By Gary Nations

April 1, 2018

I had some issues getting my Howa 1500 in 22-250 to shoot. At times it would turn in very sub MOA groups and other times keeping it to a MOA was tough. I pillar bedded, then glass beaded the recoil lug area but nothing changed. After shooting from bags and from a bipod I determined the factory stock (Houge overmold) was flexing. I popped for a Bell & Carson medalist varmint stock and added a Timney trigger I set to 24 oz.

On March 29 I used my Hornady seating gauge with Hornady 52gr BTHP Match bullets and seated bullets different distances from the lands. On March 30, 2018 I got to test the loads with R-15. Here are the results.