I have finally managed to fire a few shots through this rifle and it is very smooth, the recoil is light and the factory two stage trigger is very crisp. I even like the stock Howa have used it is very comfortable and fits me well. All told this is an impressive gun shooting a surprisingly effective projectile with little muzzle blast or recoil. I was unable to shoot many rounds and need to do more using a good scope to assess its accuracy but first impressions are very good.
I have now replaced the trigger springs and the weight is down to about 1.5 lbs and very crisp, I have a boyd stock on order and a 6-24x50 scope and have started fire forming some cases, the gun shoots well and I will start to work up an accuracy load soon along with some chrono work. The gun is lovely to shoot with very little recoil.
I found by the time I added the better trigger , mag conversion & stock,et etc to the howa, I may has well just have put the money into a pedigree rifle & had done, the best grouping I could get with a howa 1500 in 6mm + cal was 3" at 100yds.. 7mm was diabolical..needless to say they went back !
I am astonished that you would not consider a Howa to be a high quality rifle, my 1500 in .243 will group less than 0.3 of an inch at 50 metres and my mini action 6.5 Grendel is now producing groups under 0.4 inch at 50 metres. They are two of the most accurate firearms I have owned
Thanks for looking
A friend just bought a .223 mini action and it's shooting .7 MOA at 100 yards. Very accurate. I have just ordered one in .204 Ruger with the Kryptek Hogue stock. Excited.
My RWS Sporter .243 (Howa made iirc), totally standard, was sub MOA, tested at 100m with factory ammo. Never found a need to modify it and would have only hand load for cost saving reasons.
I plink, therefore I am.