Howa 1500 mini barrel cut?

[natebonebusta]

I’m debating having my howa 22” barrel cut down, as I’m reading the velocity loss isn’t super substantial. 18.5” sounds about right to me. Its primary use would be a coyote rig suppressed, but I like what I’m seeing about how useful it is on whitetail. I’m in NC so our deer aren’t giants. What say the 6.5 Grendel aficionados?

[Owyhee H]

I dont miss anything with my 20" barrel. 18.5" sounds great, especially if you are suppressed. You loose a little velocity but it should not matter inside of 400.

[Harpoon1]

I’m debating having my howa 22” barrel cut down, as I’m reading the velocity loss isn’t super substantial. 18.5” sounds about right to me. Its primary use would be a coyote rig suppressed, but I like what I’m seeing about how useful it is on whitetail. I’m in NC so our deer aren’t giants. What say the 6.5 Grendel aficionados?

Does the 22” have enough diameter to thread at 18.5? I thought I checked with my gunsmith and he said he couldn’t do it. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t find one who can, just asking.

I chopped my Ruger Predator down to 18” by hand with a hacksaw. Then roughly squared it up with a file, you can plainly see with the naked eye the muzzle is not on a 90’ angle. Got tired of filing it by hand! Figured it was close enough and I’d try it, if didn’t shoot I could always clean it up some more. I cut a new crown with a brass slotted screw head in a drill and valve lapping compound and it still shoots great. Who knew? Lost about 25-30 FPS per inch.

If I live long enough to get my cans out of jail, I’m going to have it cut down to 16.5” and threaded professionally. Probably only shoot 90 TNT’s out of it. Guessing easily around 2750 fps and maybe close to 2800 on a good day should be doable with H335 and maybe even Benchmark.

Playing around with some more numbers on Strelok @ 2500 FPS w/120 Gold Dots. 2500 should no problem with Leverevelution and closer to 2600 might even be attainable in an 16” barrel suppressed bolt gun.

300 yds/ 1964 FPS/ 1028 FPE

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19383[/ATTACH]

2600 fps pushed those numbers back another 50 yards.

[natebonebusta]

Does the 22” have enough diameter to thread at 18.5? I thought I checked with my gunsmith and he said he couldn’t do it. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t find one who can, just asking.

I chopped my Ruger Predator down to 18” by hand with a hacksaw. Then roughly squared it up with a file, you can plainly see with the naked eye the muzzle is not on a 90’ angle. Got tired of filing it by hand! Figured it was close enough and I’d try it, if didn’t shoot I could always clean it up some more. I cut a new crown with a brass slotted screw head in a drill and valve lapping compound and it still shoots great. Who knew? Lost about 25-30 FPS per inch.

If I live long enough to get my cans out of jail, I’m going to have it cut down to 16.5” and threaded professionally. Probably only shoot 90 TNT’s out of it. Guessing easily around 2750 fps and maybe close to 2800 on a good day should be doable with H335 and maybe even Benchmark.

Playing around with some more numbers on Strelok @ 2500 FPS w/120 Gold Dots. 2500 should no problem with Leverevelution and closer to 2600 might even be attainable in an 16” barrel suppressed bolt gun.

300 yds/ 1964 FPS/ 1028 FPE

[ATTACH=CONFIG]19383[/ATTACH]

2600 fps pushed those numbers back another 50 yards.

I’ve yet to check with my smith. I’m gonna run h335 an Xterminator to test for the 95gr vmax bullets and try benchmark with 123 eldm or sst’s whichever I can find. I can get by with 22” but it’ll be like having a Shepard staff out in the woods with the suppressor attached.

I’m not brave enough to go it with a hacksaw, but good on ya for trying and having success.

[Harpoon1]

……..I can get by with 22” but it’ll be like having a Shepard staff out in the woods with the suppressor attached.

Uh……..ok, I didn’t think Howa 22” was threaded, isn’t it a tapered Sporter barrel? The 20” model is a threaded “Heavy Barrel” and not tapered,……….so you could chop that down and thread it, no problem. What am I missing?

[Stinky Coyote]

I’m finally building out my last howa project and it is a 22” cut down to 18.5”. Carbon stock and cz bottom end on order, stock has shipped already, the action is slabbed and bolt fluted with bolt handle hollowed(-1.5 oz each, -3.0 oz total) and 1” low talleys with Leupold fixed 6x36 with custom cds-zl turret installed should finish 5.5 lbs. First 5 rounds are down the tube, will get a box through it with a few cleanings in between then will get the chrony out and see what hornady black does, my 20” lightweight was 2503 fps broken in but took likely 60+ rounds to get there as it started 2475 fps(tight bore). I’m expecting 2450-2475 out of this 18.5”.

[Redleg11B]

My mini has a 22" threaded barrel. Threads are 1/2x28 and the shoulder is not substantial but may be adequate. This is the #2 contour barrel. If cutting it to 18.5" (something I have considered) and using the same thread pitch, the shoulder would be much more adequate.

If I didn't want to run a can, I'd chop and recrown myself. I've done it before on a H&R Handi. Hacksaw, rough file, fine file, rented a crowning tool to cut a recessed target crown, gained a better shooter, lost a little velocity. Easy to do, but I can't thread on bore center with hand tools

[weagle]

I hacksawed mine to 16 1/2" Shoots great and kills deer just fine:

https://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthre...ni-project

[Redleg11B]

Weagle, nice paint job on that. I've done a few rattle can camos and they never looked that good.

[natebonebusta]

Got mine back from the gunsmith and he was able to cut it to 18.5” and thread it .650” for my Harvester 300. It basically shoots the same as before with 120gr PPU, but I’m sure I can tighten it up with hand loads.

[Stinky Coyote]

Got mine back from the gunsmith and he was able to cut it to 18.5” and thread it .650” for my Harvester 300. It basically shoots the same as before with 120gr PPU, but I’m sure I can tighten it up with hand loads.

What was your before/after velocity?

[natebonebusta]

What was your before/after velocity?

I didn’t chrono the PPU. Book claims I’ll only lose 20fps per inch of barrel, but hornady data shows 18” barrel velocities, so I felt safe with those numbers.