S&W 1500 bolt-action

G

gmarr

New member
Was at my LGS a few days ago and saw one of these on the used gun rack. Found it to handle pretty well, has good traditional looks (wood and steel) and looks to be quality built.

So what's the experience with these? The one I saw is in .30-06 caliber with a 22" bbl.

Thanks
 
Oh, some people will bash any rifle brand you care to name.

I know that Howa/Vanguard are about the best value in rifles available to the shooter on the market today. I recently gave my Vanguard, 300WBY to my son, who can shoot it much better than I can now days.
 
Pretty sure those are just a rebadged Howa. I dont think anyone can say anything bad about a Howa.
Click to expand...

Exactly. They are well made guns that tend to be bargain priced. Weatherby uses the same actions on their Vanguard. Over the years some features have changed somewhat, but all are solid guns. Any aftermarket parts, stocks etc., made for either should work if you want to make any changes.

The only bad thing anyone can really say is that they are the heaviest guns made. And depending on what you want that may not be a bad thing.
 
I can chime in about the Vanguard, other than being a bit heavy it is one of my best shooting rifles right out of the box.
 
i bought a used s&w howa 1500 heavy barreled .223 with parked metal finish and oiled black walnut stock for 250.00 from a man who quite hunting varmites and it shoots just as good as my remington 700vls heavy barreled .223 and my 700 vls remington is a honest .300-.400 one hundred yard 5 shot group shooter. eastbank.
 
sis

Bamasister has one of those things.....ol'Dad could never pass up a bargain. With 180 gr roundnose, and its rather pronounced Monte Carlo....it kicked like a mule.

Nevertheless, 'sis killed two black bears with it, and a several more whitetails. Hers had an absolutely dynamite trigger.
 
@bamaranger: "bamasister". Thanks for the laugh this morning. I love it.

To keep on topic, I have a S&W 1500, chambered for .300 win mag. It's a good rifle. The only problem I had was the front sight hood flying off under recoil.

At one time in the very long ago past, the bolts were recalled for modification of the bolt shroud. Supposedly(?), you could reassemble in bolt in a manner which made it unsafe. It never made sense to me, because I could only figure out one way for re-assembly and it seemed like no other way would be possible. But that's just me. The S&W serial numbers affected in the recall were PN00010 to PN87159.
 
Was the 1700S Howa variously marketed as BOTH a Smith & Wesson, and a Mossberg? I ran across this model variously branded thusly.

Howas are very good, but on the heavier side.
 
My experience with these rifles dates back 30 years. Friend A owned one in .270 and introduced me to deer and hog hunting in Florida. I shot that rifle a few times and thought it a descent rifle. Over the years, I witnessed Friend A take a lot of game with that rifle. Although the size of the groups it shot have been lost in my memory, it never shot bad groups.

Friend B liked Friend A's rifle so much, he wanted one. By this time, I was away at college, and came across one for sale in the classifieds. I set up Friend B with the owner and he bought a fine example in 30-06. I shot this one a few times as well during our range trips. Again, I don't recall the group size exactly, but had it shot poorly, it wouldn't still be in Friend B's safe over 20 years later!

I own a Vanguard Youth in .243 which is a sweetheart to shoot. Test target you could cover the 3 holes with a dime!

I do recall Mossberg also marketing a version years ago as well.

Just realize that S & W hasn't produced these rifles in quite a few years, so any examples you come across are going to be older. Take that into account when examining bores, etc.
 
"Just realize that S & W hasn't produced these rifles in quite a few years..."

To be pedantic about it, S&W never produced them. They were made for S&W by an independent contractor, Howa, in Japan.

S&W's last foray into the rifle arena with the Light Rifle project during the run up to World War II wasn't a resounding success.
 
Touché Mike. Let me try again.

S&W hasn't offered these Howa-built rifles in quite a few years.

Good?

The real point is that is you come across one, they are not new, and have a few years on them.
 
Actually Smith is in the Rifle business right now. M&P line of Ar rifles and the entire TC product line is Smith and Wesson.
Howa has built more WBY rifles than WBY has ever thought about producing, but that does not make the WBY rifles built by them any less "Weatherby."
 
Far as I'm concerned, S&W went out of business in March 2000.

"Howa has built more WBY rifles than WBY has ever thought about producing, but that does not make the WBY rifles built by them any less "Weatherby."

No, they're made to Weatherby's specifications and design. They're just not made BY Weatherby, and never have been made by Weatherby. The actions have always been made by other companies.

This isn't an uncommon thing in the gun world. The CZ Ringneck is made in Turkey by Huglu, NOT by CZ.
 
The Wby Vangard built by Howa being "Weatherby's design" would be a bit of a stretch. Saying it was Sako's design would be closer to being accurate. If by WBY specs. you mean a different barrel length than the standard Howa, then we agree. The new stuff from Smith is far superior mechanically to their stuff they made before you wrote them off.
 
The Mark V action, which is what Sauer and Howa both manufactured for Weatherby, was a joint design by Roy Weatherby and Fred Jennings, who worked for Weatherby.

I had said Sako, but I think that's incorrect... I THINK the Sako-produced rifles were Mauser actions built to Weatherby specifications, with final customization (if requested) done in Weatherby's shop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top