Reviews please! Howa 1500.

[Roy39A]

My heavy barrel 6 Creedmoor at 285 yards. Factory hogue stock. Only mods is a trigger job on the hack trigger and added a legacy bottom magizine kit. Had a standard barrel 6.5 CM that shot really well also. Traded it to my father in law a couple of years ago. He still uses it for whitetails.

 

[Bret GRAVELINE Graveline]

Where did you take your rifle to have the bolt face opened up? I've asked several reputable gunsmiths about doing so on my SA build so I could run a mag cartridge but no one would do it because of the extractor cut in the bolt face.

If that scares a smith of he's not one, I not trying to pick on anyone here, but opening a bolt face used to be gunsmithing 101, remove the extractor and plunger make the cut, I did over a dozen never had any issues, when the short mags hit the scene, I rechambered several 308s to WSM, had to makes some adjustments on the magazine box, and didn't have to make any modifications to the extractor, just replaced the original 308 one, they all fed and extracted perfectly, I even opened up a couple in the 338 Win to 338 laupua, same thing no modification to the extractor, but I did polish out the angleled cut to help slide over the cartridge rim, i had to modify the mag box by lengthing it, but usually just replaced the original one with a 300 weatherby box when I could get my hands on one,

 

[skipglo]

Howa/Vanguards just plain shoot out of the box! You can't go wrong with one!

 

[TC338]

There is a seller on eBay that has bolts. Your smith can open a standard bolt face to magnum.

I have bolts and barrels for it, but haven't actually switched between anything but 6 creed and 6 BRA. I am actually going to do a SST on it too.

I might have an extra bolt as well, if interested.

Shoot me a pm and we can discuss. Don't want to hijack this thread. Thanks for the info

 

[Hoss50]

A friend of mine who passed away had two. He seemed to have liked them. The only thing I recall him being frustrated with was that the receiver and barrel have metric threads. This was a problem for his gunsmith because his lathe wasn't set up to cut metric threads.

They make profits now for Howa 1500

 

[Hoss50]

Need candid reviews on above Rifle. Be straightforward & pull no punches.

My 257 weatherby vanguard shot .75" with handloads. I shot the barrel out and had a custom built. The howa actions are usually really good and don't need blueprinted.

The new 257 shoots sub .5" MOA. This picture is 500 yards shooting prone off my hunting pack at the range.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

My 257 weatherby vanguard shot .75" with handloads. I shot the barrel out and had a custom built. The howa actions are usually really good and don't need blueprinted.

The new 257 shoots sub .5" MOA. This picture is 500 yards shooting prone off my hunting pack at the range.

I thought they were the best kept secret. Let's keep it that way so they don't raise their prices.

 

[ducky]

Relate warranty experience too!

Not a Howa warranty experience, but a Legacy Sports International. I had a Citadel Trakr .17 HMR with a bad chamber. Legacy said they'd replace the rifle, but I had to wait over 6 months for the replacement. Legacy will handle any warranty for Howa, and right now they told me they are at the mercy of the ports both in the countries their products ship from and in CA.

I had a buddy who sent his .270 Win 1500 in for warranty because it wouldn't shoot better than 2 MOA. Legacy replaced the rifle, but they replaced it with a short action cartridge because they had no idea when they get a long action back in stock. This upset my buddy as he bought a B&C stock to replace the Hogue. So he couldn't reuse his stock on his warranty replacement, he's fixed income so this was a big deal for him.

Other than warranty, I've been very satisfied with the two Howa rifles in my household. My daughter hunts an Alpine in .308 Win, and I bought a Brownell's barreled action in 6mm Creedmoor. Both rifle have proven to be accurate and reliable.

 

[Robert23430]

I bought a NIB Howa M1500 Carbon Elevate in 6.5 Creedmoor (part number HCE65C) from a seller on Gunbroker.com. It has a carbon wrapped stainless steel #7 contour barrel and a Stocky's carbon fiber stock. When it arrived the carbon stock had several defects and I returned it to Howa (Legacy Sports International). They didn't replace the stock, but replaced the entire gun. At my request they exchanged the black carbon stock model with the Krytpek Altitude carbon fiber stock model. As it came from the factory it easily shoots better than 1/2" groups at 100y with factory loaded Berger 135gr Classic Hunter ammo. The factory trigger was set at 2.75# from the factory. The only changes that I am going to do are add a Matthew Fabrication cheek riser and a Howa ATIK5R65CR drop in magazine kit.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

Not a Howa warranty experience, but a Legacy Sports International. I had a Citadel Trakr .17 HMR with a bad chamber. Legacy said they'd replace the rifle, but I had to wait over 6 months for the replacement. Legacy will handle any warranty for Howa, and right now they told me they are at the mercy of the ports both in the countries their products ship from and in CA.

I had a buddy who sent his .270 Win 1500 in for warranty because it wouldn't shoot better than 2 MOA. Legacy replaced the rifle, but they replaced it with a short action cartridge because they had no idea when they get a long action back in stock. This upset my buddy as he bought a B&C stock to replace the Hogue. So he couldn't reuse his stock on his warranty replacement, he's fixed income so this was a big deal for him.

Other than warranty, I've been very satisfied with the two Howa rifles in my household. My daughter hunts an Alpine in .308 Win.and I bought a Brownell's barreled action in 6mm Creedmoor. Both rifle have proven to be accurate and reliable.

Just curious bit does he still have the stock or did he resell already ? Does it have the drop plate ?

 

[ducky]

IDK, I'll ask him. It was inlet for the factory TG/floorplate. It was bedded with Accraglass or other bedding compound by his GS.

Just got a text, he sold it a few months ago.

 

[clamb4]

Where did you take your rifle to have the bolt face opened up? I've asked several reputable gunsmiths about doing so on my SA build so I could run a mag cartridge but no one would do it because of the extractor cut in the bolt face.

I think it was Weaver rifles in Colorado.

 

[RANGER 1]

I have a older howa 1500 in 222 shoots great, only thing done is bedded the lug a little tricky on a howa but plenty of videos to help. Good luck with your choice.

 

[Akredneck]

I bought one several years back in 300 win, after working up a handload for it. Was able to upgrade trigger and reach out to 1300 with it. It was a nice shooting rifle, recoil was a little stiff on shoulder with the overmoulded stock. I kept stock for hunting out of canoe, made it easier with wet hands. I had a friend who bought one in a 7-08, we tried for a year to work up a handload to no avail. Sent it back for warranty and they put new Barre on. Problem solved. Just my 2 cents