Thread: Whos loving their howa mini

Mine came with pillars. Regular HTI stock.

yep the stocks got pillars. i took the bottom plastic off and found some tube that the take down screws/bolts were a neat fit in then drilled the plastic to suite the tubes j b welded them in and when dry carefully linished them flush with the plastic you need to go light and slow so you don't melt the plastic. id put a pic up but it doesn't seem to work for me anymore

I have a 6.5 grendel mini howa, in a shapes vro bullet chassis, on factory hornady black 123g ammo, im putting holes through holes at 200m

My pencil barrel in 7,62 x39 is exceptionally good, I tried a ruger ranch and was underwhelmed to say the least.

I bought one of these mag release guards off TM. Expensive for a little bit of plastic, but gives me a lot more peace of mind.... I love the little 223; my "bread and butter" rifle that keeps the freezer full

I love mine now I have replaced the shitty plastic bottom metall and mag with a nice flush bottom metal.
Still have 5 shot mag which is plenty (223)
Shoots everything 65gr and under well ( its the older 1 in 9 twist not the newer 1 in 8)
Bought it for my Son to use but I find myself using it more than anything else I own.

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.

I have the stainless standard barrel 7.62x39 now pruned to 16 inch with a DPT.
it now wears DIP alloy bottom metal which i think has made the grouping better, but that might be psychological? (and made the mag release tighter for some reason).

Mine is a truck gun as well - i hate to think how many wallabies i've taken with it!

Im seriously contemplating a Howa Mini Varmint .223 , 1 in 8 twist .
My question is how much heavier is the varmint barrel and does it hamper the portability/balance of the rifle .

Originally Posted by Beavis

Have a pencil barrel one. Shoots well with many different loads. Recently put it in an XCL chassis and have it away getting trimmed back to 14.5". Want it to roughly mimic the lightweight AR hunting build I used to have.

Could you put up some pics when done?
Sound like the sort of business I'm keen to do as well

Originally Posted by Ground Control

Im seriously contemplating a Howa Mini Varmint .223 , 1 in 8 twist .
My question is how much heavier is the varmint barrel and does it hamper the portability/balance of the rifle .

Look it up in the Howa catalogue, its all there.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Look it up in the Howa catalogue, its all there.

Catalog’s tell me exact weights , the forum tells me “ Jeez it’s muzzle heavy “ , “ don’t try carrying it to far “ etc

Took the little mini out for a goat hunt yesterday. Man that little mag catch cover makes a helluva difference to your peace of mind!

I've set mine up to mimic as best as I can the length, weight and ergonomics of my former light weight AR for Bush hunting goats. It looks odd but feels good in the hand.

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

I bought one of these mag release guards off TM. Expensive for a little bit of plastic, but gives me a lot more peace of mind.... I love the little 223; my "bread and butter" rifle that keeps the freezer full

Attachment 158308

Just being observant you say 223 but the rifle in the pic is either 6.5 grendel or 7.62 x39.