Justabirdwatcher
Well-known member
I love light guns and have had good luck with Howas (after a bit of tweaking on each of them) so I jumped on the Superlite bandwagon this past week. I wanted the 7mm-08 in gray cerakote, which I could only find without a stock on Brownell's website, so I ordered it along with a green splatter CF stock. A couple days ago they both came in. Barreled action looks great, as I'm used to with Howas, and to my delight no "zipper" sound on this action. Pretty smooth all in all. But I have to say that bottom plastic and even the magazine, is complete garbage for something that cost over $500. Sharp edges and toy-like.
Looked over the stock and immediately noticed a couple things. A little "notch" behind the bolt cutout where I think a read bead is supposed to go, indicating the safety is in the fire position. But no red bead. Just a weird little notch. And then, I looked at the sling stud on the forend and get this - someone had GLUED IT IN. It came out easily with a little tug on the sling. I looked into the hole and someone had broken off the sling stud screw in the aluminum bedding block, and instead of scrapping the whole stock (because they didn't want to try to get a stuck steel screw out of an aluminum bar) they just glued in what was left of the sling stud and sent it down the line! Sheesh! I don't blame Howa for this. This is clearly a Stocky's issue. And I'm not real surprised because I've sent two Stocky's carbon stocks back to them in the past due to very poor quality control. Anyway, I managed to get the broken steel stud out, retap the hole and replace the swivel stud with one that has a nut recessed into the barrel channel. I got lucky because it covers the original damage and darn sure isn't going to pull out now. But that was just awful.
After dropping the action into the stock, I snugged up the action screws. Immediately I noticed how proud the rear tang stood in the action. I only got 1 1/2 turns on the rear action screw. But it was firm. Can't say the same for the front action screw. Talk about mush! I was careful to not overtorque the front action screw (I've seen pictures of cracked bottom plastic) but with even a moderate torque, the barrel pulled down into the channel and touched the stock. I could back it off and have a free floated barrel, or give it 30'ish ft.lbs. and watch the barrel descend with each turn toward the bottom of the channel. (sigh...) I've read on other forums where this is a problem, and that $500 stock is going to need to be bedded to prevent the barrel from being pulled down into the stock.
I also learned that there is now an aluminum hinged floorplate available for these. I like a hinged floorplate on a hunting rifle, so I plan to order one and bed the action into this stock while I wait on that to arrive. Then hopefully I'll get a decent shooting gun.
I did take it to the range and went through the prescribed break-in process, using some moderate hand loads with 130 grain Speer boat tails. Those typically shoot really well for me. They shot "okay" in this rifle. 2" or so, with me cleaning between each of the first 5 shots, then every other shot for the next 5. That was with a pretty lightly torqued front action screw, so I'll be curious to see how she does with a bedded action and the aluminum floor plate. Should be able to properly torque the action with that setup.
I do like the action and surprisingly it doesn't kick all that bad, even with my full 140 grain loads. Don't care for the fat heel on the grip of the stock, but I can live with it. Overall the geometry is pretty good. It's not the Bansner stock that the old Howa Alpine came with (the pinnacle of Howa's mountain rifles IMO) but it's not bad.
The plastic magazine feeds well enough, but it bounces around (spring action) under the gun and doesn't give one a very secure feeling when you touch it. Feels like it's never quite inserted all the way. Not sure I could tolerate that long-term, so the aftermarket floorplate will be a welcome upgrade.
More to come as I spend a little more time with the new gun.
Oh, 5 lbs. 11 oz. all in with Talley rings and my VX-2 LR 3-9x40 scope. A full pound and a half lighter than my other 7mm-08, which is already a pretty light gun. This thing will be a treat to carry if I can get it shooting even halfway decent. It's the closest thing I've found to my old Howa Mini in 6.5G but its actually a half pound lighter than that gun was.
Looked over the stock and immediately noticed a couple things. A little "notch" behind the bolt cutout where I think a read bead is supposed to go, indicating the safety is in the fire position. But no red bead. Just a weird little notch. And then, I looked at the sling stud on the forend and get this - someone had GLUED IT IN. It came out easily with a little tug on the sling. I looked into the hole and someone had broken off the sling stud screw in the aluminum bedding block, and instead of scrapping the whole stock (because they didn't want to try to get a stuck steel screw out of an aluminum bar) they just glued in what was left of the sling stud and sent it down the line! Sheesh! I don't blame Howa for this. This is clearly a Stocky's issue. And I'm not real surprised because I've sent two Stocky's carbon stocks back to them in the past due to very poor quality control. Anyway, I managed to get the broken steel stud out, retap the hole and replace the swivel stud with one that has a nut recessed into the barrel channel. I got lucky because it covers the original damage and darn sure isn't going to pull out now. But that was just awful.
After dropping the action into the stock, I snugged up the action screws. Immediately I noticed how proud the rear tang stood in the action. I only got 1 1/2 turns on the rear action screw. But it was firm. Can't say the same for the front action screw. Talk about mush! I was careful to not overtorque the front action screw (I've seen pictures of cracked bottom plastic) but with even a moderate torque, the barrel pulled down into the channel and touched the stock. I could back it off and have a free floated barrel, or give it 30'ish ft.lbs. and watch the barrel descend with each turn toward the bottom of the channel. (sigh...) I've read on other forums where this is a problem, and that $500 stock is going to need to be bedded to prevent the barrel from being pulled down into the stock.
I also learned that there is now an aluminum hinged floorplate available for these. I like a hinged floorplate on a hunting rifle, so I plan to order one and bed the action into this stock while I wait on that to arrive. Then hopefully I'll get a decent shooting gun.
I did take it to the range and went through the prescribed break-in process, using some moderate hand loads with 130 grain Speer boat tails. Those typically shoot really well for me. They shot "okay" in this rifle. 2" or so, with me cleaning between each of the first 5 shots, then every other shot for the next 5. That was with a pretty lightly torqued front action screw, so I'll be curious to see how she does with a bedded action and the aluminum floor plate. Should be able to properly torque the action with that setup.
I do like the action and surprisingly it doesn't kick all that bad, even with my full 140 grain loads. Don't care for the fat heel on the grip of the stock, but I can live with it. Overall the geometry is pretty good. It's not the Bansner stock that the old Howa Alpine came with (the pinnacle of Howa's mountain rifles IMO) but it's not bad.
The plastic magazine feeds well enough, but it bounces around (spring action) under the gun and doesn't give one a very secure feeling when you touch it. Feels like it's never quite inserted all the way. Not sure I could tolerate that long-term, so the aftermarket floorplate will be a welcome upgrade.
More to come as I spend a little more time with the new gun.
Oh, 5 lbs. 11 oz. all in with Talley rings and my VX-2 LR 3-9x40 scope. A full pound and a half lighter than my other 7mm-08, which is already a pretty light gun. This thing will be a treat to carry if I can get it shooting even halfway decent. It's the closest thing I've found to my old Howa Mini in 6.5G but its actually a half pound lighter than that gun was.
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