Howa quality ???

Streeker59 · June 30, 2008

Hi guys.. About 18 months ago, a good mate of mine bought himself a Howa 1500 in stainless with thumbhole stock in .308.

The finish was incredibly good. The trigger a dream with a smooth crisp let off and the rifle shot like a dream out of the box...

As such, i've been singing Howas praises ever since....... Till now...

My clubs long range secretary ordered the same rifle 3 months ago.. It's only just arrived.. yes i know that the importer has changed and that's what i'm wondering about..

The rifle he got was black, not stainless. The fore end has a crack in it. The bolt lugs do not engage uniformly as there is a high spot on the back of one of them.

The trigger belongs on a Brown bess that's been buried in salt water for 100 years and to add insult to injury, it's no where near as accurate as my mates 1500 though the trigger probably plays a huge part in that..

My question is this.. Does the new importer check what comes in before it goes out to the dealers?? Emphatically NO!!.

Has the new importer specified a build price and as such quality has gone down the pan???

Or has this poor guy just been unlucky enough to get a "bad un " out of the batch?

He wont send it back as he's waited so long to receive it.. As such, he's repaired the stock. He stripped the trigger group and found more machine marks and burrs than you'd find on a Sherman Tank !! He's swallowed the disappointment that it's not stainless as ordered..

The trigger still needs work though he's talking about buying a Timney for it now..

Poor guy.. For the same money, he could have had a T3 and of had none of these probs..

Anyone else had Howa horrors ???

Jager SA · June 30, 2008

The views seem to be good and bad, although ive heard more good reviews myself. If it was me I would be on the phone to Highland and giving them earache...

I would put a Jard trigger in it rather than a Timney.

General quality has been good from what ive seen on the rifles, but I have noticed the lug issue on my own rifle though, not too sure if it is as severe as your friends mind.

Chunk · June 30, 2008

I`ve got a 1500 in .223, and found the trigger to be possibly the worst trigger i have encountered on a new gun: lots of creep. So much so that its possible to take a rest between long scrapes of the sears;sometimes it will break cleanly;unpredictable break. I stripped and polished the sears, but its still spoils an otherwise good package, so i`ve ordered a Timney, which at time of writing hadnt arrived,but i`m expecting great things.

It must be said that although Howa guarantee 1 1/2"@100 i shot a three shot group of .62" after zeroing even with the poor trigger and using 55gn factory softpoints, so the potential is there.

I`ve made up some loads so am a bit anxious to get out there, but its a bit pointless without the trigger.

Cheers Andy.