Howa actions for custom builds

[curan]

I've seen a lot of talk about Rems and Zastavas as donor rifles for cheap (?) custom builds, but has anyone thought about a Howa action?

This is an open question. I have a Howa in 7-08, and quite like the action, and they don't seem overly pricey.

Just interested in any thoughts. Are they simply not good or strong enough? Or too expensive for what you get?

regards, curan

[BP72]

Lee at trentech reckons there good as long as you don't hang too heavy a barrel of them as they only have a short tenon length , hardly need to true them up not like them dirty Remington's

[Con]

Good actions, nothing wrong with them. Just not as many go-fast bits as Remington. More gunsmiths are also tooled up to work on Rem700 and Mausers. They've been used for various customs, I'd happily build a varminter on one, mate built a 416Ruger, have read of Fly guns using them and 338Edge builds.
Cheers...
Con

[curan]

Okay, thanks for that fellas.......

[Camel]

A lot of people seem to like their Howas, cant say I've ever fondled one, but there cant be too much wrong with them, haven't read anything that I can remember about bitching about the action stuffing up. A lot of people would be attracted to their price, but theres nothing wrong with that, its one reason I like the Zastavas.

[Teepee]

+1 to that Camel
While not having ever played with a howa couldn't see what would be wrong with using one in a build.
What ever floats your boat.
Teepee

[Chrispy]

I picked up a used ex roo shooter rifle, heavy barrel. Took it to TSE, and re barrelled it to 17 FB. The CMC Mountaineer (same as Howa) was rock solid, slick, very good trigger (lightened factory) didn't need truing and was a simple rebarrel job.

It shoots like stink, and for a cheap varminter (cost $280 delivered and transfers) it has been a blessing!! But God help the hares and foxes....

Chrispy

[B4408]

Chrispy
Any issues feeding the short case in, I am presuming, a medium length action?

Regards
Bruce

[Chrispy]

I have had no issues. Is the standard short action with the 223 follower. I did not bother putting a block in the mag. It worked fine.

Chrispy

[adamjp]

Howa SA in 6mm BR.

Howa SA in 6.5x47 Lap.

Both in chassis that accept the AI skins.

To give you an idea of how repeatable these actions are, the 6mm BR barrel was unscrewed from this 1990's era CMC Mountaineer and screwed into a 2010 Howa. The headspace was spot on and the new action buzzed out perfectly square.

GregT can tell you more about how accurate the 6mm BR is, and if you ask nicely he will talk to you about selling it. Since he got a LH action he is converting them all over and the Howa is being moved on.

[BP72]

Those chassis that GregT built looked pretty sweet on the old bargain buster howa's !

[adamjp]

They are well built and IMHO a better fit than the Roedale chassis.

Greg has a few Howa ones spare from a batch he is doing now. The Lefty Savage, T3 and Rem700 ones are all spoken for. I think all the T3 and Savage ones are spoken for, but contact him to be certain. They should be back from the anodiser this week.

[GregT]

I would rate Howa's actions right up there with most custom stuff. I'm replacing my Howa with a LH Stiller and honestly don't see much benefit in it over the Howa apart from it having the bolt on the proper side. The Japanese really have the edge where it comes to manufacturing processes, particularly given you could buy 2 full howa rifles for the price of an action.

Looking at the action stripped down, it appears that the face, threads and bolt lug abutments are all machined in the same setup in a CNC machine. I set up and checked mine and I don't think I could have improved how true anything was running and I have a really nice lathe. Throw in a 1 piece bolt, M16 style extractor, integral recoil lug, flat bottom on the action plus a very workable trigger, all you need to do is thread and chamber a barrel and you're in business with most of the features you pay $1-2K for on a Remmy clone.

It seems that Americans didn't like them for a long time because they use metric barrel threads and that's real Buck Rogers stuff in the US but honestly, most lathes made post WW2 (and a lot of European ones for a long time before that) can cut metric threads, it's just a little different and for some people different equals bad.

A few weeks back, my Howa in 6BR put 5 shots into about a 4" group on the target marker at 500m shooting prone (it was an awesome group, just a foot below and to the left of the actual target due to my poor scope adjustments and scored zero ). I even got a bat at the 300m bat shoot here in December, I reckon thats ok for a short barrel shooting off a bipod. It's shot like that ever since I screwed this barrel on it and has never failed to feed or extract or had any other mechanical problem.

As for downsides, they only come right handed, there's not as much in the way of go fast bits around for them (but that's changing), you don't see a lot of nice stocks for sale used, they are a little heavier that some other actions and that's probably about it. I keep thinking about selling mine but it's such a nice rifle to shoot I keep putting off advertising it.

[crackers17]

I like my Howa action can't wait to get it back with new barrel on it..

[Flip]

How would a Howa go for 20 Vartarg possibly.


Flip