Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Anybody have any experience with Howa 1500 in .243

Good day Gentleman,
I have purchased myself a Howa 1500 Short Action in .243 with Varmint Barrel, fitted into a Hogue Stock. I'm sure most of you have heard about our "quick" licencing system, so should expect to have the licence at the end of this year. One good thing about this, is that it gives me time to kit out the rifle at my own pace. The rifle will be used on some problem animal control in Jackal and Caracal, and also for smaller plains game here in South Africa. It will be fitted with a suppressor, and i am leaning toward the Swarovski Z5 5-25 x 52 with the Ballistic Turret. With such a small round, i'm not sure if I will be reloading and might just shoot ammo straight out of the box
Has anyone had any experience with these rifles good or bad?

Best Regards
Marius Goosen

Experience has been good, you will like the rifle....Im always in favor of handloading, but Im sure you will be pleased with the accuracy of factory ammo...

Ingwe,
thanks for the feedback. The thing about reloading is just that being such a small calibre, it is so much easier to shoot off a whole bunch of shots, as compared to lets ay the .375 where you might only shoot 4 or 5 shots. Especially with Jackal and Caracal culling. So to shoot 30 shots in 10 minutes and having to take 1 hr to reload them just makes no sense to me. Dont get me wrong, I reload,and this means all of my clients that use my rifle get to shoot with reloaded ammo, but I just dont have the time to reload ammo where a lot of shots are going to be shot over a short space of time. We have a factory ammo that comes out here with a 80gr bullet which appeals to me. Should shoot nice and flat.

i have 1500 in 22-250 it shot great needs a new barrel now going to make it a fast twist 22-250 soon

I have a S&W 1500 (same thing) i've had for 25 years in 243. It has had several thousand rounds through it and it still shoot .5" with hand loads. I've also had zero issues with it. I just developed a load with the discontinued Barnes Varminators that is right at .3" 5 shot group. I got a good deal on these bullets and have about 20 boxs of them. This is now, just my truck gun for coyotes so i should have a lifetime supply unless the coyote population goes wacko. I keep thinking the barrel aught to be shot out but can see no sign of it going bad at this point.

I have one. I like it. A lot. The trigger is outstanding. Mine shoots 80 grain TTSXs into 1/2 inch. The gun with the TTSXs is well more than adequate for anything under 300 pounds. Don't know as I would shoot Kudu size animals with it as a first choice, but if it was what I had in my hands with that load, Mr curly horns is going to die just as well as if I'd had a 30-06.

Not sure if I will load TTSX in this rifle. Especially if I will be using it for Jackal and Caracal which are vermin. Not sure about what bullet I will be shooting yet. Thanks for the feedback fellas. It is very much appreciated.

For something as small as caracals and jackals, 75 grains is more than enough. 90 grains will be fine as well.
As for shoot rate, shooting a 243 every 20 seconds will have the barrel glowing after 7 or 8 shots.
I have worked up a couple of Howas. I don't know whether I love them or not. They all shot well with a minimum of fuss, but I don't think the trigger is very "outstanding" -- at least not with some serious and zero-tolerance polishing, stoning and adjustment.
If you find good factory ammo "down there" that the rifle likes, good for you. But I would recommend reloading. I can only imagine the ridiculous price you need to pay down there per shot.

Get a pound of Blue Dot. Get some Nosler 55 grain BTs. 14 grains of Blue Dot and those BTs will kill Jackal and Caracal out to 100 yards decently and won't over heat the gun.

I have no doubt about the killing power of the 75gr'ers or anything that goes through the .243
My point about Barnes is just that to use such a premium bullet on Vermin, it just makes no sense to the cost of using them. Because Barnes are expensive over here! You can expect to pay about $100 for a box of 50 bullets to reload.( Note bullets, not rounds) But, I'm the type of guy that will rather pay for quality and know what performance I can expect on game.
On the Vermin, I have no worries about whether the bullet fails or not. You would actually want it to fail and get the same effect as the Hornady V-Max. Except, we all know that to hunt with a V-max is not the greatest idea...
Will post some pictures of different loads from the range once I get the licence to the rifle. Expect to see the photos in about a year or so.

Just a cautionary note ... some Hogue stocks are near 'snap-on' fit. Occasionally they are so tight they wont allow the magazine box to snap into its recess and it binds up. Accuracy then goes astray.

In general ... very accurate and serviceable rifles.
Cheers...
Con

Thanks for the heads up Con. I will check that out for sure.

I have a S&W 1700 which is a Howa 1500 with a fancy stock. I have had the gun for 25 years but took it out of the factory box about 4-5 years ago for the granddaughter to shoot. It loves the Fed blue box 100 grainers, which can be bought here in the states at almost every Walmart and any other retailer that handles guns & ammo. She has no problem taking out coyotes at 150 yds with it and when she really tries .75 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yds.