Howa 1500 6.5 PRC accuracy issues

[grfox92]

Boxed it up and will ship it back to Howa. Brownells offered no help and referred me to Howa. I read one review that was the same as my exact issue. I have given this action a valiant effort. Over 80 rounds of quality factory ammo and I was lucky to get ONE group that was .995". (the Howa standard) Most are more like 1.8" and a few were even over 2"! The fliers are always in a different direction and at different times in the group.

I bought a Ruger American Predator in .308 because of how everyone said how accurate they were. Mine shot horrific groups like 2" at best. 5 bullets and 3 powders later I contacted ruger and they asked I send it in. They rebarreled it and now it's sub MOA with 178g ELDM.

It's rare for Howas to not shoot, it's also rare for Ruger Americans not to shoot, but every company has lemons. I'm sure you'll get it back a tack driver.

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[razorsharptokill]

I hope so. It could take up to 120 days according to Howa.

 

[Reburn]

Before changing the scope you should definitely try some other factory ammo. This is the most improtant variable by far.

Maybe it's just a lemon

I only find this true for "older" chamberings. If a 6.5 PRC wont shoot 147 eld-m or 143 eld-x get rid of it or send it back. That chamber was mostly designed for those bullets in mind.

 

[razorsharptokill]

It is on its way back to Howa.

 

[49ereric]

I have a 22-250 with a sporter barrel that would put two rounds extremely tight at a 100yds but the 3rd shot always was off an inch. Heat.
first shot or two were always repeatable on any given day.
if your rifle shoots 2 rounds or even 1 accurately on any given day then heat is the answer to your problem.

 

[razorsharptokill]

I have had that same results where two shots are tight, then one out over an inch. I have had this when waiting only 20-30 seconds between shots, and I have had it when I wait 5 minutes.

 

[grfox92]

I have had that same results where two shots are tight, then one out over an inch. I have had this when waiting only 20-30 seconds between shots, and I have had it when I wait 5 minutes.

Shoot a 10 shot group.

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[razorsharptokill]

Will see what howa says. They should have it Thursday. Will probably be a long time before they get to testing it. They say up to 120 days in their return paperwork.

 

[bpitcher]

Sorry to hear about your accuracy troubles. Hope they fix you up.

I just dropped the same action into a peak44. I'll get it out for break in this week hopefully.

 

[Updownlr]

Following. My howa in 7prc has been a pita aswell so far!

 

[Jason Snyder]

I have a 22-250 with a sporter barrel that would put two rounds extremely tight at a 100yds but the 3rd shot always was off an inch. Heat.
first shot or two were always repeatable on any given day.
if your rifle shoots 2 rounds or even 1 accurately on any given day then heat is the answer to your problem.

If heat is your issue I’d wager a guess it’s a junk barrel or a junk install. Or both.

 

[49ereric]

If heat is your issue I’d wager a guess it’s a junk barrel or a junk install. Or both.

Borescope says toasted barrel. Used 700 Rem rifle I got cheap 1983.
it did shoot well once I tried the 60 HP hornady but working up the load must have been the coup d'état for the barrel. In time I’ll get a vice & action wrench.

 

[razorsharptokill]

Following. My howa in 7prc has been a pita aswell so far!

What symptoms does your rifle have? What barrel?

 

[elkbigfoot]

What symptoms does your rifle have? What barrel?

Did you ever receive your rifle back from howa? If so how long did it take and does it shoot now?

 

[razorsharptokill]

Did you ever receive your rifle back from howa? If so how long did it take and does it shoot now?

They still have it. Not happy about it.

 

[tbraypup]

I know this might be a dead thread but did howa ever give you an answer? I got one just after shot show this year from my ffl and he actually got the consecutive serial number to mine. Same rifle as yours and had some similar issues. Except I was playing between 143 eldx and 147 eldm (we split a case of each between us to try both weights) I have ran into my action screws damn near fell out of the gun Sunday checking my 200 yard zero. I tightened them to howa spec and retried to zero Monday. The 143s had massive accuracy issues at 200 yards and had massive appearances of over pressured rounds. I got the 147s to finally sight in at 100. Put 6 rounds within 1.2 inches with a thunder beast 30 cal can up front. Burris veracity ph scope. It walks out to 1000 on steel but that's just blinking for a long not testing legitimately. After the 6 shot group I felt confident and went out to harvest my antelope with it and while it did the job I wasn't happy with where it impacted. It shot left about 4 inches and I'm sure the elevation call was wrong by my spotter I hit it in the spine. That round had none of the signs of overdressed however. I'm 100 rounds now into this and not as impressed as I expected to be.

 

[razorsharptokill]

They never gave me an answer as to the poor accuracy. Thise cases are definitely showing pressure signs! Is the bolt closing tight on a live round? The howa the replaced mine with has a shorter chamber than my bergara. Brass needs more shoulder bump in the howa. Luckily the new how shoots pretty well. I won't ever buy another though. Howa customer service is awful.

 

[tbraypup]

They never gave me an answer as to the poor accuracy. Thise cases are definitely showing pressure signs! Is the bolt closing tight on a live round? The howa the replaced mine with has a shorter chamber than my bergara. Brass needs more shoulder bump in the howa. Luckily the new how shoots pretty well. I won't ever buy another though. Howa customer service is awful.

The action closes great on live rounds. Nice and smooth. Some of these when I went to eject though we're definitely tight tight. Like smack the bolt to open tight. But some aren't. At this point I'm assuming it's this factory hornaday being bad ammo. I'll take it out and chronograph some and see where I end up. So they replaced it with another one and it's been fine? Well took them long enough but they did stand by it in the long run.

 

[tbraypup]

Ok so I handloaded 10 rounds. Trimmed the cases and did some due diligence. Not full out race with them but a decent handload. 54 grains of 4831sc with cci large magnum rifle primers. Velocity average achieved 2900 fps. Group size was 1.25 at 100 yards. Some of that is probably me fighting thr mirage today. I then fired 10 rounds of the factory hornaday. Would you be surprised to know they were all over the place. 3082 fps real average with a disparity of 150 fps. The group was also garbage with the factory loads. At least I have decent brass to reload. In the picture the tight group in the center are my handloads. Flip this 90 degrees right. What would be bottom right and left are the factory loads.

 

[bpitcher]

I know this might be a dead thread but did howa ever give you an answer? I got one just after shot show this year from my ffl and he actually got the consecutive serial number to mine. Same rifle as yours and had some similar issues. Except I was playing between 143 eldx and 147 eldm (we split a case of each between us to try both weights) I have ran into my action screws damn near fell out of the gun Sunday checking my 200 yard zero. I tightened them to howa spec and retried to zero Monday. The 143s had massive accuracy issues at 200 yards and had massive appearances of over pressured rounds. I got the 147s to finally sight in at 100. Put 6 rounds within 1.2 inches with a thunder beast 30 cal can up front. Burris veracity ph scope. It walks out to 1000 on steel but that's just blinking for a long not testing legitimately. After the 6 shot group I felt confident and went out to harvest my antelope with it and while it did the job I wasn't happy with where it impacted. It shot left about 4 inches and I'm sure the elevation call was wrong by my spotter I hit it in the spine. That round had none of the signs of overdressed however. I'm 100 rounds now into this and not as impressed as I expected to be. View attachment 771437

Early on I had pressure signs exactly like that on mine (Hornady factory ammo as well). Even had one with heavy bolt lift. I attributed it to solvent in the chamber since I was doing break in at the time.

I've not had any issues since, though. Wondering if it was a Hornady issue?