So I found a .223 and even made it to the range. We only have 50 yards but it was a good warm up for the rifle. The action is nice and smooth and with the longer barrel it does not seem to breathe as much fire as the scout. I only needed one layer of ear protection. The internal magazine loaded quite well, there were no burs and had no issues or FTF with AE bulk. Howa makes a very fine rifle indeed. I may look into changing the springs as mine is a little heavy and was fully backed off at the factory but may just get used to it as there is no creep. I may pop the hammer out and make it flat as it curves quite a bit so it needs to be held high. I like the S2 as its a two stage so it reminds me of my Weihrauch air rifle. There is about an 1/8” of take up and then it is like glass. I Even showed it to a few guys at the club and after being startled by the first shot they got used to the take up and were like thats a nice rifle! Grouping was also very good but with such a thin barrel it needs some time to cool between shots. I was getting .25 for 3 shots with the world’s cheapest bipod and sand bags. I did try out a heavy barrel at the shop but I want something I can carry around too.