Howa Mini Rifles, Builds, and Upgrades

[KY_coop]

Anyone have issues with their mini showing pressure during load development/ shooting factory ammo? My 6 arc 20" has shown pressure on almost every load I've tried. Thought it was the cheap hornady brass but I tried some peterson today and it isn't any better.I get ejector smear on almost any load charge, seat depth, new brass, fired brass, high pressure, low pressure. I can't figure out what's going on because the gun is shooting good and ive just been living with the ejector smere. But I don't want to continue trashing my new peterson brass. Took a Pic of some random case heads from some shooting today. 108 eldm @.040 off the lands and some very mild varget and lever loads.

 

[JCMCUBIC]

....I get ejector smear on almost any load charge, seat depth, new brass, fired brass, high pressure, low pressure. ...

Feed/chamber/eject several rounds without firing. Check to see if they have a swipe/smudge. I was recently trying to figure out the same issue you're noticing with less than max loads in a new rifle. It would leave a faint swipe/smudge on every fired case. Finally I tested without firing and saw they occurred on unfired brass as well. May not be the case for yours but it's a quick and easy check.

 

[KY_coop]

Feed/chamber/eject several rounds without firing. Check to see if they have a swipe/smudge. I was recently trying to figure out the same issue you're noticing with less than max loads in a new rifle. It would leave a faint swipe/smudge on every fired case. Finally I tested without firing and saw they occurred on unfired brass as well. May not be the case for yours but it's a quick and easy check.

Cycled some unfired brass and didn't see anything on the cases, cycled 3 rounds in and all three came out with the same swipe/ scrape down the bullet and toward the neck of the case. Was single feeding so shouldn't be scraped from feeding up from a mag. Hard to see in the pictures but in person the scrapes are fairly evident and only on this one side.

 

[The Guide]

Cycled some unfired brass and didn't see anything on the cases, cycled 3 rounds in and all three came out with the same swipe/ scrape down the bullet and toward the neck of the case. Was single feeding so shouldn't be scraped from feeding up from a mag. Hard to see in the pictures but in person the scrapes are fairly evident and only on this one side.
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Coat the bullet and casing in black sharpie and then hand feed them into the chamber and close the bolt. If you see a shiny spot somewhere, that's where it is rubbing. Could be shoulder, neck, bullet, or something else. Even do the headstamp to see if it is scraping there due to an uneven boltface. Marker will come off from brass when tumbled or wiped down with alcohol.

Jay

 

[KY_coop]

Coat the bullet and casing in black sharpie and then hand feed them into the chamber and close the bolt. If you see a shiny spot somewhere, that's where it is rubbing. Could be shoulder, neck, bullet, or something else. Even do the headstamp to see if it is scraping there due to an uneven boltface. Marker will come off from brass when tumbled or wiped down with alcohol.

Jay

Blue marker definitely shows the scrapes better. It's consistent with the uncoated rounds in chambered.

 

[jeremy.b]

Both the ejector and extractor cutouts in the bolt face on my mini had small burrs that caused marks and moderat loads.

I removed the extractor and ejector, cleaned up the burrs and the problem when away.

 

[Stocky]

Kimbers ejector slot is often sharp and will swipe factory loads. Couldn't see why it wouldn't happen with a howa.

 

[KY_coop]

There's definitely brass shavings all over the ejector. I'll get the bolt taken apart and check everything out when I get home from work.

 

[The Guide]

Blue marker definitely shows the scrapes better. It's consistent with the uncoated rounds in chambered.
View attachment 880967

I mean the whole case... you might see the should or the datum line with a concentric ring showing a tight chamber or other chamber anomaly. I have done it with several rifles that had tight chambers on factory brass to see where the issue was. Often found that the tight ones were due to minimum chamber with maximum sized brass. You may find nothing or you may see where the issue is.

Jay

 

[KyleR1985]

There's definitely brass shavings all over the ejector. I'll get the bolt taken apart and check everything out when I get home from work.

I had this issue when we opened the bolt face for the mini dasher.

Broke everything down and polished it really good. Knocked sharp edges down with folded sandpaper, then cut a disc of 400grit to fit on case head with double stick tape. Marked whole thing with sharpie and polished till gone.

Be careful you don’t remove a lot of material from bolt face - you may increase head space and pin protrusion. You’re just taking down the high relief spots. Better to do a little, and shoot, and do more until it stops marking brass.

Funny I assumed the problem was the work we did. Sounds like it’s more common.

 

[KY_coop]

Got the bolt taken down and removed the ejector. Knocked off all the edges with some sandpaper and cleaned all the gunk out. Got 1 of the rounds in tested earlier painted all the way blue and cycled it. Nothing jumps out to me other than the same marks on the bullet.

 

[KY_coop]

I loaded up a few rounds to test out and they still showed ejector and extractor marks. 26.2 gr varget so shouldn't have been to much.
Went to take the bolt apart to try and do what KyleR said and launched my extractor pin into orbit.
So now I either need a new extractor or, part of me is thinking about going with a new barreled action. It would be cheaper then a new barrel and hopefully it would make all the problems go away.
Any thoughts? Or reccomendations on where to get a new extractor pin? A quick search showed some places in Australia but nothing here in USA.

 

[KyleR1985]

I loaded up a few rounds to test out and they still showed ejector and extractor marks. 26.2 gr varget so shouldn't have been to much.
Went to take the bolt apart to try and do what KyleR said and launched my extractor pin into orbit.
So now I either need a new extractor or, part of me is thinking about going with a new barreled action. It would be cheaper then a new barrel and hopefully it would make all the problems go away.
Any thoughts? Or reccomendations on where to get a new extractor pin? A quick search showed some places in Australia but nothing here in USA.

Legacy will sell a new bolt (and possibly the spare parts you need). But they’ll only sel the bolts to an FFL because you can’t be trusted. Not sure on the spare parts.

Email them before you buy a new gun. If you do I’ll buy your action from you haha!

 

[KY_coop]

Yea i sent in an email to them so we will see how it goes.

 

[waspocrew]

I got tired of the small bolt knob, so I sent the bolt out to be fluted, threaded, and have a larger bolt knob installed.

Sent this to Sam at The Polished Knob. He did great work as always. The enlarged bolt knob is definitely an improvement (fluting was purely aesthetic). After messing around with it a bit, I prefer the 1” ball. The tactical knob sticks out from the rifle a bit too much for my liking.

 

[IDVortex]

I got tired of the small bolt knob, so I sent the bolt out to be fluted, threaded, and have a larger bolt knob installed.

Sent this to Sam at The Polished Knob. He did great work as always. The enlarged bolt knob is definitely an improvement (fluting was purely aesthetic). After messing around with it a bit, I prefer the 1” ball. The tactical knob sticks out from the rifle a bit too much for my liking.

View attachment 881723
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View attachment 881724View attachment 881725

How much did this cost? That's sexy...

 

[waspocrew]

How much did this cost? That's sexy...

$145 for his services (handle threading, bolt fluting, and cerakote). I bought the knob (lumley) from another vendor for $30 shipped.

 

[IDVortex]

$145 for his services (handle threading, bolt fluting, and cerakote). I bought the knob (lumley) from another vendor for $30 shipped.

Well ain't that tempting.

 

[KY_coop]

Got in touch with legacy and they are shipping me a new ejector. Pretty easy to deal with. Cost was $34 to my door. Kind of high for such a small simple part but better then not being able to get one.

 

[General RE LEE]

Who has done a custom barrel and was it a big improvement over the factory? The stock barrel has always kinda sucked on my 22” sporter. It’s 1.5 MOA unless I run a can and a specific load. Not bad but not really good either.