Problems with Stocky's CF stock for Howa Mini

[meta_gabbro]

Has anyone else had any experience with the Stocky's Vertical Grip stock for the Howa Mini? I just got mine in the mail and so far I'm beyond disappointed. Bunch of cosmetic issues including some serious dents in the body of the stock that just got painted right over, the barrel channel contacts my barrel for the entire length of the fore end (might have received a stock for a sporter barrel and not a varmint barrel like I'd ordered, I can't tell because the stock doesn't have any identifiers on it and there was no invoice in the box). And the most significant, the stock interferes with the safety, preventing it from being disengaged.

howa mini bolt area.jpg

Just to the rear of where the stock is slotted for the bolt handle, the wall of the action inlet slopes in toward the action moving from back to front, so it pinches into the path of where the safety would move forward. This is an issue with both the factory HACT trigger and the Timney I have installed in the photo.

Can anyone else provide me some photos of the same area of a Stocky's stock so I can see if this angled cut is supposed to be there, or if someone screwed up on some material removal or something? Bonus points if someone can send me measurements of the width of the barrel channel for a sporter contour or varmint contour stock so I can see which one mine is.

I've already started the process to replace the stock, but the images would go a long way toward communicating what exactly went wrong with them. Either way, they're going to replace my stock, or I'll wind up doing a chargeback on my credit card 'cause this shit is ridiculous for a stock this expensive.

[tdbru]

meta_gabbro,
I ordered a stocky's blem CF for the mini howa std sporter config. put it on my mini in 7.62x39. as a blem it had a few pinholes that weren't filled in. no biggie as I intended and did paint the stock anyway. It fit my mini 22" std barrel very well. I epoxy bedded the action anyway. ocd i guess. So far I like it a lot and have had no problems with it.

I liked it so much I got a 2nd blem for my 6.5 Grendel mini 22" std barrel. it's curing in the epoxy bedding right now.

I did not get the vertical grip model, so I have no first hand experience with that stock going on these howa mini actions. But for the 2 standard hunting stock blem's I've picked up, both fit well. I'm not done yet with the 6.5 Grendel mini stocky's CF as I plan on painting it too.

Sorry to hear of your issues. Lets' see what Stocky's does in this regard.
-tdbru

[CJW]

[meta_gabbro]

tdbru, any chance you could take a picture of how the stock meets up with the action just behind the bolt handle, like the picture I posted? I'm trying to see if all of the stocks are done this way or if this is a finishing issue. If you could grab the diameter of the barrel channel too that'd be a big help.

I'd be fine with the amount of scuffs, chips, and pinholes on this stock if it had been listed as a blem. Having this many cosmetic issues on a stock when there's a factory second tier seems a little disingenuous.

[meta_gabbro]

Some sandpapering is expected, but in this case it's a little more than "some". I'd have to remove almost a quarter inch of material by the safety to get it to clear the stock, and almost 2mm from the barrel channel for it to properly clear the barrel. I don't think it's reasonable to expect the end user to have to clean up a stock to that degree when the stock was inletted for that specific action and barrel. And even if there are some finish issues with third party stocks, I've never had one so poorly fitted that it rendered the gun entirely inoperable.

I'd be more understanding if it was something like a Rem 700 stock being used with a 3rd party Rem 700 pattern action. OK, maybe there are some clearance issues from mfg to mfg. But Howa is the only company making this action in this size, and they only use the one action for all submodels of this gun. There's no reason that this stock should be this substantially out of spec.

[tdbru]

MG,
here's the mini 7.62x39 stock/action where you were interested in seeing a photo of the stocky's stock. I did buy blems so expected surface imperfections. As I mentioned the 6.5 Grendel mini is curing in the epoxy in the other stocky's blem, so the area that you are interested is kind of covered up by stretched surgical tubing that is clamping the action into the stock while the epoxy is curing.

-tdbru

mini_howa_stockys_CF_1_small.jpg

mini_howa_stockys_CF_2_small.jpg

[tdbru]

MG,
I forgot to get a barrel channel measurement. However these two howa mini actions were the std 22" sporter barrels and the barrels fit into the stocks quite well. Both came with minimal gaps in the barrel channel and the barrels are free floated, i can slide a sheet of notebook paper back to the epoxy bedding, between the barrel and the barrel channel. There are/were pinholes and such as these were listed as blems. if you look closely in the photos I included you can see some of the imperfections. But, they have no adverse impact on stock integrity and so it doesn't bother me. They are not AAA fancy walnut. Just CF synthetic. by the way one weighed 16oz and the other 17oz if my little scale is accurate. The 7.62 mini comes in under 6 lbs with sling and scope. I have yet to paint the 6.5 G stock (waiting for the epoxy to fully cure before I remove the barreled action from the stock). my expectation is a hair over 6 lbs as the scope on it is a few oz. heavier. These blems came with sling swivels and recoil pad installed, but were bare CF. I wiped them down with paper towels and rubbing alcohol before painting to get the CF dust and such off the stock so the paint would stick.
-tdbru

[meta_gabbro]

Thanks TDB, much appreciated. Judging from those pictures the inlet looks similar near the safety so mine might just be out of spec rather than cut wrong. Stocky's did let me know this morning that the barrel channel measurement I provided was not consistent with their varmint cut channels and are sending a replacement for me. No comment on the safety issue, so I guess I'll see if this one is just a lemon and the new stock resolves that problem too.

