The M700 is a round action that requires a separate recoil lug and the Howa has a flat bottom and a integral lug. The Howa 1500 (top) has a similar profile along the top of the action as the Remington 700 (bottom). I’ve found the Howa 1500 similar to the Remington M700 in some aspects.
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The bolt contains a series of vent holes to facilitate gas escape in the event of a pierced primer. The Howa bolt uses two lugs, a machined handle and an M16 type extractor. On the left there is another lever for the bolt release lever. On the right side of the tang there is a stamped steel lever for the 3-position safety. It is a nicer trigger than an OEM Remington, but not quite Tikka T3 level. On the guns I’ve tested, the first stage has always been just over a pound, with the second stage just over 2 pounds yielding a total pull in the 3-4 pound range. The 1500 has a two-stage trigger known as the HACT. I found the lower half somewhat reminiscent of a push feed Winchester M70 while the top reminds me of a Remington 700. Years ago Howa started producing bolt action rifles that were a close copy of an older SAKO design ( link), that influence is absent in the 1500. The bottom has an integral tapered recoil lug and flat bottom. The top of the Howa 1500’s steel barreled action is rounded, with a lower rear bridge. In addition to the wide array of barrel contours and lengths, they are also available with and without threads and with a Cerakote or blue finish! ( click here to check out the options) The barreled action shown in this post has a heavy hammer forged #6 contour, but different action sizes, cartridges and barrel lengths are available to meet nearly any application.
Think of it as the AR-15/M16 M4, 10/22 or Glock 17 of the bolt action rifle world. You aren’t buying a complete entry level gun just to throw some of its parts away. Why buy a barreled action? Well, this is everything you need to “build” a rifle except a stock and optic. The barreled action ships complete with bottom metal (not shown) in a styrofoam box.
This 1500 is a short-action, however Howa also makes a long-action for magnum calibers as well as a MINIACTION for short cartridges such as the 223 Remington, 6.5 Grendel and 7.62x39mm Russian. Our sample barreled action came from Brownells and is chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. All of the rifles functioned well and were able to achieve sub-MOA accuracy for fairly competitive prices. This includes the Howa Chassis Rifle (HCR) in 308 Winchester, Howa GRS in 6.5 Creedmoor, and Howa MINIACTION in 7.62x39mm Russian. Prior to writing this post, I have gotten quite a bit of trigger time behind some different Howa rifles that were imported by Legacy Sports International. In this post let’s take a look at a Howa 1500 barreled action, its features and how it compares to the iconic Remington M700. The 1500 is becoming more frequently encountered on the US market (some shooters may know it as the Weatherby Vanguard, which is the Howa 1500 with a nicer finish). The 1500 is available as a complete rifle or just a barreled action. The Howa 1500 is a push feed, center fire rifle action built in Japan.