Interesting Gunsmith Post

I would take a Howa action (Weatherby Vanguard) in preference to about any other push feed action with a possible exception of a Ruger American. (Jury is still out. The American is too new to know for sure, but so far I have had no complaints or issues with the Rugers)

As a gunsmith I get to see the bad ones and the "sick guns" and the ones that I fix the most are the 700 Remington actions.

The one that I have seen break 4 times, and the company will NOT do a thing to help is Tikka. 4 of them have come to my shop with the bolt body broken out behind the root of the bolt handle. (the rear of the dovetail) Tikka says "tough" and will do NOTHING to help At ALL! For that reason alone I will not recommend Tikka. Too bad, they are super smooth and super accurate, but they have NO and I do mean NO customer support at all.

I can't say what Howa's policy is because I have never seen one break. I have seen a few minor issues that I was able to fix with the extractors dragging when left to rust. Easy fix, and not the fault of the gun. I don't like the cheep feeling bottom metal and painted decal "HOWA" on the floor plate, but that just a preference. As far as function goes, I rank the Howa as either the #1 push feed action on the American market, or a tie for 1st place with the new Ruger.

I did have a Weatherby Mk5 come in for a restock last year with a broken trigger guard. The customer had a plastic stock and wanted one of my nice Bastogne stocks so I did the work for him. I had him call Weatherby about the broken TG and they sold him a new one at a very high price (about $140 is what he told me) That's a different action and a different importer than Legacy USA however. So I have no idea what Legacy would have done if it had been a Howa action. Might be worth a phone call just to ask.
If anything was to make me lean to the Ruger over the Howa it would be customer support. I know that if anything breaks on a Ruger they replace it free. Legacy/Howa may do the same, but you'd need to call them and find out.

#3, it's 2017, where are the pics?

I don't doubt that it happened but there has to be and explanation as to why it happened and why Tikka refused to do anything about it.

Yup.

Bet I've put 6000 rounds between two Tikka actions. Not a single hiccup.

Well that explains it...you don't see failures until your are north of 10k on an action




yes, I totally made that up

SAKO cust svc was difficult but could be had in the US when the Sodini Family still ran Stoeger in New Jersey, and had reserected the SAKO line after the Garcia Imports debacle almost killed the SAKO line in the US, before the fallout 'tween Nokia and the LLAMA mfg'ing ownership that is still a family owned operation in Spain who'se primary bidnizz is high quality lost wax computer to commercial airplane parts ...that later led to Nokia selling SAKO to Beretta.

Nah...I can do LOTS better than thaat...
Ron

Tikka's are made in Finland, while Ruger's are made in Arizona. That could also explain the differences in Customer Support.

The person being quoted in the post is not your ordinary screw them together gun plumber. He is perhaps the finest craftsman of traditional style muzzleloaders in the world. He also is a Master Gunsmith and is an incredible stock maker. If he says a bolt broke, I don't need a picture to verify it.