Howa Rifles?

[Wrangler95]

Looking at Howa Hogue as a varmint rifle in cal 223,anyone got one and your opinion?It's the Kryptec fully dipped camo gun and scope.

 

[whwood21]

I just looked at Howa quite in depth and I was pretty sure that was what I wanted. After handling a few rifles, I ended up with a tikka and did not look back. Howa is a fine rifle from what I could tell. I was in the market for a 308 but I handled many variations out of curiosity. My opinion, which is just that, is to go with what fits you and feels good. In the end that will make all of the difference.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Howa makes Weatherby Vanguards. Good guns, accurate, but a lot fewer factory and aftermarket options. Some of the prettiest bluing on a current production level rifle that you will find. No flies on them at all.

I love my Howa mini action 6.5 Grendel.

 

[vonb]

I have both Howa and Tikka. Howa is a fine action and built like a tank. One piece bolt with feeding and extraction being super smooth. However, the stock is the weak link on some of their models. The HACT triggers are good but not great. They have minimal adjustment range unless you want to replace trigger springs. The Hogue stocks are worthless and have a long(er) length of pull. I replaced mine with a B&C and have been very happy. The Nikko scopes offered with them are budget base and you'll most likely want to replace.

Tikka on the other hand has an excellent action and an excellent trigger. Feeding and extraction is the smoothest of any factory action (and some custom actions). Triggers are more adjustable than Howa. Tikka barrels seem to be a little slower than other barrels but that can be made up with hand loads.

All that said, I like them both but if buying today, it'd be a Tikka si that I could run as is out of the box.

 

[DaveB]

I had a Weatherby Howa in the late 80's, 30.06. Not accurate, despite all the talk about the top accurate 1% of Howa's are destined for Weatherby.

I believe Weatherby stopped using Howa's for some reason and then went back to using them. Interestingly, the Weatherby Howa is limited lifetime.

 

[grouser]

I have Weatherby Vanguard S1 in 223, put in Houge Overmolded stock, after market trigger, very longer range setup for varmints, Vanguards are a solid platform especially if you want a 24 in. barrel.

 

[younggun308]

Not long ago you could cheaply buy a barreled Howa action, and get whatever stock you want.
Don't know if that's still the case.

 

[wsm]

Have a Howa in 6.5 creedmore with B&C medlist stock and it is a tack driver .

 

[redblood]

Very accurate guns. Push feed actions

 

[Wrangler95]

Thanks for your opinions,think I will still shop around some!!

 

[Billboy]

You can still get the Barreled actions from Brownells. They are solid rifles, just not a huge aftermarket. Bell & Carlson or Boyds makes several stocks for them. Timney and a few others make triggers if you don't like the factory unit. I have several that I had tweaked and rebarreled and they are boringly accurate.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Howa offers some of their rifles with either a McMillan or HS Precision stock. I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat

 

[Olevern]

I've got 8 or 9 Howas or Vanguards. All are top shooters. I'd rate them right next to Rem. model 700's.

 

[lafn96]

The Howa 1500/Weatherby Vanguard is one of the best values available IMO. Have a WBY Vanguard in 300 WBY; it's extremely picky with ammo; but have found two that it likes. Best 5 shot group I've gotten was .68; worst being over 2.5 inches.