Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Whittaker Howa Special Grendel

Not bad for $360. 8 pounds two ounces as shown. A lighter scope (22oz Hawke 8x56) and mounts would cut maybe 3/4 pound.

Came with youth and adult stock. I left the youth on there and added a Limbsaver slip-on pad that brings it to about the same length as the adult, but can go short in a second. Funny thing is the pads are different, and the adult one is actually softer, not that recoil fom an eight pound Grendel is much to fret over. Go figure.

What do you think about that Hawke scope?

I like it, especially for what I paid.

16-layer, fully multicoated, etched illuminated LR dot reticle, 4 inches of ER, coil bias spring (on all Endurance 30mm scopes). The clicks are a little mushier than ideal, but it's been on at least four rifles from .17 Mach2 to .308 without issue. I have their old app that lets you plot the extra aiming points according to your load. $200 close-out price from Cameraland. I have four Hawke Enduance scopes, two 2-7 LER, one 3-9 LER, and this one. Not a peep out of any of them so far, Chinese or not. Hawke's been around for a long time and I suspect they have a reliable manufacturer.

This one came with very nice screw-in covers, but I use BCs that attach without tools.

This one may stay where it is, or may not. Balances pretty well, and even with a lighter scope, my FC and Alpine are still going to be lighter.

The problem I have with Howas is exclusively with their weight.
The fit and finish is on point. They're accurate but damn they could stand to go on a diet.

I thought about buying one of those 6.5Grendals but then I remembered why I sold my Howa 1500 in 6.5Creedmoor is because she was heavy.

Black is beautiful. Still have my 8x56 hubbleHawke but don't think that's the place for it. LOL Thinking 6x SWFA for my grendelator.


How are they shooting folks?

A major plus of the Hawke for me was that it was already sitting in the Horn rings.

2x more than the Super Chicken and two more oz. Plus the light.

Already fiddled up my sight-in scheme; zero at 100, aiming points at about 200 and 300. No muss, no fuss. Have a SWFA for backup.

Depends on the Howa. My Alpine .243 with a 16oz scope in Talley LWs comes in at 7lbs 4oz. Discontinued, but still some around. One was in the Classifieds today.

How does she shoot?

I never owned a Howa Alpine but at their price point I would rather grab a Tikka Superlite which is at a generally similar price point.
My want to like Howas/Vanguards is high but damn she thicc and could stand to go on a diet.

We shall see next week.

I picked mine up on clearance for $600, so not a typical purchase. It's the floorplate version which is my strong preference in a hunting rifle. The Bansner stock alone ordinarily costs a good portion of that.

The Mini is mostly a toy, so the hanging mag doesn't matter so much.

When did you buy this? I messed around too long last fall and missed them. I’m still seeing “out of stock” on both the 20” and 22” versions.

I put it on layaway in November. Was kinda busy then, but knew I'd miss the boat if I waited. i wanted one a couple of years ago, but they were out of the 6.5s, so I settled for a 7.62.

At this price, if I decide to tart it up with the DIP trigger guard, I'll still be money ahead over the usual prices I've seen. I've yet to see one in a store.

My issue is the weight as well. I found one of the Randy Newberg Howa specials at Sportsman's. Talk about heavy, man that rifle was.