Talk to me about the Howa 1500

[Buddro]

Weatherby needed to get into the low end market but didnt want to deal with it them selves, so the Vanguards are made in the same Japanese factory as the Howa 1500 using I believe the same patents. i.e they are the same guns they just take a little more time with the howa than the weatherby.

The mark iv weatherby rifles are still a different design made else where.
If you are just going to send the gun to a smith and have him work it over anyhow, save yourself some money and get a weatherby from wal mart. if you plan to buy one and shoot it out of the box...well frankly the weatherby vanguards are still a good option but maybe spend the money on the more polished howa 1500.

 

[Buddro]

A lot of people claim the weatherby vanguard is the cheapest production rifle to carry a sub moa guarentee. From what I could personally find on them, I believe weatherby may at one point have guaranteed all of their rifles but now only guarantees a handful of their vanguards to fire sub moa.

 

[Code4]

Question about Howa. I understand Weatherby Vanguards are made by Howa, too? I know Randy Newberg really is sold on Howas. What's the opinion of the related Weatherby Vanguards. Maybe in 30-06 for western hunting in a mountain type rifle.[/QUOTE

Randy Newberg is selling product for the distributor. The vanguard is the same as the Howa but with a higher quality external finish. Thats all.

 

[Philward]

Weatherby needed to get into the low end market but didnt want to deal with it them selves, so the Vanguards are made in the same Japanese factory as the Howa 1500 using I believe the same patents. i.e they are the same guns they just take a little more time with the howa than the weatherby.

The mark iv weatherby rifles are still a different design made else where.
If you are just going to send the gun to a smith and have him work it over anyhow, save yourself some money and get a weatherby from wal mart. if you plan to buy one and shoot it out of the box...well frankly the weatherby vanguards are still a good option but maybe spend the money on the more polished howa 1500.

That seems backwards, the vanguards being the more polished of the 2, Howas being for the most part rather plain Jane and utilitarian. Fewer caliber choices to boot.

A lot of people claim the weatherby vanguard is the cheapest production rifle to carry a sub moa guarentee. From what I could personally find on them, I believe weatherby may at one point have guaranteed all of their rifles but now only guarantees a handful of their vanguards to fire sub moa.

I believe all the weatherby vanguards since the series 2 came out a few years ago are sub moa since they are all essentially series 2.

 

[Buddro]

Its probably a spectrum, when I did my research on the vanguards I was looking at buying one from walmart (for like 225). The walmart versions are certainly not as well built as the howa. I am sure as you go into the all weather models and vanguard 2 the rifles get a little more attention than I gave them credit for.

 

[Buddro]

I believe all the weatherby vanguards since the series 2 came out a few years ago are sub moa since they are all essentially series 2.[/QUOTE]

Can you find any current statement from Weatherby saying that? When I did my homework it was discussed as common knowledge but I could find nothing from the manufacturer backing it up. The last thing I was able to find was a reference that the gaurentee existed at one point in time but since they have began test firing the rifles in vices and pulling those that shoot well to sell specifically as sub moa guns. The rest get sold in the basic line without the gaurentee.

I didnt scour their website looking for it, I may have easily missed the statement

 

[Buddro]

http://weatherbynation.com/index.php?topic=14721.0

On that page someone posted a link to A weatherby statement about their moa gaurentee, for me the link leads to an error message...

 

[Sevy]

This is from Weatherbys website. This is what I found when I was looking into them.

 

[Philward]

I looked at weatherby website yesterday and all the vanguards there have sub moa guarantee in the descriptions. Even the most basic one @$500, maybe Walmart gets a special run to meet a price point... That has less detail work done to it or it's the cull ones that are rejected but I find that hard to accept that weatherby would let those be sold with their name on them if there was a chance of tarnishing their reputation.

 

[Philward]

The guarantee does say with weatherby ammo or premium ammo, what ever they consider premium...

 

[ntsqd]

The guarantee does say with weatherby ammo or premium ammo, what ever they consider premium...

Not Premium ammo would be whatever doesn't shoot well enough to meet their guaranty.

 

[Philward]

http://weatherbynation.com/index.php?topic=14721.0

On that page someone posted a link to A weatherby statement about their moa gaurentee, for me the link leads to an error message...

This is from Weatherbys website. This is what I found when I was looking into them.

So according to sevy's attachment the serial number will tell you all you need to know. You may find that the current vanguards have that prefix designation VB. All others are probably older models.

 

[RetiredSniper]

AGAIN! I have had a HOWA 1500 mountain rifle in 308 with heavy barrel since 1993 and it hase not missed yet! It has had at least 1000 rounds through it to date. I would not sell it for anything!!!

 

[corsair4360]

My brother has one of the Weatherby Howa's. I spent a year working on a loads for hunting elk. I got it down to 1" three shots (shooting from a bag rest at 100 yards) with the original trigger and stock, new barrel. The stock barrel channel was opened up to make it free floating in order to get down to 1". The rifle has most often made 3 shots, two almost touching and a flyer 30 different loads and bullets experiments with the original and the replacement barrel. Free floating the barrel has made the biggest change in the consistency of the groups.

Next is a new stock, maybe a trigger. The experimentation continues.....

I have a 338 Win Mag Browning left hand rifle original barrel that shoots better than the 7mm Mag, after freezing the BOSS system, all hand-loads.