I have a PH1 in 6 creed I have been using for 3 years for PRS matches. I rebarreled away from the Rock Creek “light tactical, heavy spiral fluted” tube at the end of my first season and have been shooting Bartlein Heavy Palma barrels ever since, on my 3rd now. For a hunting rifle, the Seekins PH1/PH2 are fantastic. For a competitive match rifle, there are better options in its price class now which simply weren’t around when I bought mine (Badrock Southfork, MPA PMR). Mine came with a McMillan Game Warden stock, to which I added a cheek riser and an Area419 arcalock rail, plus left side flush cups, and about a pound of extra weight - and of course modified the barrel channel for the considerably heavier contour. I swapped the factory issued Timney 510 for a Jewel HVR set at 6oz. The factory knob works for me, but it’s pretty minimalist for a match rifle. The DLC bolt is slick, although mine is overdue for recoating, with something around 20,000 cycles on it. I love that it feeds freely from AW mags. The integral lug is small, but it doesn’t move, and I do appreciate the bolt on rail is also lugged. Drop in barrel options and the unique breechblock design make rebarreling nice - admittedly I’d like to finally see bolt heads for sale and I’d add a 6.5 PRC barrel to mine for elk and black bear hunting.
The cock-on-close action isn’t for everyone. It feels like you’re crush fitting headspace or jamming hard - every. single. time. This cocking piece design is not compatible with TriggerTech Diamonds - it simply won’t pick up the sear, so the trigger is dead when you cycle.
With the Rock Creek barrel, it shot small - smaller than almost any factory rifle I have ever owned - but compared to the Bartleins I have used since, it wasn’t anything remarkable. It shoots exceptionally small with the Bartlein tubes. Considering 6 creed in a match rifle, no barrel is a marriage.
All of that said, I can’t blame any miss on my scoresheets on the rifle. It runs fast enough and smooth enough for PRS, and it sends bullets exactly where my finger tells, even if it doesn’t land on target. I’m happy with my performance return against the money I spent on mine, and if I went back in time, I would have considered it still to have been the best option on the rack at the time.
Getting into one for $1400 after the certificates (about the same price as a Defiance Ruckus w/DLC as a bare action), I think a guy would be doing great - but the Havak was really built to be a hunting rifle, and it does that much better than it does as a match action. I think it works great for a “turn-key, gateway rifle,” meaning a guy can buy a Havak Bravo and start competing tomorrow while they build something else more expensive and competition designed. Glen built an awesome hunting rifle, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it needs some rework to be race ready.
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