Howa/Vanguard where does it fit into the picture?

I owned a Howa made S&W varmint in .223 that was one of the most accurate factory rifles that I have ever fired.The Howa built rifles don't have the best triggers,but most are quite accurate,and offer very good value for the price.The ones that I have fired,were on average more accurate than my Weatherby Mark V rifles.
 
stovepipe699 said:
As the title suggests, how do the Howa/Weatherby vanguard rifles compare to Winchester, Remington, Savage, Tikka/Sako, Browning, Ruger etc? Thanks for looking
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I have a Howa 1500 (.204) and Rem 700 5R (.308), both stainless hvy barreled. I'd say the Howa is every bit as good as the Rem, if not better in many respects.

Howa bolt/handle is a single piece, plus it also has a Sako type extractor. Uses the same bases as a Rem 700. Triggers are about the same with the edge going to Rem. Howa has a flat bottom receiver with built in recoil lug. Other than that they're on par with each other, you just get a few little extra improvements over the Rem and at a better price.
 
Howa stocks thier rifles with a lighter trigger than the Weatherbys, and its a good trigger. You can easily adjust it if you want, my compact varminter is still using the factory settings with no complaints from me.
AFAIK Howa has never made a 'stainless' gun, just a stainless finish, so yes, treat it with care. As for everything else, I for one prefer the Howas to the Weatherbys, the weatherbys to remington, and the remington to savages, but to each thier own.
 
Dosing said:
Howa stocks thier rifles with a lighter trigger than the Weatherbys, and its a good trigger. You can easily adjust it if you want, my compact varminter is still using the factory settings with no complaints from me.
AFAIK Howa has never made a 'stainless' gun, just a stainless finish, so yes, treat it with care. As for everything else, I for one prefer the Howas to the Weatherbys, the weatherbys to remington, and the remington to savages, but to each thier own.
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So it's only a stainless finish, on regular steel:puke: good to know. Thanks for the responses guys!
 
The finish is hit and miss. Overall the receiver is as good as any Remchester out there for smoothness of action and catastrophic gas management (look it up on the interwebs, you'll see lots of talk about catastrophic failure management and where the ideas were originated for this action).

I had to send mine back to the vendor for a "chamber polishing." Sounds kinda hot doesn't it. Not really cause it was kind of a raz, yet a learning experience none-the-less. The chamber was really rough and had brass sticking in it. See this thread. (http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=464504) When I got it back though, it's as accurate or better than any other rifle in my cabinet. Mine is a 223 with a 1-12 twist. 50 grain V-Max with 25.5 grains H4895 are delightfully accurate. Trigger is just fine on the recent ones from what I understand. Hope this helps.
 
Forgot to mention, stocks aren't worth the weight in plastic. I used mine to provide a learning base to glass bed. It helped though I must add.
 
Ive been happy with the ones Ive owned in the past. They're a solid rifle that retails for $500. Don't expect them to have the same performance as a $2500 custom and you should be happy.
 
I own several howa's and they are excellent rifles. If you take a long hard look at the nosler rifles you will find that they are howa's with a squared off action. If nosler is selling them for $3000 plus dollars they must be good.
 
billdick said:
I own several howa's and they are excellent rifles. If you take a long hard look at the nosler rifles you will find that they are howa's with a squared off action. If nosler is selling them for $3000 plus dollars they must be good.
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The Nosler action is not made by Howa. It does have similarities to Howa,Sako and Remington, but then again it's nearly impossible to build a bolt action which doesn't share similarities with other designs.

I owned a Nosler 48 at one time. Very overpriced, in my opinion.
 
I really quite like my Vanguard blued/synthetic. The finish is much nicer than a Remington SPS. Mine has a really nice trigger, very crisp, good feel. Not all are like that though, seems like they've used a few different triggers here and there. The barrel is pretty hefty which tames muzzle jump. It drives tacks and the stock fits me very well, so in my hands it works quite well. The stock is cheap though, no doubt about it, and the action needs some use to really smooth it out. Good gun, great value, it won out during the gun counter comparison so I bought it.

May yet float the barrel and glass bed it in a Sub-MOA stock (Medalist, IIRC).
 
I have a stainless sub-moa vanguard in 22-250. I found the gun took very little fooling around with handloads to shoot single ragged holes. The stock on the sub-moa version is much better than the plastic version that comes on the cheaper model.

The trigger on my gun was junk. Worst I've ever felt so it was replaced with a Timney.

In 22-250, at the time I bought it, it was one of the only models with a 24'' barrel.

I find mine to be a much nicer version than any Savage I've ever seen, and definately nicer than any stainless SPS.

Having a gun that shoots tiny holes very easily is a bit of a double edged sword for the guy who likes spending endless ammount of time finding a handload that works.

I should probably sell it and find something that doesnt shoot worth crap I can play with.
 
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