stubblejumper

Because I have owned both and I have found the howa rifles to be more accurate and the howa action smoother.

bigbulls

Ditto. The vanguard/ Howa is a much better built rifle than the Rugers are.

I will add to the why...

Japan has long since been using electric furnaces when producing their steel where as American furnaces are still fired by buning different fuels. The electric furnaces are much easier to precicely control the temperatures required to produce better steels and also heat treat the steel.

While casting is certainly suficient to produce a quality firearm the vanguard is machined from solid bar steel and is a stronger receiver and bolt than the Ruger.

Ever look at a fired case from a Ruger. It bet you that the firing pin struck the primer off center. A flaw in the design that was never corrected.

While neither one have good triggers the Howa is adjustable and is easily enhanced with out paying for an aftermarket trigger.



The Ruger does have the advantage of the Winchester style safety.

Portage

I have owned both a walnut stocked Vanguard and a newer synthetic stocked Vanguard. My second big game rifle was a Vanguard VGX in 270. It was one accurate rifle and I foolishly traded it in for a Sako. I have also owned way too many Rugers.

Here is my thought; Pick the one you like. The Vanguards were more accurate than most of the tang safety Rugers I have owned. The Vanguards are less accurate than the newer MKIIs in my collection.

Gundigest

I would think it is going to be very hard to get an extreamly accurate (1 MOA or better) Vanguard now that they came out with the guaranteed 1 MOA or better Vanguard. I would put money on them sorting them out when they test fire each rifle to charge more for themost accurate ones. I know and have a number of Rugers that will shoot 1 MOA or better and they don't charge more for the ones they know are accurate.

Borty77

My .30-06 Ruger shoots great! I got it last year and finally got the trigger lightend and it shot even better. I don't see how some guys on here can bad mouth the Ruger

lucjul

Thank you for all your insights and experiences. I chose the Ruger.

I saw pros and cons to both guns andthat made it very difficult to decide. It came down to how the gun felt in my hands. The Ruger just felt right at home in my hands and I felt confident that I could shoot it well.

Ifound a good dealon a used Leupold VXII 3-9x40,that now sitson top of my new Ruger .270.

Vapodog

You have one Ruger and had to have someone adjust the trigger and love it.....That makes you an expert on Rugers?

I had three in a row that had accuracy problems, feeding problems, misalignment issues, and failure of the safety to work.....

Now you know how some folks can badmouth Rugers!!

Gundigest

All gun manufacturers have issues occasonally, I know a lot of Rugers that are excellent guns and shoot very well. I prefer Ruger over most of the gun manufacturers with similar models.

frizzellr

Just out of curiousity, when was this? I mean was it one of the older models or a MK II? I had one of the older ones with a tang safety that I couldn't get to shoot, but have had no problems with any of the MK II's I own now.

Matthew V. (An outdoorsman)

Ruger.