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

[AlNyhus]

I'm not a fan of the action screw in the bottom of the lug on any action. My preference is to have only one recoil lug surface in contact with the bedding...and that's at the back of the lug. No side, front or bottom contact.

If I get another one for myself, I'm going to relocate the front action screw to the flat area behind the lug and redo a stock for an ADL style trigger guard.

Just my two cents worth. -Al

It's the second one back.

Typical three shot groups with either 43.0 or 44.0 of N135. Five shot groups are nice round clusters in the mid .4's.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I'm not a fan of the action screw in the bottom of the lug on any action. My preference is to have only one recoil lug surface in contact with the bedding...and that's at the back of the lug. No side, front or bottom contact.

If I get another one for myself, I'm going to relocate the front action screw to the flat area behind the lug and redo a stock for an ADL style trigger guard.

Just my two cents worth. -Al

It's the second one back.

Typical three shot groups with either 43.0 or 44.0 of N135. Five shot groups are nice round clusters in the mid .4's.

I can see that point on location of the screw. You can either tape the bottom of the recoil lug with painters tape , as should be done with any recoil lug when bedding, or machine the bedding out after the fact to create the torque gap.

And side contact on a recoil lug is quite critical in my opinion. Helps resist rotational torque under recoil. While the flat bottom design helps resist that as well, i still want all the major stresses of recoil to be handled by the recoil lug.

 

[WSnyder]

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

So his buddy can re-barrel it at home on his own lathe (that doesn’t have metric capability) whenever he wants.

Post in thread 'Howa Mini actions, custom chamberings, max OAL?'

Nov 5, 2025

A good friend wanted to re barrel his Mini, but his lathe does not cut metric.
So I got him to send me the action, and I set it up and converted it to a 24 TPI. I also made him a barrel tenon gage.
A question. Are these little actions made by some type of investment steel casting. The steel was fairly hard, but shavings came off in flakes similar to some powdered metal pieces I have machined. That, and there doesn’t seem to be a machine mark anywhere aside from the tapped holes.

Anyway, it came out good, and the threads snd action face are now dead true with the bolt...

• jackieschmidt

• 

Post in thread 'Howa Mini actions, custom chamberings, max OAL?'

Nov 18, 2025

Did you go oversize on the tenon diameter? If so how much?

Yes.
I bored the 1MM Thread out to its major diameter. It only took about .040 to the side to do it. Then established the 24 pitch thread to it’s correct double depth.

Pat can tell you what the major diameter came out too on the tenon gage I made for it. I can’t remember.

• jackieschmidt

• 

 

[marchx]

I owned 4 howas and built custom rfiles based on howq action. It’s better design than remington but I do not like the 90 degree bolt lift. It is not as smooth as tikka or sauer. Cz 600 action is smoother. It is difficult to buy a competition trigger for howa. I bought once a jard trigger but it was not a bixnandy level.

 

[AlNyhus]

I can see that point on location of the screw. You can either tape the bottom of the recoil lug with painters tape , as should be done with any recoil lug when bedding, or machine the bedding out after the fact to create the torque gap.

With the action screw in the bottom of the lug, the only thing a gap at the bottom of the lug does is to allow stress to be induced when the action screw is snugged down....you're either pivoting the receiver forward/down or bending the stock upward until it meets the lug.

Having the bottom of the lug hard against the bedding (not the pillar) gets around that. But you need to have the receiver bottom and lug bottom come up tight at the same time. That's a lot harder to actually do than it sounds, but it's worth the effort.

And side contact on a recoil lug is quite critical in my opinion. Helps resist rotational torque under recoil. While the flat bottom design helps resist that as well, i still want all the major stresses of recoil to be handled by the recoil lug.

If you look at the clamping forces achieved by typical action screws, a flat bottom or tight sides isn't what keeps the receiver from rotating. In fact, tight sides and tight recoil lugs add stress...they don't reduce it. Flat bottomed receivers can also be prone to high spotting, due to how the bedding is displaced. Using the back of the rear tang as an additional recoil lug surface (when there's already an adequate forward recoil lug), also is bad juju.

Obviously, these comments concern bolt ins. With a glue in, the premise is for the receiver and stock to be one homogeneous component and we want bedding around the entire periphery of the action.

Again, just my two cents worth..... -Al

 

[WSnyder]

With the action screw in the bottom of the lug, the only thing a gap at the bottom of the lug does is to allow stress to be induced when the action screw is snugged down....you're either pivoting the receiver forward/down or bending the stock upward until it meets the lug.

Having the bottom of the lug hard against the bedding (not the pillar) gets around that. But you need to have the receiver bottom and lug bottom come up tight at the same time. That's a lot harder to actually do than it sounds, but it's worth the effort.

If you look at the clamping forces achieved by typical action screws, a flat bottom or tight sides isn't what keeps the receiver from rotating. In fact, tight sides and tight recoil lugs add stress...they don't reduce it. Flat bottomed receivers can also be prone to high spotting, due to how the bedding is displaced. Using the back of the rear tang as an additional recoil lug surface (when there's already an adequate forward recoil lug), also is bad juju.

Obviously, these comments concern bolt ins. With a glue in, the premise is for the receiver and stock to be one homogeneous component and we want bedding around the entire periphery of the action.

Again, just my two cents worth..... -Al

I'll add a couple more cents to all of that ^^^ I don't think I'd change a thing said

 

[Ledd Slinger]

With the action screw in the bottom of the lug, the only thing a gap at the bottom of the lug does is to allow stress to be induced when the action screw is snugged down....you're either pivoting the receiver forward/down or bending the stock upward until it meets the lug.

Having the bottom of the lug hard against the bedding (not the pillar) gets around that. But you need to have the receiver bottom and lug bottom come up tight at the same time. That's a lot harder to actually do than it sounds, but it's worth the effort.

If you look at the clamping forces achieved by typical action screws, a flat bottom or tight sides isn't what keeps the receiver from rotating. In fact, tight sides and tight recoil lugs add stress...they don't reduce it. Flat bottomed receivers can also be prone to high spotting, due to how the bedding is displaced. Using the back of the rear tang as an additional recoil lug surface (when there's already an adequate forward recoil lug), also is bad juju.

Obviously, these comments concern bolt ins. With a glue in, the premise is for the receiver and stock to be one homogeneous component and we want bedding around the entire periphery of the action.

Again, just my two cents worth..... -Al

You can bed every surface of the recoil lug except the bottom. The angled front slope of the lug will act like a wedge driving the rear surface of the lug back against the stock mating surface as you torque the screw down. There is no pivoting or bending of the receiver. Its similar to the Ruger design, except you don’t have an angled screw to pull the lug back into the stock, so you create a similar effect with how you bed the recoil lug. Im going to be bedding another Howa action soon and can post some pics to clarify.

Theres different ways to skin a cat, but honestly, most of us aren’t going to be building a rifle on a Howa for any purpose that requires extreme levels of precision. Not going for the world records in benchrest. Just making an accurate hunting or beginner PRS rifle for most people. You could just throw a Howa in a stock with no bedding and it will probably shoot great