaha...absolute retards. These clowns have never heard the phrase ‘do I right the first time’ and if they did...they aren’t clever enough to understand what it means. So we fools do it right the second and third times for them and the extra money fixing their garbage to ‘acceptable’ goes to the aftermarket. Barrel action and bolt are ok...wrong material until this batch of stainless but just ok....everything else junk.

See their data apparently won’t show them that their little stainless batch sold out in a week or two so they will lean back on their ‘other data’ and keep giving us crap we don’t want and have to triple the cost to make acceptable.

Legacy is a joke. Learn how to make a rifle if you’re gonna get in the rifle business. Learn what do it right the first time means. Hire someone that understands this please...lmfao.

Agree...on field craft vs howa with new everything as ‘better’ and how to define it. Not even in same ball park. Is group size your definition? There’s lightweight done right and there’s legacy lol. One feels quality and has fit finish and features. But even when done trying to get a howa there it still feels cheap as f.ck. There’s way more to it than just being light and shooting a decent group.

Lol, how many blue tikkas going out the door compared to stainless? You build mountain worthy weight rifles and that automatically puts you into stainless preference...such a basic concept keeps flying over their silly heads year after year. Yet they offer stainless in other small markets but the biggest gun market in the world they can’t seem to get it right...what idiots. Hire a real rifleman please and someone that understands the largest gun market in the world. Oh and learn the phrase do it right the first time...ask the new hires what that means.

Step 1 stainless
Step 2 single stage trigger
Step 3 knurled knob safety
Step 4 proper stock (mimic Pendleton)
Step 5 hinged floor plate option
Step 6 ar mag option
Step 6a metal bottom metal!
Step 7 double the price

We would come. Is it really that hard to figure this out???

If you don’t wanna inlet the bottom of action to fit ar mag then completely redo your mag set up to something that is sized according for 5 rounds. Your 5 round mag is the same size as an AR 10 round. Oh but North America the land of AR’s and you can’t math out what that would do for sales to offer the standard language mag here? Lmfao...’our data’ hahahaha.

Oh would that make it too expensive? You underestimate this market greatly. Keep building your cheap azz rifles then...if you did it right you could double the price easy and we would come. What you think guys pay for decent ar builds and how many do they have? Anyway...these idiots couldn’t be more out of touch if they tried.