Are Howa actions “good enough” for a custom build? How true are they?

[284winner]

You'll find things are very different today.

Great to hear. I'll have to start looking I guess.

 

[Little Church Mouse]

I just bought another one 3/10/2022 to build off of. I got it $529 before tax. It is a combo package so it is a complete rifle in 300 Win Mag, Scope base, rings, scope, threaded barrel, Hogue over molded stock.

Name a better action that you can purchase at this moment in time that has a forged steel receiver and forged 1 piece bolt for $529? Let alone complete rifle?

Name another mass produced bolt action receiver for $529 that has a flat bottom and built in recoil lug?

Name another action in this price range that is milled instead turned on a lathe from bar stock or shaped on ancient metal shaper?

Sure the stock is heavy and flexy but that is easy to replace. If I put a piece of Walnut on it the rifle will be lighter as is than most custom light weight mountain rifle builds we see featured on this site.

While alloy it is metal for the bottom metal and not plastic missing an actual trigger guard. As much as I like the Ruger American in the $500 ball park the Howa is 3X the rifle when looking at materials, machining steps, easy of upgrading and after market support and the same thing when comparing to similar priced Savage Axis.

I already know no one on this site as of my writing this on 3/13/22 can name anything.

In fact who else besides Eastern European's making modern Mauser actions offer's a forged bolt action receiver and bolt at any price point? Does anyone else today offer a receiver that is totally or primarily milled at any price point?

"Does anyone else today offer a receiver that is totally or primarily milled at any price point?"

Montana Rifle Company ,CRF action for about $2500 for walnut or synthetic stock.

MONTANA DIFFERENCE

A billet-machined receiver, button-pulled barrel, adjustable trigger, M-Lok rail and premium stocks are what sets MRC apart from competition

montanarifleco.com

 

[Big Mc]

I’m looking for opinions from guys that have worked with them. I’ve read a little about cheap barreled actions from PT&G being ok for a hunting rifle or truck gun but I haven’t seen much about using them for a custom build. A few years ago, I bought a few guns from an estate sale. One of the guns was a 6.5x284 with a nice Manners stock, custom barrel and a Howa Action. It was the first one I’ve seen. Feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Josh

Depends on what you will use it for. BR there are better. Tommy Mc

 

[bobcat93]

Digging for old 6.5 grendel post.
I like that build.
What chassis is that? I dont think ive seen it before. Probably out of production now.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

This is an old thread, but I just built a custom 6.5 SAUM Improved on a Howa long action with a carbon barrel from a reamer and dies designed by Alex Wheeler. Might post some pics later because ive done a lot of unique work to the stock.
Still love the Howa action!

 

[Big Mc]

I’m looking for opinions from guys that have worked with them. I’ve read a little about cheap barreled actions from PT&G being ok for a hunting rifle or truck gun but I haven’t seen much about using them for a custom build. A few years ago, I bought a few guns from an estate sale. One of the guns was a 6.5x284 with a nice Manners stock, custom barrel and a Howa Action. It was the first one I’ve seen. Feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Josh

For a good one NOPE..

 

[Chiquita]

10 shot group with HOWA .308 barreled action. The barral has about 3800 rounds through it.
The action is very smooth.

 

[charlie b]

I bought a 1500 barreled action from Brownell's two years ago. It was a choice between a Rem action from PTG or the 1500. Nearly same price but Rem was bare receiver and the 1500 came with factory barrel and trigger. So I got the 1500. It was a varmint barrel in 6.5CM so I got to play with a new cartridge as well.

The action was not silky smooth. It took a lot of stoning to get it as good as my factory Savage, and that isn't saying much. It still binds up if I try to run it fast. It is factory timed to have a bit of the cocking action on closing. Not bad once the sliding surfaces on the bolt and sear are smoothed up.

After market is not that great, about the same as Savage. A few after market triggers are available. Scope mounts easily found. A few stocks, but, I went with a Richard's Microfit. I really like it. He leaves enough extra wood on the shape so you can fit it to you, especially in the grip. There is a bit of fitting left but only in non-critical areas, like the magazine box, bolt handle/tang, and bolt release areas. Easily fixed with a dremel or some chisels. I bedded it with pillars and that was an easy procedure.

The barrel isn't great but isn't bad. It does shoot under MOA with quite a few loads. Getting better than that is a real chore. The barrel finish is about like the other factory barrels I've seen, pretty rough. It collects a lot of copper. I'll probably replace the barrel this year. Another issue here is the metric barrel threads. Not everyone is set up for them so choices are limited a little.

Bottom line, if I had it to do over I'd have waited a bit and got the Rem action from PTG.

 

[Chiquita]

@Charlie
I am almost due for a barrel. Bug holes/southern precision will do a barrel for HOWA. I have asked them.

 

[MDT6BRA]

I love my howa mini and carbon six is doing prefits for howa 1500 and the mini for around $700

 

[d0nkey]

I bought my son a Howa 1500 6.5CM Heavy Barreled Action in a MDT XRS Chassis with a Leupold MK4. It shoots around ~1 MOA at 600, barrel has 1000 rounds on it. It servers as a fun plinker and a hunting rifle.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

The Howa factory barrels aren’t special, but as an action alone for a semi-custom build, (as was asked), they are great.

Howa is the best of both worlds from the Win Model 70 and Rem 700. From the beefy flat bottom frame and integral recoil lug of the Winchester Model 70, to the hinged magazine floorplate and a very similar bolt design of the Rem 700 with a recessed bolt face which gives the “3 rings of steel”…But then Howa takes the design quality a step farther by adding in an M16 extractor. So it really is a very well thought out design that the Japanese have come up with by utilizing many similar good features of existing designs while eliminating any weak points.

