Howa 1500 GK project

[steveNChunter]

That's a good comparison of the Mauser/700 and where the Howa fits in the picture. It has some of the best attributes of each design IMO depending on application.

As stated earlier in this thread the Howa 1500 action design is a very close copy of the old Sako L46 action.

So you have a Japanese action based on a Finnish action that blends attributes of German and American actions and is outsourced by an American company (Weatherby, also formerly S&W and Mossberg)

So with a Howa you have a bit of heritage from nearly every corner of the earth in some way.

They are a great design and also one of the lesser expensive rifles on the market today. Anything cheaper than the Howa is a specifically designed "budget rifle". The Howa is a budget price without the budget design.

[Duzell]

yes its very well made, the actions are tight and nicely fitted with barely and wiggle in the bolt.

the rifle is a perfect blend of designs and is very well engineered. and for the price it just cant be beat

[Duzell]

Finally shot my howa sunday, it was so cold out there was only a few people shooting. i did not bring any gloves, so my fingers and hands were numb from cold. i guess we had a freeze warning earlier and iw as not paying attention.

anyway.

at 50 yards initial shooting it shoots low left, the turrents on the GK scope were nice, but i shivered and could not shoot like i would , say in the summer . my first cold weather shoot and i feel the howa did good even with me being inept in the cold. and very low visibility as lower picture shows. i think i did rather well with the conditions

below are the shoots in order of firing , i left the scope high for shooting 100 which is the typical range. the lower left target hole on the cardboard is a cross over from a AR, note smaller bullet hole



1
2
3
4
5

[steveNChunter]

That center target group looks pretty good. A warmer day and/or some gloves might yield some better groups.

My Howa didn't shoot much better than that even on a good day with factory ammo. 2 MOA with the occasional 1.5 MOA group was the norm. Federal fusion shot the best, averaging about 1.25 MOA with the occasional sub MOA group. It was when I started loading for the rifle that I realized its potential. I figured out that it was VERY picky about OAL. I went through a few powders and primers before finding the right combination, then shot several more groups figuring out the OAL. I finally hit the right combo and found "the load". It now shoots consistent .75 MOA groups.

My Howa is a .25-06 not a .308, and yours may not be as picky as mine, but if you don't get as tight of groups as you want you might want to consider getting into reloading.

Just be aware that reloading is very addictive and you will end up shooting more and spending alot of money on components and equipment. You have been warned

[Duzell]

already on that. starting to get the equipment for reloads. mainly my issues was trying to find my target as the field that they were mounted in was encased in thick fog. im surprised i hit as good as i did with minimal visibility

[steveNChunter]

Yea a target with a bright colored bullseye with a set of crosshairs to line the crosshairs of your scope up with would definitely help.

If you want to make some decent targets on the cheap, just buy a roll of those little round orange stickers that can be found at most gunstores in the targets section. If not those, any bright round stickers will work. Then get some plain white printer paper, a wide-tip Sharpie marker, and a straight edge. Draw a set of crosshairs on the printer paper using the straight edge to make it perfect, then stick the little orange sticker right smack dab in the middle. Makes some good visible targets for not much money.

[Duzell]

i used to have some of the neon green + black sticker targets that came with the orange and black stickers. but only ever used them for pistol practice

[Duzell]

well i have 2 more legacy arms 308 magazines (10rds)


the rifle scope worked fine, i was questioning its dependency , but an odd thing i noticed is when shooting, if i lowered the parallax the groups would tighten. when i set the parallax out to the distance i was shooting via range finder , the groups would expand. thought that was odd.


the stock flex's in the front if someone grabs it it will interfere with the barrel. so i have started using the bipod as the front stabilizing point and keeping one hand under the rear of the stock, to tighten my stance and get better groups

i must say this is my favorite rifle to shoot now. as i purchased it with the intent of being my main rifle i take to shoots or shoot with intent of accuracy.

im still having trouble locating scope lens covers...

