After a day of shooting sporting clays at the Waterloo Gun and Bocci Club in Stockton, I was relaxing with a cold drink before the CWA Celebration of the Harvest Dinner. As with all conservation group dinners, I was approached by an attractive young lady with raffle tickets for an assortment of firearms and prizes. By the end of the night, I had won a Howa 1500 Ranchland rifle in .223 Remington.

I was unfamiliar with the Howa Company and this model of rifle.  After some searching I found the Legacy Sports Website . 

About the Rifle

From conversations with folks knowlegeable on firearms, I learned that the Howa Company has a long history of quality manufacturing since 1907.   They have the distinction of  having made the barrels and actions for several well known rifle brands including Weatherby and Smith & Wesson. 

This rifle is positioned  as the “truck gun” for those of us in the country who get fleeting chances at the wily predators who prey on our livestock.  Every thing from the compact 20 inch barrel to the Hogue rubber overmolded stock, is built to withstand the rigors of life outside of the gun safe in less than perfect weather.   

But  don’t think for a minute that accuracy has been sacrificed in the name of durability.  The Howa Brand is well known for its out of the box accuracy and many times can produce sub 1 inch groups at 100 yards.  Features such as the free floating hammer forged barrel, a forged steel, flat bottomed receiver; large recoil lug and  fiberglass reinforced,  pillar bedded stock,  dual locking lugs, M-16 style extractor and one piece forged bolt has made the Howa barreled actions a favorite with custom gun builders and accuracy enthusiasts.

I particularly enjoyed the smooth bolt action, the 5 round magazine with hinged floorplate, and Decelerator butt pad that anchored the gun firmly in my shoulder. 

The package comes with a Nikko-Stirling 3-10 x42 scope is anodized in tan to match.  The windage and elevation knobs are knurled for adjustment by hand with quiet but definate “clicks” for quick in-the-field adjustments. 

The Rifle and Scope Package retails at an MSRP of $599.  Quite a reasonable price for the features and function.  

My Impressions

Now I have always said I only needed one centerfire rifle;  something in a .30 caliber that would handle all the big game in North America.   But now that my .300 Win Mag costs me $2.75 per shot,  I see that I will shoot more with a sub-quarter bore rifle.  More shooting means better accuracy on big hairy things that demand my marksmanship. Plus this rifle will serve as a way to introduce my children to centerfire rifles without the recoil associated with big game calibers. 

I attached a Harris Bipod to the rifle and took it out to the back pasture where I had a target with 2 – 6 inch black Shoot-N-C self adhesive bullseyes on a piece of cardboard.

After about 10 shots I had it on target at 50 yards, and moved back to 100.  A few more shots and I was making pretty tight groups.  The trigger pull was heavier and with a touch of creep, but not bad.  The scope was clear with a duplex style recticle that was equally sharp at 3x or 10x. 

Ammunition

I found 75 gr. match hollow points from Hornady keyholed even at close range.  The 1 in 12″ twist rate rifling  lends itself better to rounds with a 50-60 grain bullet.

The  Black Hills Remanufactured Ammo with 52 gr. moly coated  match hollow points seemed to do well for me ( at$0.6398 per round at Cabela’s).

60 grain Polymer tipped TAP ammo from Hornady impacted 2 inches lower at 100 yards but grouped well.  At 2x the cost of the Black Hills though, ($1.44 per cartridge at the local gun shop, $1.14 per cartridge from Cabelas) I will conserve this round.  In the future I plan to try other loads including the 60 grain, and 55 grain moly coated hollow point and V-Max in the Black Hills line up.

I don’t claim to be a marksman, and I am sure with some trigger time I can tighten up my form to shoot this rifle to its capabilities.  In the future, I’ll try different ammunition combinations, but I think if I were to have a coyote at 200 yds or less, I could make a killing shot.  Now I just need to make that situation happen.

Come April, I intend to put the Howa up against the ground squirrels of Modoc County.  With abundant targets, and adequete preparation this should be what the rifle was suited for.  I am certainly looking forward to my future with this new rifle.