Howa 1500 Barrel Float

[Val]

Has anyone floated the barrel on their Howa 1500 using the factory synthetic stock? My Howa 1500 in .223 is very sensitive to the amount of torque on the action screws. I had it shooting 3 shot groups at 9/16", I then removed and reinserted the screws with locktite. This caused the groups to grow to 1 1/2". There is definitely a pressure point on the barrel near the front of the stock. I have been told that indeed, the Howa 1500 have this pressure point. All my other rifles are floating barrels. Should I float this barrel?

Anyone aware of a good replacement stock for the Howa 1500? I'd like a drop-in or near drop-in like the Bell & Carlson Duramax stocks I installed on my two Savages.

[gunnut69]

Bell and Carlson, Butler Creek, as well as HighTechSpecialies make models for the 1500 Howa.  There are likely others.. These are what I found in the latest Brownells cataloge.. and are sybthetic and as drop in as any..  If you'd like to see how well the rifle works without the forearm pressure, simply insert a shim in the inletting to raise the action up a bit, removing the pressure.  A piece of plastic such as a credit card cut up or simply a piece of light cardboard placed behind the front action screw will raise the action slightly and give an idea of what the rifle might do with a floated barrel.  The same shim applied to the area just in front of the front receiver ring on the barrel reenforce will also work..  Just a question though, why did you use locktite on your action screws?

[Val]

I use locktite on the action screws so that when I find that right torque setting, they won't move from recoil. This will hopefully keep the rifle shooting accurately for a long period of time.

[gunnut69]

I have not found that torque settings had any great effect on properly bedded rifles, when the barrels were floated..  Good luck!

[knight0334]

On my old Smith & Wesson 1500 .222 Varmiter(same thing as Howa), all I did was sand down the bed under the barrel to the point that I could take a dollar bill and slide it back to the receiver.  This is was with a wood stock though, doing the same with a sythetic should have same results.

I used the factory torque specs(long ago, cant remember) when reseating the receiver back into the stock.

All it did was to help eliminate my 5th shot stragler from barrel warming.  Shots 1 through 3/4 on paper target wear the same.   No change in hunting ballistics due to cool down time in between shots.

[tscott]

I have a 20 yr old Vanguard, wood! I found it to be very pressure sensitive to the front screw. I put a dab of shoe goo in front of the screw,
thus floating the barrel on rubber, or whatever is in that stuff. Groups got a lot tighter. (Vanguard and Howa are much the same).