Howa Mini Rifles, Builds, and Upgrades
- Thread starter Ferrulewax
- Start date
If you dont its very easy and the 5 shots actually feed better due to the spring being more compressed. I had to stretch my 10 rounder spring to get it to feed round 10 but I've not been able to make a modified 5 rounder misfeed.
Also a dremel easily opens the mag length up to 2.39 which happens be be about where 73 elds 69 and 77 tmks all touch the lands.
Agree with all of this, except my .223 mini the 77tmk hits the lands at 2.495”.
Some absolute measurements for everyone(subtract the distance you believe to be sufficient to not make contact with front of bullet), may vary between guns but I doubt it:
The stock mags windowed allow 2.39”
The Jefferson outdoors hinged metal allows 2.475”. It can be opened up to 2.5” by just taking .025” off the inside back edge of the mag box.
The nub on the back of the action inlet can be ground down to increase the available length of the hinged metal mag box to 2.510”… or more if,,,
The bolt catch for the mini bolt can be ground down to allow the bolt to travel further back to allow up to 2.575-2.6”. I ground the bolt stop face to do this.
Now I have to go back and file the nub on back of action inlet to match. It’s not an easy task with hand tools as there’s no room to get a long stroke, grabbed the right dremel bit, just need to find time to finish.
My expectation is that I can get the gun and the Jefferson metal to accept 2.55-2.575” oal ammo. Once I’m there, the last piece is a mag box that will allow that length. Chris at Jefferson thinks it’s no problem.
As stated above, anything past 2.5” will be overkill for light bullets up to the 77’s.
But it will open things up for throating, 80/88/90 class bullets, and the heavier 112/115 bullets to go with the 6 dasher I made. 6x45 gets a lot more interesting at 2.55” too. And I think a 6GT could start to make sense at these lengths too.
I’ll update here once I get the action opened up fully, and find a mag box solution.
I've measured 3x 1 in 8 223 barrels and a 1 in 9.
I just looked back at my notes. All 4 had 77tmks touch the lands at 2.39. 73 elds measured identical. I only measured 69tmks in the 1 in 9 and its also the same. The seating die can be left the same. I expect the ogive profile is more or less the same on these 3.
All the longer sleeks elds (62 VT, 75m, 80 m, 80 x, 88 m) where around 2.49-2.51. Are you sure your notes aren't for one of these? Also I could get any barrel to shoot any of these better than 2 inchs. I tried 4895, varget, staball match, benchmark, 8208, lever, cfe223 as i really wanted the 75s to work.
I will add I've gone away from the Jeffersons in 223. It makes function significantly worse in 223. It feeds alright 100% when bolts worked slowly but if the bolts run fast it only feeds about 80%. The spring is also incredibly stiff and the follower and round impinge directly on the bolt and cause significant bolt bind. Night and day different compared to factory mags.
Seems the grendel etc are different and have feed lips built into the magazine so may be different but the 223 i want to like but end up buying a metal floor plate for factory mags.
I also get 2.39 with just thinning the front bit not notching it. This means rounds are captive in the magazine some aftermarket bottom metals arent guided all the way to the action so a full window can cause feeding issues. I can load to 2.37 in the magazines. Since I've not been able to get any truly long bullets to shoots it doesnt matter for now.
@KyleR1985 does your jeffersons centre feed?
Are all shaws barrel nuts or do they make shouldered prefits now?
Stumpy208
FNG
I was finally able to get out and shoot the mini after I got the barrel swapped to the 22 ARC I bought from LSWild. The new barrel shoots pretty well. Even though it's only a 5 shot group (it was hot and had the family with me so had to keep it short) I'm extremely pleased with it shooting the 88 ELD-M's.
Only thing left on this build I am pretty sure is going to be the RokStok Lite when it comes out in carbon.
Only thing left on this build I am pretty sure is going to be the RokStok Lite when it comes out in carbon.
Both of mine were not too hard but I made up a barrel and action vice that fit pretty nice. A Remington one looked like it would work with one jaw flipped. I would still be a bit cautious of using an internal style to remove. I made one for refitting barrels.
Stumpy208
FNG
Once I was able to grab the barrel and not have it slip it went pretty smooth. Before that though it was difficult.
I did make a DIY barrel vise so that could have made it more difficult.
Stumpy208
FNG
I bought this action wrench and it worked pretty well.
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a.co
Schroedernd
FNG
Heavy or sporter?
Is anyone? Ive found all of my 223 barrels to be picky. They all shoot with something but definitely won't let me pick what I want to shoot.
Heavy. Seems to do “ok” with factory 105 BTHP, but 103s and 108s are pretty inconsistent.
I’ll keep working on some handloads, but a new barrel may be the way to go.
Probably not… had high hopes for it, but couldn’t expect too much at the price point.
I ended up ordering a new one. The barrel shot factory loads decent after I got the rifle bedded. Once I started handloading it I ran into weird pressure issues with low speeds. Pulled factory barrel and should have a mcgowen 6 arc barrel showing up to replace it here in a month or so.
I've removed a few factory barrels on tikka and howas now. I read tons of horror stories about getting them factory barrels off. What ended up getting them off for me was using outside action wrench like linked above, then sliding a 5ish foot handle to a floor jack over the handle and slowly walking it around.. minimal effort. No soaking in kroil. No hacks with a hammer. Just slow and steady leverage.
They are functional and I dont see any more value in spending more on the current available options. I just assume they are going to require checking a few bullets and won't be tack drivers. Im happy enough with mine even the 1 in 9 is fine considering I brought it for $600 sold the suppressor and rings for $400 and thats NZ pesos too hahah. Effectively cost me $140ish US.
I would love a better rifle or for kimber to start making the 223 again.
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