[Beentown71]

Howa`s are great rifles. Mine is a .66" shooter with FGM 168`s. Tad smaller with handloads. Mine is a Custom Varmint with a 24" barrel. 486 yards shot...



Good luck with yours! BTW you are not able to reload with nails that long

[Jim Watson]

when i set the parallax out to the distance i was shooting

Were you adjusting the parallax by the numbers on the ring or by eliminating parallax in the scope field of view? The scale on the AO ring is pretty much meaningless, I had one that was parallax free at 100 yards when set at 77 on the scale.

[Beentown71]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

Were you adjusting the parallax by the numbers on the ring or by eliminating parallax in the scope field of view? The scale on the AO ring is pretty much meaningless, I had one that was parallax free at 100 yards when set at 77 on the scale.

Yep. The AO on my Vortex was off by about 50 yards at higher settings with my eyes.

[Jay24bal]

Yep. The AO on my Vortex was off by about 50 yards at higher settings with my eyes.

I have the same experience with my Vortex scope. At 100 yards, I set it to about 85 on their ring, and for 200 yards I set it to about 165.

Always adjust the AO ring while looking through the scope until parallax disappears, regardless of what the numbers on the ring say.

[Duzell]

its an odd thing

this niko sterling scope has an adjustable parallax (sorry i should have made that clear)

the settings are low 15 yards to infinity
the scope itself when set to the yard im aiming at via a rangefinder the groups are consistent if set to the exact yard i am aiming at when setting my parallax distance.

now i was adjusting the scope to lower my parallax while still shooting the same distance and i noticed this tightened my groups up.the scope is solid and holds zero , and I find that I rather like its recticle design.

so far its an awesome gun, that i highly enjoy shooting as my new primary target gun, just currently putting funds on my ar build once that is operational I plan to get back onto the howa.

but i imagine i will eventually get a stock and flip covers for the scope.

[steveNChunter]

Most of the lower end scopes that have adjustable parallax aren't spot on with the yardages. Odds are it's a little off from what the dial says. Keep experimenting with it and figure out if you get better accuracy on the high or low side of what your actual yardage is. Then remember that for future reference. I'm not dissing your scope, it's just that I have a couple cheap scopes that have adjustable parallax as well and I have this same issue. Once you figure it out all is well.

[Duzell]

i totaly understand. it was just a scope that came with the rifle and i like the look. but it nothing compared to one of the leopolds i own. but its still good quality

[Duzell]

video

[Duzell]

well took the howa out to the ranch again, to play with its companion gun the ruger american, owned by my buddy. we also brought along a winchester custom 300 win mag (yes it is stainless, with checkering on the bolt nob and stock. beautiful)

we are trying to do regular shoots with our rifles, to get him better at handling his gun.

so we shot the ruger for a bit, then the 300 win (yes my shoulder hurt after the dozen shots), the we shot the howa and i have to say, it did thte most damage to the target (due to steel core rounds but who cares it was impressive right?)

anyway , we set up a nice Block of stone about 200 yards away(yes a rock, a big rock). the 30 06 with steel tipped ammo (for bears) did nothing but knock of a little dust, the 300 with Remington standard, took a chunk out, and then the howa with steel core wolf polyformance , split the rock into pieces. was very impressive to the eye. but was probably due to all the shots previous.

im not so happy with the scope as it seems to be off when zeroed (using the bench gun shooting vise) , but works well in 200 range. im looking at getting a redfield scope , then a leopold eventually for it.

im looking into the Redfield 115216 Revenge scope, but unsure if it has a adjustable parallax system(that seems to be my most used part of my scopes lately).

maybe get a taller caldwell xla bipod 9-13 "

and a rifle case that can hold all its equipment

thats my progression on this project and i hope to have it done this year, or at least get the redfield or vortex

[Duzell]

some pics of the howa and american shoot

[Duzell]

so was invited to a gun club by a friend, in a town 2 hours away from were i live.

