Remington 783 vs Howa 1500

[A-R]

I don't own either a Remington or a Howa (yet), but I have worked on and with a few of them so far. So here is my personal (and yes, very muchy biased) opinion:

I like the Rem 783. It is an improvement over the Rem 700 in several functional aspects. The 700 still beats it on sleek looks.

I think the Howa action is better than both Remingtons, simply because it is made from a solid (heavy?) piece of steel with a flat bottom, proper recoil lug and Sako-style extractor. In fact, it is a close clone of the old Sako actions that the firm built it's reputation on. The Howa's tapered recoil lug is one of the easiest to bed and tighten properly.

In the barrel department, the Howa's have built a solid reputation for accuracy. Remington has had some issues in recent times, so you may get a good one, or maybe not. Buy it and find out after shooting it enough to not be able to swap it for a better one at your LGS.

Overall I would rate the 2 rifles as close to equal. I would base my choice on desired features. The injection moulded plastic stocks these budget rifles come with leave lots of room for improvement. I would guess that replacement stocks for the Howa are much more available, ranging from an affordable Boyds laminated, throught the varmint and target styles to a few aluminium and composite chassis systems. That alone makes a Howa very attractive to me.

A barrel can be threaded, so that feature alone will not impress me much, especially if the barrel has the common US 5/8-24TPI thread. Nothing wrong with it, except that here in SA we have more supressor (and other) options with metric threads.

I would get the cost of the complete package, rifle, scope, mounts, accesories, replacement stock(?) etc. and then decide.

[killzone]

Thank you very much guys

[killzone]

I don't own either a Remington or a Howa (yet), but I have worked on and with a few of them so far. So here is my personal (and yes, very muchy biased) opinion:

I like the Rem 783. It is an improvement over the Rem 700 in several functional aspects. The 700 still beats it on sleek looks.

I think the Howa action is better than both Remingtons, simply because it is made from a solid (heavy?) piece of steel with a flat bottom, proper recoil lug and Sako-style extractor. In fact, it is a close clone of the old Sako actions that the firm built it's reputation on. The Howa's tapered recoil lug is one of the easiest to bed and tighten properly.

In the barrel department, the Howa's have built a solid reputation for accuracy. Remington has had some issues in recent times, so you may get a good one, or maybe not. Buy it and find out after shooting it enough to not be able to swap it for a better one at your LGS.

Overall I would rate the 2 rifles as close to equal. I would base my choice on desired features. The injection moulded plastic stocks these budget rifles come with leave lots of room for improvement. I would guess that replacement stocks for the Howa are much more available, ranging from an affordable Boyds laminated, throught the varmint and target styles to a few aluminium and composite chassis systems. That alone makes a Howa very attractive to me.

A barrel can be threaded, so that feature alone will not impress me much, especially if the barrel has the common US 5/8-24TPI thread. Nothing wrong with it, except that here in SA we have more supressor (and other) options with metric threads.

I would get the cost of the complete package, rifle, scope, mounts, accesories, replacement stock(?) etc. and then decide.

As always, I am very grateful for your detailed and informative reply. Thanks A-R