The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Morning all,

I recently had a new slot granted for a .308 Rifle that I will use for informal 100/300yd and occasional 600yd target shooting. I’ve shot for a while but only really smallbore - this is my first fullbore Rifle. I no longer feel like a fraud on this forum

As I’m new to the discipline I didn’t want to spend loads - the ‘all the gear no idea’ thing doesn’t appeal to me. I kept an eye on the usual gun trader type sites and last week spotted a Howa Varmint barreled action for a modest price - the same one that Triffid pointed out later on my ‘wanted’ post. I jumped on that as it was only £275 and having received it is basically new.

While I was waiting for that to be sent over, a scan of eBay found a Boyds laminate stock for £130 and a trawl of Opticswarehouse brought an ex demo Bushnell Elite 10x40 mildot scope for £150 and Burris signature rings for £80. The rings were the only new component but everything else looks pretty much unused.

All in it’s cost me less than £650 for an essentially new scoped Rifle with 24” heavy barrel:



Haven’t tested it yet but will report back once I do. I’m delighted. The trigger may need to be lightened but I’m not touching anything until I’ve test fired it.

The Howa 1500 is superb and you should have many years of fun with this rifle.

Enjoy

Congratulations - that looks like a great rig!

Congrats & have fun !!

nice gun

Looks great, let us know how you get on with it.

That's a steal matey.

Enjoy.

I look forward to seeing it on the firing point in the new year. You need to be reloading some ammo for it over the winter.

Hope its a good one for you! It looks fantastic and a steal at that price.

I was shooting my Howa 308 out to 1000m on Stickledown last Sunday morning, using the NRA GGG 155g Imperial ammo. Once I factored in the required 34 minutes of elevation, the rifle easily held the black. Yes, it wasn't consistently hitting the v-bull (but I had my share), but equally it's a budget rifle, shot off a bipod and the first time I've shot further then 600.

Triffid

Well I took the rifle out for it’s maiden sighting-in at the weekend. Only a 100m but I thought I would at least get it pointing in the right direction before attempting anything further.



The range was empty and electronic targets meant I could stay nice and warm under cover. Lovely. On the advice of Triffid I got hold of some 155gn NRA imperial rounds and some PPU 168gn as they were available and cheap. I started with the 168gn PPU and it took me a while to walk the rounds on...when I did they were going pretty well and I got a 10.9 on the ISSF style scoring. I switched over to the 155s and noticed way more consistency - the ten shot string pictured below had a few that were pretty much same hole.



I was delighted as it’s the first time out with the put-together rifle and I’m a relative novice at this type of shooting. Even the trigger pull which seemed over heavy I found ok as it is crisp and predictable. Now to re check the action screw torque, good clean and try again :)