Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Howa rifles?

I have a buddy trying to do his "one rifle" on the cheap. I keep telling him, M700 or a Savage, but he keeps asking about other stuff. His latest is Howa. Are these decent rifles?

-jeff

The Howa 1500 is a great value for the price.It is also sold as the Weatherby Vanguard,and has been sold as the Smith&Wesson 1500,and the Mossberg 1500.The triggers aren't great,but the fit and finish is quite good.They also tend to be quite accurate.

I like the howa 1500 better than the 700 remmy...

Thanks you guys. I'll let this thread grow a little, then I'll send him a link to it...

-jeff

Also, I have heard that the proprietary action that is used in the Nosler rifle is a Howa, I haven't seen a Nosler in person to verify or not.

no complaints about my vanguard.

My wife uses one for elk, and depending on the target I sometimes take it as back up. After some barrel floating it became a shooter. Hers has an excellent trigger too at about 2lbs after tweaking. Haven't used any others, but that one's a great value and would be replaced if lost.

I bought a new Vanguard (Howa 1500) over 20 years ago for around $200. It has been an extremely accurate great light deer rifle! It came with Weatherby's fancy satin walnut stock. When there was a bolt upgrade Weatherby sent me a mailer, and upgraded the bolt for free!

As they should have,since the bolts on all howa rifles were recalled because of a serious safety issue.

I've had 2 howas. 1 243win that loved every bullet weight you threw at it. sold it to my uncle when I decided the 260 rem was a better round.

2) 270 win in stainless. this one also will shoot everything you throw at it especially 150gr win pp from wally world. I havent even used the dies yet.

The only down fall I see with thes rifles is that they are heavy. Their barrels are thick. otherwise I give these 2 thumbs up.

Oh yeah, Ive read the barrels are still cut rifled. Not many that still do this.

I like my Howa 243 with Tupperware stock. It's a decent shooter, about 1 1/2" five-shot groups at 100 yards. That's without any attempt to tune the loads.

Trigger was gritty and creepy, but cleaned up nicely. It's now 2 pounds 12 oz, and lets off almost as cleanly as my best triggers.

If you get a blued rifle, the bottom metal is coated, rather than blued. Of course, that scratches and looks bad before long. If you get stainless, then you don't have that problem.

No offense, but your statement is false. There was a specific range of model numbers recalled.

Coincidence?

Denton,

I bet if you dumped the molded stock and fitted a better one with the barrel free floated your groups would shrink. My friend changed his Vanguard from molded to McMillan and the difference was dramatic.


mathman

I should have stated all howa 1500 models as well as all rifles sold by other manufacturers using the same action.Then again,I have never seen any howa rifle other than the model 1500.Is anyone here familiar with any other Howa rifles sold in North America?

So it sounds like they are generally accurate, and the trigger can be adjusted to be good..? Those are good things.

Since it seems most, or all, of you have experience with other manufacturer's rifles, would you say there's any reason to pick the Howa over a Savage/Accutrigger, or a cheap Rem. M700? Other than maybe fifty bucks?

I ask that 'cause I do have experience (good experience) with the above, but I've never even handled a Howa- so I'm trying to get a sense of if it's better than those two.

I guess what I'm trying to say and really doing a bad job at it is: does the Howa rifle have anything about it that's really special? Is the lock time really fast, the action super strong... accuracy above the norm... that kind of thing.

My next battle, since it seems like my friend will be buying a package rifle, is convincing him to replace the scope ASAP. Since I'll be linking him to this thread shortly, ya'll feel free to chime in on the importance of a decent scope, y'hear?

:-)

-jeff

The Niko Stirling scopes aren't too bad. They are pretty bright and have handled a couple of hundred rounds from my 270. My wife likes that scope better than a pentax Whitetails unlimited that was on her 260 rem, so I swapped them. The elev. and wind. adjustments dont have enough clearance under the caps so be gentle when removing and putting on the caps. Your adjustments can change from screwing them down or off.

Not a bad package to hunt or punch paper with.

I don't see any standout features,but they are solid ,well made rifles for a reasonable price.As for a decent scope,a rifle is useless without a good sighting system.My personal favorites are the elite 3200 for a smaller budget,and the zeiss conquest in a better quality scope.I prefer a magnification in the 3x9 class.



I have personally witnessed two nikko sterlings with broken crosshairs after being mounted on a 338winmag.

338 win is probably beyond the design limitations of these chinese scopes...like most things chinese.

I probably have lead poisoning from the paint:)

Sorry, I meant to say "serial" not "model" number. Since we are on the subject and just in case anyone buys a used Howa dating back several years, after backtracking data the following safety info was posted by Howa Machinery Ltd:

"IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE

MODEL 1500, 1550 AND 1700LS SERIES RIFLES BY HOWA MACHINERY LTD.

Product Upgrade Registration

Howa Machinery, Ltd. of Japan, is performing a safety upgrade on all Model 1500, 1550 and 1700LS series rifles manufactured between 1970 and 1993. The affected rifles bear serial numbers from one of the following series on the receiver: PN00010 through PN87159, LS00001 through LS05150, M000001 through M020422, LS10001 through LS10309, B000001 through B028450. The safety upgrade will replace the bolt sleeve to prevent misassembly of the bolt, which might occur on the affected rifles. Such misassembly might result in a hazardous condition in which the rifle can be accidentally discharged without the bolt being fully engaged, causing severe injury. These rifles were distributed by Smith & Wesson�, O.F. Mossberg & Sons and Interarms�. These rifles may bear the distributor trademark.

WARNING: If you own a Howa Model 1500, 1550, or 1700LS series rifle with a serial number from one of the serial number series referred to above: USE OF YOUR RIFLE MAY RESULT IN AN ACCIDENT AND SEVERE INJURY. STOP USING YOUR RIFLE IMMEDIATELY and fill out the form below or call Howa at 800-456-5131 to receive a Bolt Return Kit. Only the bolt sleeve is being upgraded. Your bolt will be returned to you after the upgrade.

NO OTHER HOWA RIFLES ARE AFFECTED. CHECK YOUR SERIAL NUMBER.

The affected rifles were originally sold through licensed gun dealers nationwide, and some of them may have been resold by the original owners through retail gun dealers, trade shows or privately. If you have sold, traded or given away an affected Model 1500, 1550 or 1700LS series by Howa Machinery Ltd. rifle, it is important for you to forward this Safety Notice to the current owner.

Howa Machinery Ltd. apologizes for any inconvenience to its customers resulting from this safety upgrade program, but it is important that owners of affected rifles take advantage of this free upgrade program and do not use an affected rifle before it has been upgraded. All work will be done at no charge. Return the bolt only, not the entire rifle. Please do not return your Model 1500, 1550, or 1700LS series by Howa Machinery Ltd. bolt before contacting us through the form below or 800-456-5131 for your Bolt Return Kit."