Thread: Whos loving their howa mini

I’ve only used 55gr Belmont Black in my 1:8” twist Howa Mini .223, and it absolutely loves ‘em. The rifle is used as a brush and truck gun, so lots of offhand shooting, off the knee, improvised rests, etc. No bipod. One baffle in a DPT overbarrel suppressor, so shorter, more than adequate noise suppression. The two paper targets I shot after a basic barrel break in (3 shot groups) were comfortably MOA at 100m, shot off the back of the quad.

The little rifle excels in this role and I won’t change anything major, no need. The stock is perfect for the purpose, a lot less flexible than the rubberised Hogue, the only thing I’ll do to it is remove a bit of material from the tip of the forend under the barrel. It has the revised mag release catch and the 10 shot mag - on two occasions I’ve used 7 or 8 shots pursuing a mob of goats with no time to reload, so that will stay as it is too.

One red yearling has been taken with it, lights out DRT, by my son.

Wears a Weaver 4-16x44 Grand Slam, which suits the rifle pretty well but I had to take it off my .243 as it was all I had at the time. It may well end up going back on the .243 and me looking for something more specific for the .223.

Great value rifles, top notch. Does everything just as well as my shooting buddy’s Sako 85 short action .223 stainless laminate, which is heavier, will rust if not attended to, and costs over four times as much.