Howa rifles, are they good?

Nice first post Mark, look for the intro at the sop of the page, that aside you'll get all the help and info you need from this site once you are settled in.
This subject has been done to death quite recently, if you do a search you will find all you need to know.
I personally rate them very highly in standard barrel, the trigger isn't too bad either.
 
I bought a .243 with synthetic stock following discussion with finnbear270 and am delighted with it.

The rifle holds zero and gives a good group, however to date after the first shot the deer loses interest and there has not been a need for a second.
 
i have 1 and it shoots fine , had too get the triiger modified because it was a bit heavy , but that only cost £20 . mine has the standard barrel with a wildcat mod and a leupold vx 111 4.5x14x50 scope. had a fox at 250m the other day with it so not too shaby.
 
Matt_1029..you say you shot a fox at 250m. Does that Leupold have a BDC or was that pure holdover? My .243 drops 12 inches at that range, so holding over for fox would be very tough work, and probably waste of ammo..then again, if you zero at 200m it's not 'that' much holdover I suppose.
 
Then I would say you would be fine with a sporter barrel, you would soon lose interest lugging a bbl around!............... I have put two five round groups down, with my Howa 7mm WSM sporter barrel before heat got to the stage of having to leave to cool, & these were pretty hot loads running @ 3500fps.
 
Nothing wrong with Howas, they are well engineered, may be a bit heavier than some other makes but that is part of the price you pay for having a forged steel receiver and bolt with no plastic on board I guess. I have both the heavy barrel varmint model and the light weight barrelled version. The heavy barrelled rifle is a tack driver but to be honest the novelty wears off after carring it for a while, if you are using it for fox and deer get the standard model would be my advice.

PLK 12” drop at 250 yards????? What load you running? most 243 loads don’t drop that much until 300 yards with a 100 yard zero.

As said look back over some old threads, plenty been said about these rifles.

ATB
Tahr
 
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Mark, There are much worse rifles out there for the money! It is a proven, very strong action which is more than capable, and more than good enough to customise if you so wish.

ft
 
Hi Mark,

I asked a similar question on the forum a few months back when considering buying a Howa. I was reasured that they were good rifles for the money and having bought one i'm pleased that I did. After a bit of trouble getting it set up to my liking i'm now very happy with it. I had the trigger lightened and the action bedded which made a world of difference. It is now shooting lovely groups with Sako 50 grain B-tips.
Good value for money and shoots well.

CADEX
 
Hi Mark I purchased a howa 1500 .243 about 8 months ago as part of the deal you mentioned I bought the lightweight lam thumb hole stock for 780 it came with a nikko scope and mod.after trying to zero it I threw the nikko scope away it was crap and moved ams moved every time I pulled the trigger.I then bought a leupold vx3 scope and zeroed it at 150 yards (my preference) I can't comment on groups but I can hit clays all day at that range and am well happy with it.I use 100 grain federals and shot a fox a few weeks back at 300 yards with no hold over although I missed the first!. The only thing I have done is set up the trigger to my liking and it's perfect now,when it was new it was to hard and crept but you can get rid of this! These are well worth the money and I am going to start reloading the next couple weeks now I have some fire formed brass!
 
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