Story & photos by Jon R. Sundra
Photo: The author considers the Howa to be one of the best values on the market today. Here, he puts a Supreme Thumbhole sporter through its paces.
There were lots of things I liked about the Howa action upon seeing my first one back in 1970 when Weatherby introduced it as its then-new Vanguard. I recall Roy Weatherby telling me he was a bit apprehensive about offering a second line of rifles with his name on it, even though he felt it would not compete with his flagship Mark V Magnum. His reasoning was simple enough: Not only was the Vanguard line priced considerably lower than the Mark V, but also Roy vowed it would never be chambered in Weatherby Magnum calibers.
Well, you know what they say about never saying never. Today, 36 years later, the Vanguard is indeed available in Weatherby Magnum chamberings (though only two, the .257 and .300), and it remains a very stable and profitable line for Weatherby.
Photo: The Carbon Fiber Supreme Varminter showed no tendency to shift point of impact as the barrel heated. These groups are representative of how the best loads performed.
So much for the Vanguard. Many of you may be familiar with Howa as a Smith & Wesson or a Mossberg. Strange as that sounds, in 1979 the old Interarms Corp. began marketing what was essentially the Weatherby Vanguard rifle under the name of the Japanese company that manufactured it: Howa. Shortly thereafter, Howa also private-labeled the same basic rifle for S&W and Mossberg, but in both cases they lasted only a few years. All three companies used the same Model 1500 designation, and the only difference between them was the roll stampings on the barrel and receiver, and slight differences in the configuration of the stocks.
In the mid-90s when Interarms was breaking up, a group of investors bought the import rights to the Howa line and took the name of Legacy Sports International (www.legacy-sports.com), which is now based in Reno, Nevada.
Photo: All Howas have hinged steel floorplates.
With the sole exception of the Model 1500 Carbon Supreme, which is new to the line this year, every model is available as a complete rifle or as a barreled action in both stainless and blued chrome-moly. Two action lengths are offered, short and standard, and all have hinged floorplates, i.e., there are no blind-magazine versions of this rifle.
The Howa line consists of several permutations of the M-1500. There’s the Ultralight, Hunter, Lightning and Varmint series, all of which share the same basic injection-molded synthetic stock in black, brown and camo. Then there’s the top-of-the-line Supreme series consisting of the JRS Classic, Varminter and Thumbhole models in a choice of black or brown stock colors.
Like I said earlier, there are lots of things I like about the Howa action. Take, for example, the fact that the receiver is a forging, with a flat bedding surface and an integral recoil lug that probably has as much surface area as any existing action. Not only is the recoil lug integral, but it’s also beefy enough that the front action screw threads into it.
Photo: Both the top and bottom edges of the magazine box fit into deep skirts in the receiver and floorplate frame.
Being a forging doesn’t make the Howa receiver superior to an investment casting, like a Ruger 77’s, or one turned from bar stock, like a Remington 700. I just personally like the fact that it is and offers the features I just mentioned. Whether a flat-bottomed action is in any way better than a tubular one, I can’t say. Accuracy-wise, it’s hard to fault a Remington 700 or a Savage 110 series, but benchrest actions are all flat-bottomed, and the argument that a tubular receiver acts as a wedge when tightened down and thus is more prone to cause changes in bedding dynamics, has some merit, at least in theory.
The bolt, too, is a forging, and its handle is integral, which I also prefer to ones that are brazed or collared onto the bolt body. The way I see it, if the root of the bolt handle lowers into a slot in the receiver — as it does on the Howa — and in so doing serves as an auxiliary safety lug, I want it to be an integral part of the bolt! Up front, we find twin opposed locking lugs, a recessed face, a plunger-type ejector and an M-16-type extractor — all pretty conventional features that have withstood the test of time. The right locking lug has a shallow anti-bind groove that engages a counterpart rail that runs the length of the raceway. The bolt body has three large holes that vent into the magazine in the event of a pierced primer or case head separation. Lastly, the bolt’s striker assembly can be removed in a couple of seconds without tools.
Photo: The bolt assembly could not be simpler, nor sturdier. Note the anti-bind groove in the right locking lug, and vent holes in the bolt body.
The bottom metal unit, which is a non-ferrous casting, is well designed and executed. The trigger guard bow and floorplate frame are one piece, and the separate sheet-steel magazine box fits deeply into skirted recesses in the floor of the receiver and in the floorplate frame rather than just “floating” between the two. It’s a very secure arrangement.
The magazine on the standard/magnum receiver will accept cartridges loaded to an overall length of 3.530 inches, so handloaders have an extra 1/4 inch for seating heavier bullets that much farther out than factory loadings, providing the throat is lengthened to allow it. The magazine of the short action is not quite as generously proportioned as that of the standard-length receiver, but it will accept cartridges of 27⁄8 inches, which, of course, is roomy enough for any .308-length cartridge and then some. For the .204 Ruger, .223 Rem and .22-250 chamberings, a sheet-metal baffle at the rear of the magazine reduces the length of the box to 2.3 inches. In addition to the aforementioned two calibers, Howas are offered in .243 Win, .308 Win, .270 WSM, 7mm WSM, .300 WSM, .25-06, .270 Win, .30-06 Sfld, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag and .338 Win Mag.
Photo: The Howa receiver is a one-piece forging with integral recoil lug. Note the large, flat bedding surface.
