Originally Posted by szihn
I would take a Howa action (Weatherby Vanguard) in preference to about any other push feed action with a possible exception of a Ruger American. (Jury is still out. The American is too new to know for sure, but so far I have had no complaints or issues with the Rugers)

As a gunsmith I get to see the bad ones and the "sick guns" and the ones that I fix the most are the 700 Remington actions.

The one that I have seen break 4 times, and the company will NOT do a thing to help is Tikka. 4 of them have come to my shop with the bolt body broken out behind the root of the bolt handle. (the rear of the dovetail) Tikka says "tough" and will do NOTHING to help At ALL! For that reason alone I will not recommend Tikka. Too bad, they are super smooth and super accurate, but they have NO and I do mean NO customer support at all.

I can't say what Howa's policy is because I have never seen one break. I have seen a few minor issues that I was able to fix with the extractors dragging when left to rust. Easy fix, and not the fault of the gun. I don't like the cheep feeling bottom metal and painted decal "HOWA" on the floor plate, but that just a preference. As far as function goes, I rank the Howa as either the #1 push feed action on the American market, or a tie for 1st place with the new Ruger.

I did have a Weatherby Mk5 come in for a restock last year with a broken trigger guard. The customer had a plastic stock and wanted one of my nice Bastogne stocks so I did the work for him. I had him call Weatherby about the broken TG and they sold him a new one at a very high price (about $140 is what he told me) That's a different action and a different importer than Legacy USA however. So I have no idea what Legacy would have done if it had been a Howa action. Might be worth a phone call just to ask.
If anything was to make me lean to the Ruger over the Howa it would be customer support. I know that if anything breaks on a Ruger they replace it free. Legacy/Howa may do the same, but you'd need to call them and find out.


Thanks for the post. I have read that about Tikka several times before and it's one of the reasons I have not bought one.