Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Just bought a Howa 1500 in 7mm Rem Mag, tell me about the 1500

Take a look at the bolt stop screw. As in remove it and look at it with a magnifying glass or loupe. Lots of them have rough machining that is effectively a "crack here" starter, right at the step where the shoulder bottoms against the receiver. Use a metric SHCS and get someone to make a little shoulder bushing, and you're GTG.

I traded for a Howa 1500 7mm-08 and love it. All metal is factory cera-koted in a light grey color, stock is KUIU Verde camo, 20" barrel, Vortex 4-12 Diamondback scope. It came with the standard factory trigger guard/floorplate and an additional trigger guard/Mag-Pul detachable magazine. The trigger is taking a little getting used to, but the rifle shoots tight groups with Hornady brass, WLR primers, H4895 powder and 139 grain Hornady Interlocks. A very soft shooting rifle that I will give to my 12 year old grandson for Christmas. I think he'll like it.

I've had four Howa 1500s, and all of them shot well. And the triggers sucked, one .223, two .270s and one 7mm Rem. Mag. All were kinda portly, but that didn't matter too much. I simply didn't like the 7mm Mag. and got rid of it pretty quick, but I flat-out wore the barrel of the .223 out in several trips prairie dogging in SD. It took a LOT of rounds to do that, but I got it done. All of them fed smoothly and had no issues, EXCEPT the screw holding the bolt stop in place is pretty dainty and can sheer off easily. It's a cheap fix to replace it, but it might pay to keep some spares handy. It only happened on the .223, which, as noted, got fired a LOT and perhaps there was some rapid bolt work putting more stress on it than the larger guns.It slayed a lot of prairie dogs, and it was fun.

Every 1500/Vanguard I've owned has been very accurate. Just a bit heavier than I prefer. Only one I currently own is a SS 1500 243 and with 95gr NBST's and RS Hunter will print in the .3's near the middle of book loads. I don't mind the weight on a goat gun.