Since Weatherby introduced what may have been the first synthetic-stocked factory rifle four decades ago, synthetic stocks have grown exponentially in popularity. There are good reasons for this. They are generally (but not always) lighter. They are tougher, immune from swelling and shrinking, and not prone to cracking or breaking. Depending on the materials used, they can be easier and less labor-intensive to manufacture.

TESTED: The Fine-Looking, Better Shooting Howa Super Deluxe Walnut

While they have their advantages, synthetic stocks will never, in my opinion, match the warmth and beauty of a nice walnut stock. Even so, it’s rare to find a gun store with a large inventory of rifles with decent walnut stocks unless they sell a lot of used rifles. It’s even more rare to find an affordable new rifle with a richly-figured wood stock. A notable exception is the new Howa Super Deluxe Walnut rifle, offered by Legacy Sports International.

High-Grade Turkish Walnut Stock

The Howa Super Deluxe Walnut rifle wears a high-grade Turkish walnut stock that’s adorned with a contrasting, laminated forend and grip cap set off by thin black spacers. It also has a nicely-sculpted Monte Carlo comb, which I have long favored. The Monte Carlo may not work for everyone, but for me, it provides an improved cheek weld and better eye-scope alignment. The stock has well-executed checkering on the forend and grip, and is equipped with a generously-sized, reddish-brown recoil pad set off with a black spacer. 

Importantly, the inletting and barrel channel on the rifle are factory-sealed. This saves you from having to seal the wood in these areas yourself to minimize swelling or shrinkage due to atmospheric conditions, which can cause shifts in bullet point of impact. The overall look of the rifle reminds me of the old Weatherby Vanguard Deluxe, which is no longer in production, but the stock on the rifle sent to me for testing is more richly figured than that of a Vanguard Deluxe I bought decades ago. 

Pillar-Bedded 1500 Action

Comparisons between Howa rifles and Weatherby Vanguards are inevitable because they use the same action, with minor differences, manufactured by Howa. The Howa 1500 action is a cylindrical design with a somewhat squared-off bottom. The action is pillar-bedded to the stock using two aluminum pillars, preventing damage to the stock from over-torquing the action screws. The recommended torque setting is 45-55 inch pounds, but a representative for Legacy Sports International tells me his consistent sweet spot for accuracy is 47 inch pounds on the rear screw and 49 inch pounds on the front. In this design, the front action screw attaches directly to the large integral front barrel lug.

Legacy says the bolt face is trued and square to the chamber. With two locking lugs and an M-16-style extractor, the bolt cycles with acceptable smoothness, but I found it could get a little sticky if you draw it rearward with too much side pressure. In testing, that led to one failure to feed from the hinged-floorplate magazine when I didn’t fully draw the bolt to the rear. Chalk that one up to operator error. The bolt has a 90-degree bolt lift, unlike more modern designs, so you may need to use medium-height scope rings depending on what scope you mount on the rifle. For testing, I used a medium-height set of Talley lightweight rings to mount a Zeiss Conquest V4 6-24×50 scope.

Crisp, Two-Stage Trigger

I found the two-stage trigger of the rifle to be better than expected. It has a small amount of light initial take-up before stacking solidly and breaking crisply. Howa says the trigger break is factory-set at 3 pounds, but the trigger on my test rifle broke at an average pull weight of 2 pounds, 9 ounces, with a small amount of variation. That’s a decent pull weight for a hunting rifle. You can adjust the trigger, but doing so voids the lifetime warranty. If I wanted a single-stage trigger with a lighter adjustable pull weight, I would just install a Timney trigger, as I did with several older-model Weatherby Vanguard rifles I own. In an upgrade from older Howa models, a three-position safety locks the bolt down in the rearmost, engaged position, but lets you cycle rounds through the action with the safety in the middle, safety-on position.

The machined receiver is mated to a hammer-forged, free-floated barrel with a tapered contour. The barrel and action on my test rifle, chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, was made of satin-finished stainless steel. This is purely subjective, but I really like the look of stainless paired with the high-grade walnut stock. The rifle is also available with a blued-steel action and barrel. Guns chambered in 22-250 Rem, 223 Rem, 243 Win, 6.5 Creedmoor, 270 Win and 308 Win have 22-inch barrels, threaded 1/2-28 for muzzle brakes or suppressors. Rifles in 30-06 Springfield, 6.5 PRC and 7mm Rem Mag have 24-inch barrels. Rifle weight is about 7.2 pounds for guns with the shorter barrels, and slightly more for guns with 24-inch barrels.

Sub-MOA Accuracy

Like many rifles these days, the Super Deluxe Walnut is marketed with a three-shot, sub-MOA accuracy guarantee using “premium” factory ammunition, whatever that means. I’m always a little skeptical of such claims. Sure, the rifle is a head-turner, aesthetically, but would it shoot? To find out, I shot three, three-shot groups using four factory hunting loads. The rifle was tested with a bit of a handicap because all testing was done on a day when the wind varied 5-12 mph, and I had to deal with intermittent rain showers.

For the most part, the rifle delivered on its accuracy guarantee – and produced one noteworthy surprise. With Nosler’s 140-grain Whitetail Country load, the rifle’s best group was a single, ragged 0.05-inch ragged hole (measured traditionally from outside edge to outside edge, minus the bullet diameter). That group ranks among the tightest three-shot groups I’ve ever fired with any rifle. Average group size for that load was just 0.65 inches. 

Federal’s 140-grain Fusion load turned in 0.74-inch average groups, and Winchester’s 142-grain Expedition Big Game Long Range load delivered 1-inch groups. Hornady’s Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X load only narrowly missed the 1-inch mark.

That’s excellent performance for a hunting rifle with factory hunting loads. The Howa Super Deluxe Walnut rifle shoots as good as it looks. Velocities, as expected from the 22-inch barrel, were a little below factory-stated numbers. On average, bullets launched 62 fps slower than numbers claimed for the factory loads, which are tested with longer barrels.

The rifle comes with a lifetime warranty for the original purchaser. MSRP for the gun starts at $799 for the blued-steel version. The price bumps up another $40-$80 for stainless guns, depending on chambering, but you can find the rifle at a real-world price of about $100 below MSRP. For a gun with a high-grade walnut stock that shoots this well, that makes it a bargain.

Howa Super Deluxe Walnut Rifle Specifications

• Action: Howa 1500 bolt action
• Caliber: 6.5 Creedmoor, as tested
• Weight: 7.2 pounds
• Barrel Length: 22-inch  
• Barrel Material: Stainless steel (blued steel available)
• Barrel Twist Rate: 1:8
• Muzzle Thread: 1/2-28
• Magazine/Capacity: Hinged floorplate, 4+1 rounds
• Trigger: Two Stage
• Trigger Pull Weight: 3 pounds (2.9 pounds tested)
• Stock: High-grade Turkish Walnut
• Length of Pull: 13.25 inches
• Overall Length: 41.5 inches
• Free-floated Barrel: Yes
• Guaranteed Sub-MOA Accuracy: Yes (3-shot group at 100 yards)
• MSRP: $799-$879

Performance