Guns & Outdoors Forum

Comparing the
Rem 700 barreled action, on an MDT stock ( just picked a name)
Versus
Howa 1500 barreled action, on the same stock

What do we think has better precision… with all else being equal..

Never owned a Howa, that I recall.
Not saying Remington is the winner. But, I’ve never had one that wouldn’t shoot stupid well with a new stock and trigger. But, I lap the barrels and handload.

Centermass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 7:35 pm Comparing the
Rem 700 barreled action, on an MDT stock ( just picked a name)
Versus
Howa 1500 barreled action, on the same stock

What do we think has better precision… with all else being equal..

The “new” R700, I don’t trust. Because I don’t trust new owners of gun companies right off the hop.

Probably gonna be a toss up.

The 700 has the advantage of aftermarket parts. Hands down.

I've never had a Remington 700 that wouldn't shoot, though my newest one is 20 years old. My 7mm RM only likes lighter bullets but will still stack them.

With that said, I've never met a dissatisfied Howa/Vanguard owner.

I was thinking about grabbing one of the Howa barreled actions from Brownells … it’s not a bad price.
But, if it gonna group at Minute of pie plate…

Centermass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:35 pm I was thinking about grabbing one of the Howa barreled actions from Brownells … it’s not a bad price.
But, if it gonna group at Minute of pie plate…

I know someone who did just that. His chassis hasn’t come in yet, so no range report.
But it should be soon.


My experience with older Howas is that every American maker should be ashamed to put “Made in USA” on their guns in comparison to the smoothness of the Howa.

If I'm going to roll the dice on one over the other, my vote would go to Howa, no question.

The 700 spawned an entire cottage industry of tearing the rifle apart, replacing all the parts attached to the action, and tuning it to actually look like Mike Walker's original blueprints. Yes, there's plenty of them that deliver bughole groups out of the box, but when you have a company running itself into the ground on a model of cost over everything else, you sometimes see things. . .horrible things.

My mentor from 30 years ago was in that cottage industry, and he told me that the action-truing he performed on 700's was simply not needed on the Howas.

The Japanese do an extremely good job of quality control every time they turn metal blocks into chips, whether its a car or a rifle. Definitely a difference in attitude of culture within the industry. I've been deep into a couple of the Winchester repros in the process of setting them up for custom bullet molds and come away feeling their quality is lacking for nothing. They seem to know what they're doing.

Oh hell, I shouldn't have opened this thread.

Trying to downsize, trying to downsize...

Centermass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:35 pm I was thinking about grabbing one of the Howa barreled actions from Brownells … it’s not a bad price.
But, if it gonna group at Minute of pie plate…

I would go with one of those Howa barreled actions for a project without a moment's hesitation. I have actually stopped myself from clicking "buy" a few times.

Forgot I have a Weatherby Vanguard. Shoots .1” with handloads and bedding.

Every one of my 700s shoots sub moa. Even the 3 adls from walmar. I don't lap all the barrels and keep some of the stocks. I do replace all the triggers. Newest one is 7-8 years old.

I have never seen a Howa that wasn't a shooter....

I have never been disappointed with either Howa or Remingtons in the accuracy dept. every one I’ve owned was an easy sub MOA shooter so it would be a coin flip for me.

I can't help you with the comparison, I haven't owned a Remington. I have a few Howas and the will all shoot 1 moa except one and it will shoot two holes 1 moa then the 3rd one moves. It has a pretty thin barrel in 7 mm mag and I think the heat gets to it. I have an extra stock for a la and I have looked at those from brownells also. If you get one I would be interested how the project turns out.

Howa isn't recovering from the troubles Remington is. I'd bet the current Howas will be "better" than the current Remingtons
That's just my best guess

CPJ 2.0 wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:50 pm

Centermass wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 8:35 pm I was thinking about grabbing one of the Howa barreled actions from Brownells … it’s not a bad price.
But, if it gonna group at Minute of pie plate…

I know someone who did just that. His chassis hasn’t come in yet, so no range report.
But it should be soon.


My experience with older Howas is that every American maker should be ashamed to put “Made in USA” on their guns in comparison to the smoothness of the Howa.

This. I have a project in the works, using a Howa 1500 mini action and MDT chassis. More to come when it’s up and running.

The new Howa actions are made in Japan.

That scope mount won’t be staying.

For $400, kinda hard to not order one of those barreled actions..

Trigger on that Howa?!?

My personal Howa experience is with a mini in 6.5 Grendel. It has had some very good repeatable performances that I did not expect from a "cheap" gun in a crap feeling Hogue overmold stock. I have zero complaints about how it performs on paper.

I have several R700 that shoot very well and a couple that are very picky about what you feed them. I had one that was a complete disaster that now has a different barrel in a different caliber and its fine. The garbage one was for sure built toward the end of old remington when they were having many QC issues.

Zee wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 6:51 am Trigger on that Howa?!?

The factory trigger is a two stage. The first stage is light and short. My trigger gauge goes down to 8 oz and the first stage won’t even register. It breaks clean at 3 lbs but has a tiny bit of overtravel. It’s actually a really good trigger, for a factory trigger. But if you’re a trigger snob, it’s a bit heavy. A 3 lb, clean breaking trigger probably suits most people just fine.

Timney sells a trigger for these actions. 1.5 to 4 lb adjustable. Midway sells them for $170. Mine will be getting one at some point. But I’ll make due with this one until that time comes.

I’m gonna go off the reservation and see what I can do with one.

I’m gonna go 20” heavy barrel on the 1500 action
MDT field chassis. It’s at an interesting weight. It’s not considered light, and it’s not considered heavy. And I watched a guy on YouTube try to bend the forearm on his tailgate and couldn’t…

And… I think I’m gonna try to see what all the hype is about on Arken Optics. I’ve always loved vortex, but the last vortex I got, I was not happy with the turrets. They didn’t “click” like they should have..

I’ll let y’all know how it goes when it all comes together

What cartridge you going with?

I have zero experience with Howa which is a good thing. That means that people don't have problems with them.

Edit to add: Just before posting I remembered that I've rebarreled one. The guy wanted a heavier barrel. They are extremely tight on the receiver. IIRC, that was the rifle that caused me to make my own barrel vise.

The tried, the true, the comfort zone… .308

No flies on a .308 for general paper punching.