Jpop807 Howa 1500 range review/thank you to all.

jpop8807

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
  • Nov 16, 2022
    243
    178
    Pueblo, CO
    Hello guys,
    As you know I joined this forum a few months ago. With zero long-range experience. My first time out with my Howa I couldn't get better than a 4 MOA group at 100 yards. You guys were super helpful in sending me videos, and advice on how to become a better shooter. My money hasn't been where it needs to be to take a professional class yet but one day. So first and foremost I want to thank you all. From the compassion, you have for what you do, to the shit-talking when I posted on accident on a wrong subject in the bear pit. I contribute my getting better at shooting to this point largely to all of you.

    Now onto the fun stuff. I purchased quite a few boxes of .308/7.62 to see what performed best in my rifle. At the advice given here. Keep in mind I've only got about 300ish rounds down this weapon actually any bolt gun ever thats including what I post here. So this weapon could perform I'm guessing way better with someone more experienced in the field. The only issue I had after about 20 rounds was I had to force the bolt open it slid back smoothly, chambered the next round, and extracted lives perfectly. Fired brass once the firearm got hot I had to slap the shit out of the charging handle to get it to open. No matter which ammo I was using it will be posted. I will give it a good cleaning later and see if that helps.

    Build
    Howa 1500 .308 20 bull barrel (all factory) purchased on consignment for 400 bucks
    Bell and Carlson stock
    Nightforce 0 moa rail
    Vortex PST Gen 2 3-15x44 in vortex rings
    Harris Bipod

    Was fired off of the Caldwell front bag, and a precision underground rear bag. Bipod looked cooler for the pictures though.

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    The Ammo Tested from bottom to top cheapest to most expensive

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    My results I fired 4 five-shot groups I recorded the best ones I could achieve with each type of ammo. I was watching a guy next to me measure his and he let me borrow his digital measure thingy. If I did this wrong please let me know. I'm really new to this. I tried going from furthest bullet holes in the center of the hole for measuring.

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    The S&B and IMI seemed to my little skill as to being the most consistent point of aim point of impactish
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    The Fiochi was the most inconsistent for me in my eyes, and rather expensive more so then the ammo above
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    This Amax was my best preforming Horndy and the cheapest off the other horndy on Lucky gunner
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    The left super high one was the cold bore shot these were the first 10 bullets on day 2.
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    This stuff for as expensive as it is superpreformance did not like me the other 10 rnd target had much more spread second most expensive ammo per round
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    And onto the most expensive thing I put down my barrel which did rather well after not cleaning or doing anything to the firearm the whole time. The right group was tight but I pulled a shot so I didn't use that as a measure.

    20230402_115053.jpg


    From 4 MOA a few months ago at 100 to this now, I want to thank you all again for your advice and look forward to receiving more of it. Most of all I had a blast. My shoulder/pec might be a bit bruised, but god I had fun. It was to the point I felt if anything was out of line with me. Like it became nature shooting it compared to where I was before. Minus having to beat the bolt open after the first 20 rnds on each day. Conditions were pretty similar went early in the morning before Colorado wind kicked up. For any new people reading this. I highly recommend the Howa if you're trying to get into this. I've seen so many on consignment here for between 300-500 bucks for a complete firearm. Now onto figuring out which ammo I will stick with, I'm not looking to go out past maybe 800 if I get that ability, then to set the zero stops, start learning everything I can from this site, and hopefully afford to go to one of the suggested instructional classes.
     
    Bolt issue solved. Clean the weapon today. Upon inspecting the barrel after using boretech eliminator and my first rod/jag combo (used to the otis stuff). I checked the barrel to make sure I didn't fuck anything up. The chamber area had worse carbon build up then I've seen on my military m4's after a NTC rotation firing blanks. I took a otis .35 cal brush and just scrubbed the area then wiped it down. Will see if that fixes the issue.
     
    Bolt issue solved. Clean the weapon today. Upon inspecting the barrel after using boretech eliminator and my first rod/jag combo (used to the otis stuff). I checked the barrel to make sure I didn't fuck anything up. The chamber area had worse carbon build up then I've seen on my military m4's after a NTC rotation firing blanks. I took a otis .35 cal brush and just scrubbed the area then wiped it down. Will see if that fixes the issue.
    What dbm is that?
     
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    That's what I thought. I have one for the remington, works surprisingly well
    Yes at first I was skeptical. It works perfectly, with no issues, I can't speak to the quality of the material, as I have never slammed it around. So far it takes all ammo I put in it, and feeds reliably. I just need to find more magazines. Currently, I think I only have one five and one ten-round magazine.
     
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