Finish Build? Howa 1500 7mm

[New2prslongtimeshooter]

Greetings. I acquired a 30 year old Howa 1500 in 7mm Rem Mag. I upgraded to oryx chassis free float, Timney 2stage drop trigger to try &increase accuracy with Arken SH4, 6-24X50 but barrel life is exceeded. I have 600 rounds + just after acquiring it groups were 1-1.5 MOA at 100 yrds and now all over the place , 4-5 MOA at 100 yards not accurate or consistent either ! The action is smooth wondering if I should throw down the $ for a heavy varmint barrel, blueprint action to finish the build with the old Howa 1500 action or go with a new Tikka T3 X Tac A1 in 6.5C.? I’m looking to reach out to 800+ yards but don’t know if this old action & new heavy stainless steel barrel could have the potential of a tikka? Thank you!! Apologies for the length here.

 

[rico4prez007]

Shoot what you got and adjust accordingly.

 

[xsn10s]

What bullets are you loading in the Howa? Personally I wouldn't blue print the Howa action, they're usually pretty good. I'd get a new Criterion barrel and drive on.

 

[Mike Casselton]

Have you cleaned it?

Have you been shooting it the same pace as a 308 or Creedmoor?
If so, you probably torched the throat.

Give it a really good cleaning and reassess its accuracy.


Also, if you're only shooting to 800yds, you don't need a big magnum.

 

[BAMAboy18]

I'm curious about your stock trigger!? Do you still have it, is it a 2 or 3 position safety? I'm not a huge fan of their HACT, I have tuned one to 3.5#. I have a Timney, but I really like the older single stage, I have 1 I use (they were either 2/3 position safety) the 2 I bought here are 2 position but don't fit my Howas, so must be for a Whetherby? If you look at the Timney it has an oblong mounting screw hole to accommodate either.

 

[flatland1]

There's nothing wrong with a Howa action that a good barrel won't fix. No telling how many rounds your rifle has had through it - especially if it's really 30yrs old - but most casual shooters who own a magnum don't put that many rounds through their rifles because of the recoil. How much fun can it be to sit down at a bench and shoot 40-50rds of full-power 7 Rem Mag ammo with a hunting weight rifle? I'd look for someone who's got a good borescope and knows how to use it to check out the throat of your Howa's bbl. If it's really worn/eroded/stress checked, then yeah, I'd look into getting a new barrel from a decent gunsmith. If it's just got a lot of copper & carbon fouling, get to work on it with a good quality coated rod and bronze brushes with a quality bore solvent. That's one of the really good uses for a good borescope - letting you see how effective your cleaning routine is, and letting you know how aggressive you need to be with copper solvents and abrasive cleaning pastes to get carbon build-up out of the bore. I once had a customer who shot a lot of prairie dogs with a Rem 700 in 220 Swift, using handloads with H380 powder. He asked me to check the bore of his rifle after having some pressure & accuracy issues with it. My Hawkeye borescope revealed so much carbon build-up in the throat that I couldn't even see the lands & grooves of the rifling out to around 4"-5" ahead of the throat. It took me a couple of days of scrubbing & soaking to get it cleaned down to bare metal... And be sure to get a rod guide to fit the Howa action to minimize any potential damage from all the cleaning it's going to take if there's a lot of carbon & copper fouling.