I bought one of these in 7-08 last week. I went out this morning to shoot it for the first time. Unless you count the two rounds it took me to zero, I never had a group larger than 1 moa, including at 200 yards. To say that I am impressed is an understatement. I mounted a Leopold VX-3 2.5-8X36 scope in a set of Talleys and was good to go. The trigger came set at 2/5# which was perfect as that is where I set all of mine. I had some factory ammo, Federal Premium with 140 gr. Barnes TSX and 4 different handloads from other rifles. My last group of the day was an afterthought of ammo I had loaded for a different 7-08 that I have since sold. So I thought, "what the heck". That shot 2 five round, 200 yard group, that measured 1.724" and 1.590". I am very happy with the Howa Alpine Mountain rifle. I might just buy another in 308 next week. By the way, someone might ask that last load. It was as follows:
New Winchester brass.
140 Gr. Nosler Accubonds
2.80 C.O.A.L.
Fed 210 primer
45.5 grains of IMR 4350
Oh, and I used my standard barrel break in process which is as follows (you might want to write this down because it really works for me);
Fire one round. Load another. Fire it. Load another. Fire it. Load another. Etc., etc., etc.
Last edited by TheBigSky; 04/01/17.
