Howa .243

ill go back to old schoool wood stock myself a mid to late 1960s like this on the web
400$
Winchester Model 70 243/ with Scope and Ammo


you can refinsh the stock if you want easy to do then bed the stock to free float it while your at it

there a good gun for the money, like all guns you have to see what it likes. if you can order ammo online then it's very cheap, as low $12 a box.

viking499 said:

Anyone here have a Howa in .243? If so, what ammo does it like?

Had an old Winchester (non-pre 64) years ago that would shoot 58 grain bullets as good and accurate as 100 grain and sold it to a friend. Regretted it since.

Looking for something else to do the same thing with the heavy and light bullets.

If not Howa, then what am I looking for?

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Got a howa, same twist rate as your old winchester, it doesn't love the really long bullets that I like, but if you stay away from the long fiends, you'll be fine, it's good with all the flat bases and some of the boattails, in a factory gun, I prefer the rem/ruger/savage twist rates, and I like the rem Sav triggers better than the howa.

Howa is the same thing as a Weatherby, and after my experience with a Vanguard S2 in 7mm08 I'd be looking at Ruger American or Savage offerings.

Long story, but basically Weatherby refused to honor their accuracy guarantee. I was told by the lead floor supervisor that I'd be wasting my time and my money to send them my rifle for testing.

We have four Weatherby Vanguards in the family, two of which are .243’s. I’ve been more than happy with them and wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Howa, especially since Howa has upgraded the trigger on the 1500 to the same trigger used on the Vanguard.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Long story, but basically Weatherby refused to honor their accuracy guarantee. I was told by the lead floor supervisor that I'd be wasting my time and my money to send them my rifle for testing.

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If you read enough you will find examples such as this told about every firearms manufacturer. It happens. My experience with Weatherby has been outstanding but even with them I dealt with a rep once and was not happy. So I waited a day, called again and the person I dealt with was outstanding.

No matter how hard a company tries to avoid it it’s impossible to not have a few bad apples as employees. Every company I’ve worked for has had at least one employee that should have been terminated long ago. As a result I believe in second chances. In my opinion Weatherby has outstanding customer service, better than just about everyone else, even though I’ve had one bad experience with them.

My Howa was 6.5, but I'd happily own another. They are on the heavy side, so generally wouldn't be looking at one for a .243 unless it was a heavy barrel, but I'd expect good accuracy either way.

I've owned two Howa mini's now, and they were both extremely accurate and reliable little guns.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Long story, but basically Weatherby refused to honor their accuracy guarantee. I was told by the lead floor supervisor that I'd be wasting my time and my money to send them my rifle for testing.

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So how far off was the weatherby off from meeting the guarantee.....under your shooting conditions.....how many chances were given...with all due respect.

I'm curious as well, not to in anyway discredit the claim, simply to have more information.

I would also like to point out while Howas and Wby vanguards ARE basically the same, they are supported by two entirely different companies.

Approximately 140 rounds fired, multiple scopes, multiple sets of rings, multiple different handloads and 4 different factory ammos. The best 3 shot group I ever got was with Remington 140gr Core Lokt and it was 2.25 inches. I'm a submoa shooter with many other rifles I own so it isn't due to lack of skill.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Approximately 140 rounds fired, multiple scopes, multiple sets of rings, multiple different handloads and 4 different factory ammos. The best 3 shot group I ever got was with Remington 140gr Core Lokt and it was 2.25 inches. I'm a submoa shooter with many other rifles I own so it isn't due to lack of skill.

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That's not great to hear, my vanguard was one of the straightest shooters I ever had, sorry for the rough luck!

Shoots like a laser now...took a Bartlein barrel to do it though.

I really like my Howa 243, and it shoots 100 grain Partitions at 2950 fps, 1 1/4" five shot groups.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Shoots like a laser now...took a Bartlein barrel to do it though.

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Everyone turns out a bad one sometimes.
But an Accuracy guarantee being missed by double and not being taken care of is where I see a problem.

thanks for the extra info, while I think it's unusual to see accuracy this bad from a Howa or Wby it's good to know.

LoonWulf said:

Everyone turns out a bad one sometimes.
But an Accuracy guarantee being missed by double and not being taken care of is where I see a problem.

thanks for the extra info, while I think it's unusual to see accuracy this bad from a Howa or Wby it's good to know.

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From what my local gunsmith said the chamber was reamed off center of the bore. Once he put the Bartlein barrel on it with zero other changes it became a consistent .6xx shooter for 5 shots with Nosler BTs or Accubonds.