Get the HACT trigger spring kit from “Gun Blokes” and you can very safely and reliably run the Howa factory triggers well under a pound!

Other than the somewhat lacking support in the aftermarket parts department, there’s really nothing bad I can say about the Howa receiver design.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I did a Thread on a Mini that that I converted for a friend to a 24 tpi rather than the factory metric.

When I chucked the action up on a mandrel, the face did show several thousanths runout, and the thread was off enough from the bolt way to notice.

I did state that from the way the overall finish looked on the action, and from the way it machined, I suspected that Howa uses some type of investment casting to make the action body.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I did a Thread on a Mini that that I converted for a friend to a 24 tpi rather than the factory metric.

When I chucked the action up on a mandrel, the face did show several thousanths runout, and the thread was off enough from the bolt way to notice.

I did state that from the way the overall finish looked on the action, and from the way it machined, I suspected that Howa uses some type of investment casting to make the action body.

Ive built on multiple Howa actions…mini, short, and long actions. I personally have never seen anything that indicates a casting of the receiver. I can see why you may think that because there isn’t a single tooling mark on them and they have a rougher texture finish, but thats just because they remove all tooling marks and probably bead blast before finish coating. I think its that bead blast textured finish that may have you thinking they are cast, but according to Howa, they are CNC machined from a solid piece of steel.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Another feature i really like about the Howa is their tang design. Its is extremely beefy and flat on the bottom as well. It is essentially an additional recoil lug at the rear. But even better is that the bottom of the tang is big enough to take the full face of a pillar and its on the same level plane as the front recoil lug. Easy to tweak your pillars to ensure there is even contact between the front and rear so you can torque them down nice and tight without worrying about twisting or bending the receiver. This makes it so you only need to have contact with the stock at the front and rear lugs of the receiver, and therefor, really no reason for full action bedding on the entire body. Just bed the front lug and receiver flat, then a little bit at the rear lug/tang and you’re good to go!

Another thing to note is that the Howa also has a side bolt release lever that is very easy to operate. Again, far better design than Rem 700

When you really evaluate all the little design aspects of the Howa, its undeniable that these receivers are very well thought out

 

[AlNyhus]

I've worked with several Howa 1500's, all with factory barrels.

I like the bolts a lot. I'm not a fan of any action where the front action screw goes into the bottom of the recoil lug but with a little thought when doing the bedding, they can end up pretty good. The HACT triggers are a little funky. On my own light tactical style 308, I did a bit of stoning and used a Gun Bloke spring kit for a 1 lb pull weight. I've gotten used to the two stage. Jard makes a great single stage trigger that I used on one...very, very nice.

The factory barrel on my 308 borescopes pretty decent and with N135, it shoots sub 1/2" five shot groups with good bullets. All in all, they are as decent a production action as you can buy with just a few quirks.

If I was going to rebarrel one for my own use, taking the tenon threads to 24 tpi like Jackie did is likely the route I'd choose.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Chiquita]

I've worked with several Howa 1500's, all with factory barrels.

I like the bolts a lot. I'm not a fan of any action where the front action screw goes into the bottom of the recoil lug but with a little thought when doing the bedding, they can end up pretty good. The HACT triggers are a little funky. On my own light tactical style 308, I did a bit of stoning and used a Gun Bloke spring kit for a 1 lb pull weight. I've gotten used to the two stage. Jard makes a great single stage trigger that I used on one...very, very nice.

The factory barrel on my 308 borescopes pretty decent and with N135, it shoots sub 1/2" five shot groups with good bullets. All in all, they are as decent a production action as you can buy with just a few quirks.

If I was going to rebarrel one for my own use, taking the tenon threads to 24 tpi like Jackie did is likely the route I'd choose.

Good shootin' -Al

FWIW, if I remember correctly, I cut the tension spring in the trigger to give me a lower trigger pull weight. I believe I am around 1lb.

On a second note, why would you change the thread pitch on the on the tenon to a 24 TPI?

 

[Cloudrepair]

I love my howa, but i love my Tikka much more the howa is great and breaking the factory barrel loose was not a problem at all. I think the only way i would go with now is a chassis

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I've worked with several Howa 1500's, all with factory barrels.

…I'm not a fan of any action where the front action screw goes into the bottom of the recoil lug but with a little thought when doing the bedding, they can end up pretty good.

The bolt in the recoil lug doesn’t bother me at all. Concerning the structural integrity of the steel, its actually a superior design because the threading is going into a large integral lug, and not taking away from any of the steel on the receiver that supports barrel threads/chamber. The steel the threading removes from the recoil lug is insignificant due to the size of the lug as it still remains far stronger than any Rem 700 or Salvage design.

Also nice because you get far more thread contact than most receivers and you never have the risk of running the front receiver screw up into the bolt lugs like you can a Rem 700.

As far as bedding goes, i dont see an issue there either. Again, a superior design when you evaluate it. Dont even need the screws when bedding because the receiver holes line up automatically with the flat bottom design and it wont twist or turn out of alignment with pillars like a round receiver can. Just put clay in the receiver holes, set it in the bedding, clean out excess bedding from the pillar bolt raceways (and other areas of course), then you are good to go.

I never want to torque the action when sitting in bedding anyhow. The only tricky part is avoiding making trapped air pockets when setting the flat receiver in the bedding, but not that hard.

Even the sloped front on the recoil lig is a very smart design because it makes removing a receiver from bedding far easier!

 

[kyotekiller25]

My 6 creed is built off a vanguard action which I believe is essentially a howa. McMillan A5, 28" BRUX, MBM lil beast 3 port brake, Timney trigger, action/barrel cerakoted. Shoots 1/2 MOA for 5 shots with factory 108 ELDM Match and my handloads with 108s. Good enough to be competitive in my local PRS/MOA shoots and hard on the dogs.