I was very impressed with the weight; with my 20" varmint barrel, a muzzle brake, a 20oz scope, and an Oregunsmith blind bottom metal I was sitting at 6.8lbs. With the factory stock the same gun weighted in at 8lbs dead even, so it's a fairly substantial reduction in weight. I may have the barrel fluted in the future to bring that down some more, but I haven't committed to that yet. I'll have to see how this stock works out first.

[Stinky Coyote]

stop giving my wallet more howa nightmares...you guys aren't paying attention

[Owyhee H]

stop giving my wallet more howa nightmares...you guys aren't paying attention

Stinky, I appreciate that Howa could have done some things differently, especially the bottom metal, with some minor tweaking these turn into really nice guns. I have ~$1000 into my mini and it feels as good as some of my custom guns to carry and shoot. For the money I have in, the accuracy it provides (<MOA), and <6lb all up weight, I don't think they can be beat. The ruger americans can shoot well, and most do, but that is an action only a mother could love as I have never felt one that was not sloppy and/or really rough. I wouldn't waste my money on upgrading a Ruger American...but we are all different. They work fine as a beater.

Back to the subject at hand, If I didn't have a nice stock already on my mini these CF seconds look awesome. With custom bedding, finishing, and paint, I'm sure I would be stoked with the feel and weight. I would not be surprised at fitting, inletting, and blemishes with a "seconds" stock. I would actually prefer a seconds as then I wouldn't mess up the nice finish when I bedded and did final finishing.

OP, good luck and I hope your replacement stock fits more to your expectations.

[Stinky Coyote]

Stinky, I appreciate that Howa could have done some things differently, especially the bottom metal, with some minor tweaking these turn into really nice guns. I have ~$1000 into my mini and it feels as good as some of my custom guns to carry and shoot. For the money I have in, the accuracy it provides (<MOA), and <6lb all up weight, I don't think they can be beat. The ruger americans can shoot well, and most do, but that is an action only a mother could love as I have never felt one that was not sloppy and/or really rough. I wouldn't waste my money on upgrading a Ruger American...but we are all different. They work fine as a beater.

I didn't offer an alternative option. You want to build a lightweight grendel of quality you do it off a howa and replace absolutely everything except the action and bolt, and if a mountain rifle the barrel to stainless would be the right play also. Or get creative on other micro actions. The trigger gotta go as the stamped metal safety alone has to go never mind the two stage and cheap blade feel, bottom plastic and mag system buh bye and stock buh bye. I've got a slabbed fluted action ready to go in my safe and one day I'll continue to abuse my wallet to get it done right then sell it for half of what I have into it. It will be more for fun. So all I said was...stop giving my wallet more nightmares, the only single piece of them worthy of a nice pride of ownership build is the action and bolt...that's it, do it right, everything else hits the bin while the dollars go out for a whole new rifle around that action/bolt. I migrated to the ruger not because it would be better when all done but that it's better out of the box not needing a single thing and I can't live with a howa out of the box without minimum of triple their cost thrown at them. Carry on with the money pits, howa could have done just about everything different...not just some things different. People sure will put up with a lot for accuracy and call it quality lol.

[Owyhee H]

People sure will put up with a lot for accuracy and call it quality lol.

In the wise words of Townsend Whelen - "Only accurate rifles are interesting"

If you don't start with a quality action you cant make a quality rifle, but everyone measures quality differently. I do wish HOWA would figure this out and offer the proper bottom metal from the start as they do on their other actions. The trigger is not the best but I prefer a 3 position safety or a 2 position with a bolt release so will be sticking with the factory trigger, which I have found to work quite well for a hunting trigger, until they offer an aftermarket trigger with these features. It is nice that they are putting the mini in this CF stock from the factory but with these seconds it does not gain you much more than a factory paint job.

[meta_gabbro]

the trigger is not the best but I prefer a 3 position safety or a 2 position with a bolt release so will be sticking with the factory trigger, which I have found to work quite well for a hunting trigger, until they offer an aftermarket trigger with these features.

Any reason to not grab the Timney then? It does have a 3 position safety.

[grayfox]

When I tried the timney in one of my latest howa's it would not fit in the trigger guard. And the safety AIRC needs a cut out in the stock that's not there.
I like timney's but now I have one on the shelf.

[Stinky Coyote]

In the wise words of Townsend Whelen - "Only accurate rifles are interesting"

If you don't start with a quality action you cant make a quality rifle, but everyone measures quality differently. I do wish HOWA would figure this out and offer the proper bottom metal from the start as they do on their other actions. The trigger is not the best but I prefer a 3 position safety or a 2 position with a bolt release so will be sticking with the factory trigger, which I have found to work quite well for a hunting trigger, until they offer an aftermarket trigger with these features. It is nice that they are putting the mini in this CF stock from the factory but with these seconds it does not gain you much more than a factory paint job.

lmao, yes that's a good one, interesting can describe just about everything, 'interesting piece of sh1t' for example, haha, and relax, I'm allowed to speak on this like this, I've built a few of these interesting pieces of sh!t and still have one in my safe