12-31-2023, 06:25 PM
I have both. Matter of fact, I've had both 2 times each. Took me a while to really make up my mind, lol. I settled on howa.
On the forum here you will hear love it/hate it stories for each one, the howa and ruger. I'll tell mine.
Both of them come with tupperware stocks, so in either case you will need to upgrade that. But both models have 2-3 options or more to choose from, so that's a wash between the 2.
The ruger mag issue, from my experience I could not get it to feed reliably for all the bullet types I use, from 90 gr up to the 129's, with trying lots of different mags. 1 or 2 bullets, mainly the 123's, would feed if, and it's a big IF, you cycle the bolt fast and smartly - if I let up ever so little smack! no feed. The problem usually is the bullet will hit the forend of the barrel below the feed ramps, on that vertical spot of barrel-end surface. No amount of fiddling, jiggering, tape or mag swaps would do away with this issue. For me it was a fatal flaw, so I got rid of them. Some guys say they don't encounter that, all I can say is I'm happy for them, but I had enough of it.
For the howa, its mags always fed and do feed (I still have one of these) flawlessly. Lots of guys complain about them being plastic, but they have never been an issue for me. I'm not going to war and I don't crawl any more through brush or swamps, so they work fine in my situations. The mag catch/release on older models was much too easy to hit and drop your mag. Howa has fixed this in the latest models, as mine is fine for that. A little too stiff if you ask me but I can live with that (there are also after-mkt fixes if you don't like that mag release). The one big drawback for the howa is the bottom "metal" which is really plastic, and the forward (or back one? I forget but you will encounter this) action screw-hole can and will break on you if you try to torque it down. So you either go for an mdt chassis (which I do and love them), or get an after-market bottom real-metal magwell/trigger guard, from DIP products, Jefferson outdoors or Oregun-smithing... those work very well. Jefferson and maybe the other guys also offer an internal mag-style bottom so you can go that route also. I had the DIP one and it was great.
Trigger-wise, both are acceptable, I found myself lightening them both up to my liking. Or you can leave them stock as-is. Ruger is a blade/2-stage and howa is its "single" hact trigger. As part of my barrel upgrade I also put in the timney adjustable (really for howa 1500) and it works great in the mdt chassis. It does need some trigger guard room so in original stock IDK if it works or not.
Barrel-wise, both shoot pretty well, they are rack-grade so might be a bit picky on loads and stuff, but I could get them both to do the job. I did upgrade my howa barrel to a Preferred Barrel one (it's a howage-style savage-like barrel nut so you can do it yourself), 22". And I'm real happy with it.
Ruger has a 22" medium barrel, threaded. Howa's medium barrel is 20" threaded. I like threaded b/c I use a muzzle brake/suppressor so they both can do the job there. Ruger has a slight edge due to 2" more barrel length, which gives you a shot at maybe the next higher MV-node. But they both are capable of shooting/hunting farther than I could go, so both were fine.
On the forum here you will hear love it/hate it stories for each one, the howa and ruger. I'll tell mine.
Both of them come with tupperware stocks, so in either case you will need to upgrade that. But both models have 2-3 options or more to choose from, so that's a wash between the 2.
The ruger mag issue, from my experience I could not get it to feed reliably for all the bullet types I use, from 90 gr up to the 129's, with trying lots of different mags. 1 or 2 bullets, mainly the 123's, would feed if, and it's a big IF, you cycle the bolt fast and smartly - if I let up ever so little smack! no feed. The problem usually is the bullet will hit the forend of the barrel below the feed ramps, on that vertical spot of barrel-end surface. No amount of fiddling, jiggering, tape or mag swaps would do away with this issue. For me it was a fatal flaw, so I got rid of them. Some guys say they don't encounter that, all I can say is I'm happy for them, but I had enough of it.
For the howa, its mags always fed and do feed (I still have one of these) flawlessly. Lots of guys complain about them being plastic, but they have never been an issue for me. I'm not going to war and I don't crawl any more through brush or swamps, so they work fine in my situations. The mag catch/release on older models was much too easy to hit and drop your mag. Howa has fixed this in the latest models, as mine is fine for that. A little too stiff if you ask me but I can live with that (there are also after-mkt fixes if you don't like that mag release). The one big drawback for the howa is the bottom "metal" which is really plastic, and the forward (or back one? I forget but you will encounter this) action screw-hole can and will break on you if you try to torque it down. So you either go for an mdt chassis (which I do and love them), or get an after-market bottom real-metal magwell/trigger guard, from DIP products, Jefferson outdoors or Oregun-smithing... those work very well. Jefferson and maybe the other guys also offer an internal mag-style bottom so you can go that route also. I had the DIP one and it was great.
Trigger-wise, both are acceptable, I found myself lightening them both up to my liking. Or you can leave them stock as-is. Ruger is a blade/2-stage and howa is its "single" hact trigger. As part of my barrel upgrade I also put in the timney adjustable (really for howa 1500) and it works great in the mdt chassis. It does need some trigger guard room so in original stock IDK if it works or not.
Barrel-wise, both shoot pretty well, they are rack-grade so might be a bit picky on loads and stuff, but I could get them both to do the job. I did upgrade my howa barrel to a Preferred Barrel one (it's a howage-style savage-like barrel nut so you can do it yourself), 22". And I'm real happy with it.
Ruger has a 22" medium barrel, threaded. Howa's medium barrel is 20" threaded. I like threaded b/c I use a muzzle brake/suppressor so they both can do the job there. Ruger has a slight edge due to 2" more barrel length, which gives you a shot at maybe the next higher MV-node. But they both are capable of shooting/hunting farther than I could go, so both were fine.
"Down the floor, out the door, Go Brandon Go!!!!!"