Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Howa Rifles? whats the skinny on em'?

I've heard the name, stories in brief and finally picked one up and looked it over. What's the story on these rifles? I heard they were associated with Weatherby once before but never paid much attention to them. Are they decent rifles? They seem reasonably priced, just curious.

Howa produces the Weatherby Vanguard. Weatherby get's one stock and Howa uses a variation of the Hogue stock they produce themselves. Buy whichever you prefer.

the vangaurd version at buds is cheaper

I have a couple of them, a Howa 1500 in 6.5x55 and a Weatherby Varmint Special in .223 Rem. Nice smooth actions, solid, reliable, a little heavier than some. Triggers are adjustable, but not great. I have heard that the new Weatherby Vanguard S2's have better triggers. A good rifle for a fair price be it a Weatherby Vanguard or a Howa, IMO.

My brother has a 1500 in 270 win. It is an older model made in a Realtree camo pattern. It has a crisp trigger and smooth actiion.It shoots Remington sps 130gr like a laser. I am trying to do some reloads for it now but I am not sure if I can beat factory ammo. Also he ordered a scope and case in Realtree camo also. It is a very cool looking rifle.

they make a hell of a custom as long as you're not trying to go super light weight...

Yep....one of my favorites is my 22-250AI built off a vanguard. With a #3 Douglas and sako classic swirly it ain't a fly weight but it balances well.

Paul and Scott had a great deal of influence with rifle mentioned above....grin

One of the best mass produced actions IMO.
Solid 1 piece bolt, m-16 style extractor, locking lug is part of the action instead of a washer - an absolute breeze to bed, truly superb machining, the newer triggers are excellent.

downside:
less aftermarket support for stocks/scope bases as rem/win.
Some smiths dont have the metric tap/dies to rebarrel.

I have one in 338wm, 223, and soon a 308.

The Howa 1500 is one of the best actions/rifles available. Howa started making them in the 60's and Weatherby contracted Howa to build them with the Weatherby Vanguard name on them in 1969.
If you rework or replace the trigger they are better than a 700. They have a better extractor and a one piece bolt.

I've owned quite a few of them over the years,..I had a heavy barrel Smith & Wesson in 223 that was very accurate. I also rebarreled a Mossberg 1500 to 280 Ackley last year by rethreading and rechambering a Rem 700 7mm-08 barrel. They have a 26mm X 1.5mm thread and the Remington barrel is big enough to rethread to fit.
I rebarreled another Vanguard to 280AI with a CM Pacnor too.

If I were to buy one today I'd get a Howa so I didn't have to look at Ed Weatherby's big ugly bolt shroud...the rear of the Howa bolt looks like a 700...

Howa's rock.


Travis

The Howa 1500 and the Weatherby Vanguard are the same rifle except for cosmetics. This rifle has also been sold as the S&W 1500 and the Mossberg 1500.

Howa built Weatherby Mark Vs when they were made in Japan.

It's a good solid rifle and if you shop around it's available at a good price.

I have a stainless howa in 300 win with the boyds pepper laminate stock. I really like the one piece bolt and the action, and the factory trigger was easy to tune to 2.5 lbs. It is now one of my best hunting triggers. It shoots most factory loads I feed it into 1 1/4".

The only problem is the lack of aftermarket stocks and accessories as I can't leave stuff alone. The boyds is fine but needs a good recoil pad and about 3/4" cut off to fit me. I guess I will just have to get a sako classic McMillan and be done with it. Only problem is, after I do that I probably won't need any of my other rifles...

That's what I put on my Howa 7WSM, and my Vanguard .223 will probably end up with one, also.

i've owned 3 howa 1500 rifles. 22-250-308-223 one of the 3 shot the way it should have,the other 2 weren't very accurate. a friend has 2 weatherby vanguards right now in 223. one is a sporter ,one is a heavy barrel. neither shoot very good groups. there both for sale.

I've got a Vanguard in 30-06. Good accurate affordable rifle. I will be replacing the stock with a McMillain, the trigger on mine is ok, not great but better than some other oem triggers I've had.

I have an older Vanguard .270 and a newer one in .257 Wby, both absolutely stock. Both shoot well into sub-moa territory (1/2-3/4") with boring predictability. And the trigger on my .257 is fantastic right out of the box. It's a rare case of actually getting your money's worth and then some.

Me and a buddy bought our 223's at the same time last year. Both shoot 1/4" groups with our reloads. Just bought another one here in 243.

Weatherby buys their actions from Howa to build the Vanguard. While similar, and all the parts will interchange they are quite different. Weatherby uses a different safety, trigger, barrel, bolt and stock.

I prefer the Howa 3 position safety over the Vanguard. In my experience the triggers have been better on the Howa's and they have been more accurate when compared to the Vanguard. When buying new they also tend to be a little more expensive as well which seems odd to me.

Both the Howa and Vanguard are quite heavy. As long as weight is not a prime factor they are very good guns.

I'd be interested. Could you PM me the prices? Thanks.


Travis