Howa 1500 Axiom / Range Review (Long)

[Pizza Bob]

I was bitten by the EBR bug and have an AR (two uppers) and a SuperNova to show for it - but I wanted a reach-out-and-touch-someone rifle. Started entertaining thoughts of an AR30 in .338LM and then reality set in. Aside from the expense, the longest range I have access to is 300 yds. With the amount of shooting I do these days (not so much anymore), it made sense to scale back my grandiose ideas. Decided on a .308 Win, but wanted something trick. Looked at the usual Rem 700 variations, and the high-end stuff like Blaser, Sig and Sako. Also looked at Tikka and Armalite. I settled on a very mundane Howa 1500 - made a little bit trick with the Knoxx Axiom Stock (now owned by Blackhawk). The Howa was inexpensive, but everything I'd read about it (and its variants - Weatherby Vanguards and S&W 1500's) was positive. Found the rifle on Gunbroker and bought it. Now the glass. Wanted something up to about 20x - 24x. I have an unbranded Bushnell on my one of my AR uppers. It was built to 3200 Elite standards and I was really impressed with it, so I started in that direction. Wound-up with a Bushnell 4200 Elite Tactical 6-24X50 with a 30mm tube, SF and a Mildot reticle. Mounted it to the gun using an EGW 0 MOA picatinny rail and TPS aluminum rings (these rings are the nutz - no lapping required and you can fully tighten one side and then the other with no scope rotation - really!). The glass is extremely clear all the way to the edges, even at max magnification. The side parallax adjustment was right on, as were the adjustments. Turrets had very positive click/detents and micrometer scale. All adjustment scales were visible from the rear of the rifle. A really great scope.

Pouring rain when I got to the range, but I waited it out. Still drizzling when I started shooting. I had laser sighted the scope/rifle combo at home, so I started at 50 yds and put it on the paper with some LC85 Match ammo. Sighted it about 2" high at 50 yds. Moved to the 100 yd range. Switched to Federal Gold Medal Match ammo with Sierra 168 gr BTHP's. First three shots were high. I adjusted the scope and the next two shots, while within appx half an inch of each other were low and slightly left. Made a minor adjustment and shot a five-shot group. Went into .701" CTC. It actually looks like only a three shot group because two of the rounds "doubled". Needless to say I was pleased.

Moved to the 200 yard range. It has been a long time since I have shot at this distance. I left the scope zeroed for 100 yards and held about 4" high (at the top of the center diamond - see pics). I decided one five-shot group, good, bad or indifferent and I was homeward bound. Cranked-off five rounds. Each felt good, but it was tough to see where they were going - looked like a hole was opening up low in the center diamond. Walked down to retrieve my target and was more than pleasantly surprised. One flyer (my fault, I'm sure), that opened the group up to 1.901" - still just under 1 MOA, but I had four shots that went into .607". No complaints there.

The gun and scope performed admirably. Only minor complaint is the trigger is a bit on the heavy side - breaks clean with no creep, just heavy. It did make me concentrate harder on my trigger control, so not necessarily a bad thing. The Knoxx stock worked very well too. I was surprised at the amount of recoil it absorbed - I fired more rounds of a heavier caliber than I have in a long while. Recoil didn't used to bother me, but as I enter my dotage, I am more sensitive, and this seems to be an effective way of dealing with it, along with the other attribute - the adjustable LOP.

All-in-all, a great day at the range. I am more than pleased with this set-up and recommend any of the components mentioned above. When an off-the-shelf package, for under $1450 as shown, can perform like this does, it's a winner in my book. Thanks for listening.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

[Pukindog]

Good shooting Bob. As the barrel breaks in and you get more trigger time the groups should shrink. What was the load you were using? If factory, handloads will probably shrink the groups considerably.
What's with the 1874 .45-70?

Jeff