Howa 1500 Question, Info Needed Please

[Bobby Ricigliano]

Greetings,

I picked up a brand new Howa 1500 heavy barrel in .308. It came from the factory with a Nikko Sterling Night Eater scope. Can anyone tell me what kind of accuracy I should expect from a bench at 100-150 yards using surplus ammo with this setup? I certainly don't expect one ragged hole, and I do not plan to buy any match ammo, so my expectations aren't extremely high, just curious what to expect if I do my part.

Thanks for any and all input!

[Bob Hostetter]

Howa's are a mixed bunch. Some of them will shoot pretty good but they have a lot of things going against them.

The stock has way to much flex.
The receiver to stock fit is sometimes decent, most times not.
The scope is ok at best.
Barrels are kinda spotty, some of them shoot good, a lot don't.

A good one will shoot about 2 moa, most will not be even close, especially with surplus ammo.

[Divernhunter]

Do not be too discouraged. I have shot a number of Howa's and all shot well for me. Others may have had a different experience. I have found that with any brand that you should tighten all the screws on them before shooting. Then some of the poor shooters shot quite well with someone else doing the shooting. Sometimes it is the shooter and not the firearm.

[Jeff213]

Using surplus hxp in my .30-06 how 1500 I expect 4-5" groups at 100 yards off a bench..... when i switched over to handloads only, I am dissapointed with any group over 1" at 100 yards, best 5 shot group was under half inch at 100 yards.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I appreciate the honest feedback gents, thank you!

[pacrat]

I appreciate the honest feedback gents, thank you!

Strongly suggest you "remount" the scope if you are going to keep it. Or properly mount any replacement. Only one I have any expeience with is one belonging to a neighbor in .270 sporter weight barrel with same scope setup you have.

Problems....Firm grip, you could rotate the scope, and slide it fore aft a bit. When I removed the top 1/2 of rings and pulled the scope. The bases were loose on the reciever. Base screws were too long and bottoming in holes.

I disassembled and cleaned it before tinkering further. Bolt interior had metal shavings from factory in it.

I properly mounted the scope for him and epoxied the bases to the reciever and the rings to the tube. Lapped the rings also. [just my anal ways]. Neck sized and loaded 100 cases he had fired in the rifle. [and couldn't hit S!!t with] A mild load of 4831 and 130 gr. Rem CoreLocs. Seated .020" off the lands.

Trip to range and he could print 1 1/2" 5 shot groups with it off a sandbag rest. [inexperienced shooter] I could half that.

None of the above issues were the rifles fault. And I never fired it with factory fodder.

Overall for a factory rifle. I would buy one.

JM2c

[ar15barrels]

Greetings,



I picked up a brand new Howa 1500 heavy barrel in .308. It came from the factory with a Nikko Sterling Night Eater scope. Can anyone tell me what kind of accuracy I should expect from a bench at 100-150 yards using surplus ammo with this setup? I certainly don't expect one ragged hole, and I do not plan to buy any match ammo

I would expect groups between 2moa and 4moa.

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I will certainly post results when I take it to the range next week. By surplus ammo I meant the German Hirtenberger and the Turkish ZQ1 from Walmart.

[Bainter1212]

I second the remounting the scope idea. I have experienced poorly mounted scopes before and learned to only trust scopes I have personally mounted myself. Use blue loctite on all threads, adjust eye relief to your personal cheek position, and level level level.

And Bobby, I know you have heard this a billion times and know the rhetoric frontwards and backwards, but the true potential of this rifle can really be realized via reloading.

Short of reloading, find some quality (read: pricey) ammo loaded with match quality bullets (think Sierra Matchking, or something with a quality Hornady bullet. Federal makes match ammo using Sierra bullets. It is good stuff).

[Tacit Blue]

I would expect groups between 2moa and 4moa.

Not even match ammo. While not fully zerod here's my group at 100 with same rifle in .308 Two groups are touching each other.

[Tacit Blue]

I will certainly post results when I take it to the range next week. By surplus ammo I meant the German Hirtenberger and the Turkish ZQ1 from Walmart.

ZQ1 will be a waste of time. Your groups will be all over as it's loaded to NATO spec by the Turks. Get some 147 perfecta if going to Walmart bare minimum, Italian made ammo. PMC did the worst out of my rifle. Going to try match ammo now.

[juelz919]

5 shot group 3 inches or less is my bet. My howa 223 puts handloads into .75 of an inch pretty regularly.

Those scopes aren't anything to write home about compared to super nice ones but if properly mounted will be fine for basically any realistic use of the rifle

[Danodog]

I can see the stock and scope being an issue, but my barreled action that I bought in 6.5x55 is very impressive if I do my part. I can get 1 inch groups using Privi SP. I did buy a Boyd's stock and had it bedded. The worst part of my gun is that stock. The inletting was terrible and way too much material had to be removed. While it functions fine, it looks like crap.