Howa 1500 build

Cuttyfunk · Nov 23, 2017

About a year ago I decided to add a short barrelled 308 to the fleet. The idea was to hop on a good deal when I found it. PTG had a sale on Howa barrelled actions for $250 and I jumped. It seems that the little bit of information on the Howa is generally good. I didn't want to spend more on a stock then the action so I purchase a Choate tactical. I had a older redfield five star scope and ordered Talley base and UTG Pro rings. All in less than $550 invested. This will be an interesting build since normally I follow the buy once, cry once formula.

Since I haven't seen a review of most of these products it will be interesting to see how it all works. Goal will be sub moa out to 500.

Biggfoot44 · Nov 23, 2017

Howa is good, well regarded action , widely used by many mfg under their own brand names.

Most presently well known is the Wetherby Vangaurd family, one variant of which offers moa guarantee.

iH8DemLibz · Nov 23, 2017

That's a fine little set-up for fi-fiddy. And Howa makes for a good bolt action starting point.

Give the barrel and fore stock a good squeeze and see if they meet.

If they do, remove some material from the barrel channel.

BradMacc82 · Nov 24, 2017

iH8DemLibz said:
That's a fine little set-up for fi-fiddy. And Howa makes for a good bolt action starting point.

Give the barrel and fore stock a good squeeze and see if they meet.

If they do, remove some material from the barrel channel.

I had one of those Choate's some time ago, the barrel channel is generous - and rigid as hell (at least on my Savage it was). Shouldn't have any worries with contact.

Mine shot best with the action screws torqued to 60in/lbs, with the aluminum v-block, I wouldn't go past 65in/lbs at the most.

Cuttyfunk · Dec 1, 2017

First impression of the Howa is very nice. The trigger is good, not great, but better then most factory. I'm gonna have trouble getting use to a two stage. It also needs to be lightened a bit. I don't see a trigger upgrade in the future which I do on most of my 700s. The action basically lives up to most of the other online reviews. The bolt release is nice and handy on the top but the safety is stamped metal leaving me wanting more. It smoothed out nice once cleaned up.

Cuttyfunk · Dec 1, 2017

The Choate tactical stock is a good stock for $200. It's heavy and stiff. It appears that the bedding block runs into the forend to stiffen it. The finish was rough but 15 minutes with sand paper, razor blade and a file cleaned things up. The barrel channel is huge. I don't think there is any taper past the action. 1/8" clearance even around the heavy barrel. The plastic is a hard plastic. My biggest complaint is the Tang has a strange taper. I feel like it tries to match the 700 Tang but it is completely different. I will try to get pics. Overall I an happy with it. Although I didn't want to, I think I will be bedding the action just to satisfy myself.

Cuttyfunk · Dec 21, 2017

Fifteen rounds of 168 FGMM to break in and sight in the scope left me with a barely moa gun. I wasn't impressed and thought this might be a mistake. As a reloader I knew it could shoot better and loaded up a few sighters and three ladder tests. 4166, Varget and H4895 were tested around 350 yards. Since this is my first ladder tests I will be interested to see how this method performs. While sighting in I did manage to shoot a ragged one hole with a three shot group using H4895. Which has me excited. I also switched to 175smk's and I believe it's helping in the 1:10 twist barrel. On a side note, you can color the bullets with a sharpie and it will leave a mark on white paper. This was extremely helpful on the ladder test.

lazarus · Dec 21, 2017

My limited experience with .308s and a bit more with .223 is that the faster twist barrels are genenerally lower accuracy with lighter rounds than with heavier ones.

One thing like like, but also dislike about my Sako .308, it has something like 12.3:1 twist. Bullets in the 145-165gr weight stabilize the best out of it. PPU 165gr PSPBT hunting rounds are about .75MOA, 155gr PPU and Hornady MHPBT both shoot about .5MOA out of it and even some brands of M80 ball can manage about 1.5” groups.

168gr most anything can usually not do better then 1” groups even with match ammo and all of the 175 and 180gr stuff is usually about 2 MOA.

lax · Dec 21, 2017

I used that stock for my muzzle loader build its solid, especially considering the price. If you want to get a softer recoil pad, limbsave makes a direct replacement.

alucard0822 · Dec 21, 2017

Howa makes a good action for the money. I have a HB varminter in 223 wearing a Boyd's laminated stock, 1-12 twist. I worked over the really simple trigger on mine, just some stoning/polishing and ajusting the stock single stage, and it's awesome, every bit as good as Timney in my other rifles. Seems to be really sensitive to bullet shape and OAL though. Can cover a group with a dime using 53 or 60gr flat base SMKs, it doesn't like Hornady & Nosler match or boat-tail bullets, groups open up quite a bit.

photoracer · Dec 21, 2017

I built a Howa 1500 LR rifle out of a Howa Heavy Varmint 20" barreled .308. B&C stock, Jard match trigger, Bushnell Elite Tactical 6-24x50 FFP on +20 MOA EGW rail and Burris tactical heavy rings. Also did the detachable mag conversion. Just been too busy competing in other shooting sports to do much with it yet. Shot a few test rounds at 100y only so far.

Cuttyfunk · Feb 26, 2018

I've been distracted by a new baby but got some load development done. Shot ladder tests with Varget, h4895, cfe223, 4166 and 4064. Shot a seating test with .020" jump to produce a .748 moa group. Set my seating depth and loaded up some tests for groups. Only got through Varget and Cfe 223. Varget was disappointing. Best group was .674 moa with all others around 1 moa. Cfe223 threw two groups at .555 and .570 moa. So close to my half moa goal, but not quite done yet. It's a good fast node and since my 223 bolt and AR both like CFE, I'm excited about it. Hope to get out and shoot the rest of the powders soon.

Jimbob2.0 · Feb 28, 2018

They are nice guns I have been looking at getting one of their 6.5 Grendel mini actions from Brownells for a build.

Cuttyfunk · Mar 20, 2018

So a little more load development with cfe. 47.5 seems to be my load. This was a .3 moa four shot group. Likely that load is half moa average. Still need to shoot H4895, but I will move on to a tracking test. I also added grip to the stock with Marine Tex. It came out great and reccomend it especially for the choate stock.

Cuttyfunk · May 2, 2018

So I decided to paint the Howa. Settled on alahyde in a flectarn pattern. Generally happy with the outcome. Where the aluma Hyde got baked on the metal it is great. I had some adhesion issues on the plastic stock and it didn't stick at all to the rubber around the scope caps. I think I will only use it on metal in the future.

Howa 1500 build

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