When I first started pining for a precision rifle, I looked at getting a Howa barreled action and putting it into an MDT chassis. I ended up getting an HCR in heavy Varmint, which I liked, but not as much as the TL3 I bought once I decided to just go down the rabbit hole. Criterion announced their Howa pre-fits, and I jumped right on that (because 1/3 of the fun for me is tinkering).
For months, the HCR sat in the safe and pouted while the TL3 went out and had all the fun. A buddy had bought a Howa Hogue sporter and did a bunch of stuff to make it more precise, but it was nowhere near the HCR (which is about a .6 MOA gun). I finally asked him if he’d like to buy the HCR since I felt bad about not shooting it. He said he’d like to trade his Howa and give me some money. I thought, “Oooooh, a chance to build that dream Howa!”. We settled on a price, then went to our LGS to transfer.
I took the money he gave me and bought an MDT ESS. After the appropriate amount of time was sacrificed to the Waiting On Gun Parts and Waiting On Waiting Period gods, it all came together. Getting the original barrel off wasn’t easy, but once I put some rosin in the barrel vice, the ring end of a 31mm wrench on the bar of the action wrench, and some M-A-N into it, it popped right off. No cutting or torches were used. Putting the barrel on was about the same as the Shilen & Proof barrels I’ve put on my TL3 (because I didn’t pull the ejector—that would make it a lot more complex, and part of this was to compare to the TL3).
Here’re the details:
Howa 1500 action from a Howa Hogue factory build
Howa Bolt knob from Tactical Works
Criterion Howa Pre-fit Target Tapered barrel
Whatever Pic rail my buddy put on it
MDT ESS
Ergo Deluxe grip
Magpul M-Lok pic on bottom
XLR M-Lok dovetail adapter
Vortex Viper PST Gen II
Spuhr 3006 from a Hide member
MK Machining scope lever
Timney Trigger
PVA Jet Blast brake
I wanted to shoot it without sending it to a smith be trued because I was interested in seeing if it would shoot well without that. I’ll let you judge.
I must say I do like the ESS. I wish I could get the dovetail closer to the mag well, but the thing is easily adjustable. There are screws for locking it in place after adjustment and it’s super solid once that’s done.
The PST glass is clear, and out to 300 yards, there was a small but noticeable difference from my AMG. Of course. I ran the turret all the way up then back, and it returned to where I expected. I haven’t measured the accuracy of the turrets. I expect I’ll have to use a scale factor with a scope at that price.
The Criterion nut uses a 12-point 31mm wrench, so no special tool like the NSS nut I have for my TL3. It’s not easy to find a 31mm 12-point crow’s foot, though.
The bolt knob needed both rubber rings that came with it to not spin when operating.
I’ve included pics of the rifle and the sight-in group. Those are 1-inch squares and half-inch dots in the target photo. The sight-in was .23 MOA, and the next group was .4. After that, it opened up to consistently .6. I’m going to re-torque and loc-tite the scope rails to see if it tightens back up. Another buddy had some troubles with pic rails on his Howa.
Is it the same as my TL3/XLR/Proof setup? Of course not. Is it better than my HCR? It shows potential to be. It’s certainly reasonable, and more fun for me (and more waiting) than just buying the HCR was.