Thread: 223 Howa 1500 vs Mini Action

Originally Posted by Synthetic

If the weight of the hogue stock puts you off, you can also try dropping a lightweight profile short action/barrel into an Alpine stock. It's lightweight but good quality and has a decent recoil pad.
See picture in the thread below:
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....01/index2.html

I'm planning to build one myself, but probably in 308.

Another benefit to the Short Action is that with a small amount of DIY you can lengthen the internal magazine box. Out of the box the rifle has a magazine block which is closer to SAAMI max length - maybe 2.300" from memory. There is also a long bolt stop fitted so you don't have to work the bolt all the way back as you would for a longer round.

I did a modification to to the mag box block and bolt stop to shift it back a bit - now I can fit rounds loaded to 2.470". Super handy if you want to shoot the longer 70+ grain pointy jobbies - it has the 8" twist so why not?!?

The rails need a tiny amount of work at the rear if you do this as they had only been milled for the standard length rounds sitting forwards in the shortened mag box. I did this job with a Dremel and a bit of patience. It's fair to say Howa would consider my warranty voided, but I'm okay with that.

One of the downsides to a 223 round in this 243/260/308 sized action is that it's not so easy to single feed rounds into the breech. Also the magazine box is narrower through the middle due to the smaller diameter round. When there are more than two rounds in the magazine it seems that the lower rounds aren't held snugly and can be heard moving at times. I'm not sure if this is just the follower needing a tiny bit of tweaking or a result of the modifications I made.

It seems like someone clever with a 3D printer might be able to print a revised box and lengthened follower to tidy up some of these things. Don't be put off, they're minor but I feel like I should let anyone know if they're going to attack their shiny new rifle with tools!