Hey everyone, new to the long range game but not new to rifles or competition shooting as my primary game has been USPSA. I bought a starter Howa chassis rifle in 6.5 a few years ago and have not shot it much till lately. I am really enjoying it but want to get a new build set up as I came into about 3k to spend. I have a razor gen 2 already for it so I just need some help choosing a caliber really. My primary purpose for this rifle will be just to shoot groups and learn on out to 800 yards or so but would also like to sit in a deer blind with my son so it would need to be sufficient for deer. Since I already have brass and reloading equipment for 6.5 cm I was thinking of just staying with that but wanted to see if jumping to a 7mm of some sort is kind of a dumb idea. Like I mentioned I mainly want to learn and shoot this one for groups so going to a 7mm may not be very cost effective. I know the caliber choice is like beating a dead horse but I have researched and there is so much info I just keep going in circles.
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New build help
- Thread starter justinmac13
- Start date
Put the Razor of you Howa and see how it shoots, I have a hunch you will be happily surprised, those Howas shoot. If the Howa shoots up to your standards take the $3k and spend it on training and ammo, two years from now you will be a better shooter that if you take the $3k and drop it into a gun today.
After you have consumed the $3k in training and ammo, your Howa will probably need a new barrel, then decide which way to go with a rifle. Your choice on rifles will be much better given your vastly improved knowledge than you had before. I have a hunch that the Howa will shoot more accurate than you or I.
Just my 2 cents,
wade
After you have consumed the $3k in training and ammo, your Howa will probably need a new barrel, then decide which way to go with a rifle. Your choice on rifles will be much better given your vastly improved knowledge than you had before. I have a hunch that the Howa will shoot more accurate than you or I.
Just my 2 cents,
wade
The Howa currently has a Burris xtr2 5x25 with SCR. Do you think the vortex would make that much difference. The Howa is shooting (or me) about 3/4” 5 shot groups. For some reason I think it would be smaller but I seem to be able to get 4 touching then 1 just outside opening up my group.
It won’t.
I take it you’ve done a proper load development for the Howa?
If you have and 3/4 is the best you’ve gotten and you want better (I personaly have no problem shoot a 3/4 moa rifle to a mile if the vertical is good) you could rebarrel it with a nice cut or buttoned barrel
6.5 cm is plenty for deer at normal ranges.
7mm-08 is the cheapest 7mm to get into and it’s awesome but really not a big change.
7 SAW is another option with a bit more steam.
I did not know what glass you had on the Howa, your description of how you are shooting is not that abnormal, ie 4 shots touching and one out, you left out any info on ammo shot. Have you handloaded for the rifle, if not that and practice/training will probably reduce the size of the group.
I should probably share the main thrust of what my post was about, training albeit not nearly as sexy as a new gun with a boutique name on it that you can put in the safe, will oftentimes do more for your shooting ability and enjoyment of showing the tight groups you shoot. There are many guns coming out of the box right now that shoot better than most shooters that they will serve the beginning shooter as good as a custom build at least until they get their skills honed.
I have 4 Howas in the arsenal, two that I have rebarrled and two in native form, I think they are great rifles used either as a base for a semi-custom build or shooting them in native form. Every Howa I have shot has shown very good accuracy. Yes the bolt may not be as slick as some of my custom actions, nor are they as shiny. The Howas have some of the features that some on here will not live without like a one piece bolt and an M-16 extractor, these will cost you about $5oo additional if you start with a bare bones Rem 700. I have not heard of a Howa that has limited or no primary extraction, a very common issue with current 700's. The Howa will usually give you a very accurate performer in a very blue collar fashion.
In closing, I think your shooting skills will be much better is you spend the money you have on training, reloading equipment and supplies and trigger time. I can almost guarantee you this, your shooting skills will not get better without trigger time, given busy schedule and range availibility this is oftentimes the hardest part of the process.
I should probably share the main thrust of what my post was about, training albeit not nearly as sexy as a new gun with a boutique name on it that you can put in the safe, will oftentimes do more for your shooting ability and enjoyment of showing the tight groups you shoot. There are many guns coming out of the box right now that shoot better than most shooters that they will serve the beginning shooter as good as a custom build at least until they get their skills honed.
I have 4 Howas in the arsenal, two that I have rebarrled and two in native form, I think they are great rifles used either as a base for a semi-custom build or shooting them in native form. Every Howa I have shot has shown very good accuracy. Yes the bolt may not be as slick as some of my custom actions, nor are they as shiny. The Howas have some of the features that some on here will not live without like a one piece bolt and an M-16 extractor, these will cost you about $5oo additional if you start with a bare bones Rem 700. I have not heard of a Howa that has limited or no primary extraction, a very common issue with current 700's. The Howa will usually give you a very accurate performer in a very blue collar fashion.
In closing, I think your shooting skills will be much better is you spend the money you have on training, reloading equipment and supplies and trigger time. I can almost guarantee you this, your shooting skills will not get better without trigger time, given busy schedule and range availibility this is oftentimes the hardest part of the process.
I have to absolutely agree I need more trigger time and will probably be best served spending money on ammo. But like you said it’s not shiny. In USPSA I learned this to just shoot what I have as new guns do not make the difference practice and dryfire do. It sounds like I need to transfer that over into this game as well and just shoot what I have till I can figure out how to get one shot hits at different ranges and such. Thanks for the input.
Is the Howa still in it's original stock? My howa 6.5 shoots 0.5 moa at 100m pretty consistently. And that is with 140gr Nosler custom competitions. I was very surprised. It has the original hogue stock - only reinforced front end with epoxy. Waiting for a krg bravo
Yes, I have not did anything to it at all, it’s the HCR version. I have actually been very surprised it shoots as well as it does for what I paid for it.
