brownells howa 1500 16 inch heavy barrel

[bnsafe]

anyone did a build with this. I was gonna do a build with a tikka, but this is quite abit cheaper and already threaded. how was accuracy, action, weight

 

[hereinaz]

I like the Howa Mini. Fit and finish is not as good as Tikka. I like the trigger, and cutting on the spring makes trigger pull lighter. I lightly wet sanded the bolt to make it smoother.

The magazine release is weird on the front, mags and bottom metal are plastic but run fine. I switched out to the aluminum DIP bottom metal and ground the profile of the mag release lever smaller.

There is new bottom metal out there. I don’t know much about it.

I run a Stocky’s VG on it.

Barrels have shot well on the Howa rifles I have seen. But, I customized my mini and put a new barrel on it.

If you wait till Black Friday, Brownells usually runs a very very good deal on them. I plan on getting another then.

 

[180ls1]

I like the Howa Mini. Fit and finish is not as good as Tikka. I like the trigger, and cutting on the spring makes trigger pull lighter. I lightly wet sanded the bolt to make it smoother.

The magazine release is weird on the front, mags and bottom metal are plastic but run fine. I switched out to the aluminum DIP bottom metal and ground the profile of the mag release lever smaller.

There is new bottom metal out there. I don’t know much about it.

I run a Stocky’s VG on it.

Barrels have shot well on the Howa rifles I have seen. But, I customized my mini and put a new barrel on it.

If you wait till Black Friday, Brownells usually runs a very very good deal on them. I plan on getting another then.

The whole bolt? Any tips, procedures or related? My dad and I have superlites and the bolts are a little rough, especially when they are all the way back. If I could improve that last 25% it would be really helpful.

 

[hereinaz]

I smoothed the entire bolt, made a huge difference.

Mini Howa Build: open bolt face for 6 BRA

This is for @Jbuck but figured I'd start a thread on it. Richard Luna of Bring the Edge, a small shop in NM did the work. He has done lots of barrels for me and they all shoot. I wanted a little backpack rifle in a small caliber, but with some ooomph. I have a bunch of 6mm bullets and 6 BRA...

rokslide.com

 

[bnsafe]

this is the 6.5 cm heavy barrel, I was/am thinking about it instead of tikka cause its alot cheaper to go that route, but, they are saying 5.6 lbs just for the barrelled action. If I did that I would have 6.12 lb ish rifle with a stockys before scope and supressor, heavier than I was wanting, but not horrible
I do wonder if it would be to out of balance with a heavy barrel and 10.7 oz suppressor in a stockys or if the 16 inch barrel would be short enuf it would work out ok.

 

[hereinaz]

Ahhh, sorry. Most of the points still hold. Decent enough actions. I was tempted by that action too, with the short barrel. A buddy bought a few Howa, and they have all been good shooters with factory ammo and the 6.5 creed he bought shot great with my handloads, like 3/4 5 shot groups.

Howa is a heavier action/rifle, less refined. The Tikka is much nicer.

I don’t think a short heavy barrel makes it too off balance weight.

I saw this new Superlight barreled action. Stockys makes this stock as well in CF.

HOWA M1500 Superlite 6.5 CM 16.25"BBL (1)3RD Mag BBL Action Blued SKU: 430110556 | Brownells

Check out HOWA M1500 Superlite 6.5 CM 16.25"BBL (1)3RD Mag BBL Action Blued SKU: 430110556 | Brownells available Online at Brownells Today and many more Rifle Receivers & Parts products are available in our Gun Parts Department.

www.brownells.com

 

[bnsafe]

thanks guys, I saw the superlight to, just not sure I wanted to go that route. I will prob just bight the bullet and get a tikka so I dont have regrets later.

 

[ElPollo]

thanks guys, I saw the superlight to, just not sure I wanted to go that route. I will prob just bight the bullet and get a tikka so I dont have regrets later.

Second what @hereinaz said about weight and refinement with the Tikka, and will add that the Tikka is a much more reliable action in tough conditions. The Howa has a lot more pathways for ingress of water, ice, and debris into the action than a Tikka (although the fluted bolt Tikkas are not probably as good at this). Tikka triggers are substantially better in terms of pull weight, adjustability, and reliability. You can make a pretty good trigger out of a Howa, but you’re more likely to need to replace springs or to add an entire aftermarket unit. And with the recent exception of a bad run of springs in their 223 magazines, the Tikka magazines are a much better system than what you’ve got in the Howa 1500, superlite, and mini. The comments about the Howa actions being rough and sounding like a zipper is a thing. You can fix that with some elbow grease like Hearinaz suggested, but the resulting action is still more susceptible to bolt binding than an out-of-the-box Tikka. Finally, it’s a lot easier to find a stainless steel Tikka than it is for Howas.

 

[bnsafe]

yep, I had a howa varmint 223 years ago and loved it, but its not the same quality as my tikka 308. I was just wanting to build a cheap good deer rifle for my daughter and thought if the quality was close this was a much cheaper option. but, i am hoping this will be her go to gun for years so will go with tikka