this is my buddy with the ruger american,and this is his local range.

anyway when i get this gun club, we are told to arrange by skill level. i have no idea where to go. so one of the range guys brings me over to do a initial test shot, on some 223 rifle.., anyway i do my shot and its a good group and say" ok well set you up on bench 4" , ok, so im wondering if i did bad or good with this test. they hand me a target thats a typical (black single target with white outer) but says 50 yard , pistol target on the target so i think i did bad.

so im lugging the howa (in its new yukon allen soft case, also holds my ar15 btw) , and i find out im supposed to set up between the only two guys at this range with custom rifles that do the ranges furthest distance of 200 yards. ya i felt that i was misplaced next to the custom built guns. they great me and are very nice, and offer extra hearing protection as they have hot loads with double layering(not an issue as it turned out the howa was louder).

now picture this two guys with ballistics calculators, the triangular speed measuring devices, spotter scopes and all this equipment. along with being completely custom built guns on custom loads and here i am with a stock howa 1500, with its stock scope(should have brought the mosin , would have been more entertaining).

so they go back to shooting, and i start pulling out my ammo, then the howa,and then the magazines. now i brought up some ammo my friend gave me for my birthday, PMC copper 308. , never shot this before, but the howa is ranged out center dot with my wolf ammo and federal match gold. it was 20 round box , and was a gift.

now i have to wait to set my target up, and then i get to, i come back and both of these guys are staring at the howa, with this "what the f look" ,so i say"watsup?" , so apparently they both thought i had a custom rifle like them. i just laughed and say "its a howa 1500, basically a arisaka on steroids".both were intrigued and asked how it shoots , so i offer to show.


now i load up the 10 round mag and start my initial leveling with this new ammo. shoot at center black @ 200 i plug 5 center and the group is way left and loose, but i have 4 dots and i shot 5 times, so i must have done one through same hole and then start adjusting my drop via my scopes drop tacks in the recticle, and then i do a space of 1 tack to my left on my nikko sterling gameking (it has very nice optics, and apparently it was loosened on last shoot so i locktight that sucker). the ammo shoots way left(high is do to my longer range zero. we check the targets and they are very impressed with the group. and ask what brand it was so they can get one, so i give them the info and the dealer (legacy sports).

so then my friend comes up and asks to shoot the howa, i have 4 shots left and say sure, his are the top 4 holes of the target. hes still new shooter so its not unexpected group..

so it was a fun day of shooting , and the howa (with a locktight scope) performs admirably, and i enjoy its GK nikko scope. anyway, so i end my shoot, (no ammo) and go back to helping my buddy with his ruger(as he needs the help) ended up working on his gun the rest of day and got it sighted better


anyway heres the target, im planning at some point to get a higher end stock and scope to get the best bang for my buck but still, shoots very good for a 600$ rifle, and highly recommend it. Also the gameking now comes in new kryptek camo stocks and packages(i hate that as i want the desert tan) at legacy arms. but i still love the HACT trigger system

[Duzell]

a few people have asked on both my web site and my youtube if i plan to do more to the howa 1500

yes. at some point, but right now its very accurate and reliable as is. im currently working on other projects at the moment. one being my tm15 project (bloody money pit ar15s) and another will be my custom 1911 project i hopefully start this year on

the improvements to the howa are as follows (for future)
-fluted bolt
-extended nob
-muzzle break
-new stock

as i know a few people are following this project to see the options for a howa

there are a few stocks with recoil dampining systems for higher caliber howa's

but currently my shinsetsu shoots great, and can keep up with custom rifles for competition shoots. and its very reliable and quick to use. which was my main criteria for this gun.

in 308 i have great control and accuracy, the stock weight makes it easy to use without much recoil. and the scope (after tightening it) is very dependable and accurate (also love the reticule)

the bolt motion is flawless and the low serial number just makes me ecstatic.

im still hunting for flip covers for my GK scope(if anyone has recommendations id love to hear them)