Two years ago, Howa took what had always been a two-position side safety and made it three-position. Thumbing the deeply serrated button rearward to its middle position blocks trigger movement, but the action can be cycled so that live rounds can be chambered or extracted with the safety engaged. Fully rearward, the safety locks both the bolt and the trigger. This safety works well in that when thumbing the button forward, there is a detent at the middle position that engages with a very positive feel and can’t be bypassed by thumbing it forward forcibly.
As for the trigger, it’s housed in a beefy casting that has 1⁄8-inch-thick walls and is anchored to the receiver with an equally beefy machine bolt and lock washer. It’s one of the sturdiest trigger housings you’ll find anywhere. The trigger itself is adjustable for tension and sear engagement, with both adjusting screws lacquered to betray tampering, which of course voids any warranty.
The bolt stop/release is yet another feature on the Howa I like because it’s so simple and sturdy. There’s no linkage involved; it’s just a piece of heavy sheet stock with an integral, upward extension that pokes up just behind the left wall of the receiver bridge. Depressing this exposed button pivots the stop downward out of the left lug raceway.
When examined with a bore scope, I’ve found the internal finish of Howa’s hammer-forged barrels to be among the smoothest I’ve seen, regardless of how they were rifled or how much they cost. Over the years, I’ve tested a number of Howas in both sporter and varmint configurations, and without exception, they shot as well as any production rifle out there.
Another thing I’ve always liked about the Howa is that you can buy just the barreled action and complete the gun yourself using a semi-finished or fully finished aftermarket gunstock. Boyds’, for example, offers what are virtual duplicates of all three of Legacy’s laminated stock styles in the semi- or fully finished state. Even the semi-finished stock seldom needs any “tweaking” to accommodate the barreled action, so the only work required is to final-sand what is already a fully shaped stock and apply the finish.
Here’s the math: The MSRP of a Howa blued barreled action ranges from $385 to $399, depending on caliber; a Boyds’ unfinished JRS Classic stock is $65.50. One could, of course, opt for the more expensive all-stainless BA and a thumbhole or fully finished stock, but the percentage of savings would be similar.
The newest offering in the Howa line is a laminated thumbhole varminter fitted with a Christensen Arms carbon-fiber-wrapped barrel. At the risk of oversimplifying, the Christensen folks take a stainless Howa 1500 varmint-weight barreled action and turn the barrel down to a smaller diameter. Then, using a patent-pending process, they wrap the barrel with a high-modulus, resin-impregnated carbon-fiber cloth to where it duplicates the contour of the original barrel. In addition to lighter weight, a number of other claims are made for these carbon-encased barrels, among them: 1) They are stiffer than steel; 2) They dissipate heat much faster; 3) They do not expand and contract as they heat and cool, and thus maintain zero during high-volume shooting; 4) They have 25 percent greater accuracy life due to lower temperatures; and 5) They have greater margin of safety, in that a carbon-graphite barrel casing is three to four times stronger per weight than steel.
Anyway, as it came from the box, the test gun weighed in at 8 3/4 pounds and measured 44 inches overall with its 24-inch barrel. The Legacy folks were kind enough to also include one of their NikkoSterling Platinum Nighteater 4-16x44 scopes. Legacy is the sole importer of the NikkoSterling line, which in addition to being the best-selling scope in Australia, is very competitively priced. The model they sent us is among their top-of-the-line offerings, yet carries an MSRP of only $160. Nighteaters have a distinctive silhouette in that the top of the objective bell extends farther forward than the bottom, lending an impression of speed or forward motion.
Ready for action, the rig weighed exactly 10 pounds.
Range conditions were near ideal: overcast and virtually no wind, so I had high expectations. Before leaving for the range, however, I noticed upon reassembling the gun that the floorplate wasn’t quite snug with the belly of the stock, indicating the bottom metal unit might be bottoming on the magazine box rather than on the inletted surfaces of the stock. When the box is being pinched between the receiver and the BM unit, no rifle can shoot to its potential because essentially the receiver isn’t fully supported.
To alleviate the situation, I took the box, and with a grinding wheel, shaved about 1⁄16 inch from its bottom edges. Upon reassembly and torquing down the action screws, I could now place my three middle fingers against the inside surface of the magazine box and move it up and down slightly, indicating it was no longer being pinched. Whether or not what I did had anything to do with the gun’s performance, I can’t say, because I did it before firing the first shot. In any case, I know it couldn’t have hurt because the test gun shot pretty darn well, as indicated by the 100-yard groups shown in the data table below. Four five-shot groups were fired with each of the seven loads totaling 140 rounds.
Each group of five shots was fired as fast as I could. After all, what good is a varmint rifle — at least one that’s going to be used on prairie rats where the shooting could get fast and furious — if it can’t shoot five-shot groups that stay together.
Waiting just 3-4 minutes between groups, the barrel never got to where it wasn’t just mildly warm to the touch, and groups stayed random, with no tendency to string in any direction as the barrel heated. As you can see from the table, two of the seven loads averaged under an inch, and the Federal Premium came close. I’ve had dead stock factory varminters in .223 shoot better, but this Howa was certainly no slouch in the accuracy department. One thing’s sure: These carbon-wrapped jobs certainly are distinctive looking, and they are more than a pound lighter than the same Howa model with a steel barrel. Still, one has to question whether at $1,299 they’re worth the extra $450-$550 over what Howa’s conventional varminters go for. With the Hunter models starting at $574, the Howa is one of the better values in the marketplace today.
–Jon R. Sundra
GunHunter Magazine • November 2006
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