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HOWA heavy barrel varmint rifle

kennyhollingsworth

kennyhollingsworth

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Full Member
Minuteman
Jun 28, 2011
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NC
I looked over a Howa , kryptek heavy barrel rifle at NWTF convention in Nashville over the weekend . What are yalls opinion on this for a 500yd or less setup? I do not and probably won't ever shoot past 500 as I'm only a hunter. I have a fair amount of experience shooting out to that distance. The gun has a two-stage trigger, 20 inch barrel and the package includes a Nikko-sterling 4-16x44 scope. .308 would be my choice if I decide to get one. The owner was there and he said the gun shoots MOA out of the box with factory ammo. Legacy Sports - Howa Hunting Rifles - Escort Shotguns - Citadel Firearms - ISSC Guns - Puma Firearms & Lever Action Rifles - Moonshine Camo Firearms under HOWA link. Anyone have or shot one of these?

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The Howa is an excellent action and I still have a few. I found mine to be reliable and accurate out to 1K and holds about 1 MOA through out the entire .308 range but the improvements came after I ditched the stock. Now as far as the fancy Kryptek dips, that will add a tick to the price of the base action. I was not a huge fan of the stock that came with mine and ended up with the XLR and that settled it down to the 1 MOA range.

As far as the Nikko scopes, they are very low end optics. I bought an Axiom second hand for my wife and it had the Nikko. Now my wife is a three gunner and is a Firearms Instructor in her guard unit but had zero high power optic experience. After one range trip her exact words were "I would rather have iron sights" because the scope was not adjusting properly or holding zero. She also hated the Axiom, different story, and now stole my XLR.

So back to the OP, very good action but I think you can find the action at a much better price, improve the stock (they dip them in an effort to put lipstick on a pic) and get a better optic and you will have a real shooter. Even as is it is a good set-up, I just think you would be much happier with a B&C stock and mid range optic, PST/Weaver/SWFA etc.

Sully
 
Thanks Sully, thats great info! I wasn't confident in the Nikko scope at all. I'll have to see what the options are for heavy barrel without the kryptek package. Didn't see it on website. Definitely helps the process.

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10-4. I just looked up some b&c stocks. I have a thumbhole on a R700 I like from them..appears to be several good options.

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Howa makes a good action. i will second Sulcop96 though and say just find an action or barreled action and put a new stock on it. I bought a 22-250 howa varmint gun years ago that was a 3/4 inch gun out of the box. I got a smith to bed the wood stock and do a good trigger job on it and it became a 1/4 inch gun. Got in a financial bind and had to sell it some years ago and have always wished I had it back. Really good for the money in my opinion
 
They are excellent actions, like mentioned above the factory stock options leave a lot to be desired though. Out of the ones I have seen and had hands on with, they range from 3/4 to 1.5 moa out of the box. Upgrading the stock and bedding has brought them all below 1 moa consistently. A trigger job or Timney takes them down to the .4-.6 range, and tuning a handload can get them down to the .25-.4 range consistently.

I bought my Howa 308 Varmint 8 years ago and it's still going strong. Actually it is such a good rifle it caused me to sell my Remington SPS Tactical 308. After the stock and trigger, I just can't bring myself to part with it. You wont go wrong. Also not sure if they still do or not but a while ago Legacy sports was selling just barreled actions at a pretty good price.
 
I have checked on barrelled actions since posting. They do sell them still. I think thats the route I will take on one.

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I did the .308 heavy barreled action with a Boyd's varmint stock and it shot .50 moa with federal gmm. You need to build it right though.
 
Another nod here for the barreled actions. I've had good luck with all three I have owned. A really under rated action IMHO, and a great bargain if you don't mind parting a rifle together...
 
Bed the action, lap the rings, used a picatinny rail scope base, adjusted trigger pull, put some decent glass on it, torque everything to the proper in/lb, and used a Boyd's laminate stock.
 
Just ordered glass today . Probably order the action in a day or two. I went with Leupold VX-R 4x12x40mm CDS. 30mm tube and firedot reticle. Also ordered 100rds of Hornady SF match 168gr BTHP.

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