Weatherby has Howa
I would say that Howa has Weatherby. Howa Machinery has been in business since 1907 manufacturing all sorts of machinery, heavy equipment and Ja-panese military firearms...... long before Weatherby was in existance.
Howa has been making the model 1500 for decades. The have made the model 1500 for Smith and Wesson for the S&W 1500 and then Mossberg contracted with Howa for the Mossberg 1500. After Mossberg dropped the line Weatherby then contracted with Howa to manufacture the Vanguard rifles.
Howa has been ISO 9001 Certified since the year 2000.
The Howa 1500's are excelent rifles. Forged steel flat bottom receivers with huge integrated recoil lugs, One piece (including the handle) forged bolts, M16 extractor, three position safety, adjustable triggers, Bolt body and receiver are vented to release gasses in case of case or primer rupture, one piece bottom metal that is actually metal and not plastic.
does any1 know about these guns, never heard of them being talked about much, whats everyone's view on them
Basically they are one of the best values in a bolt action rifle out there.