Had this rifle for quite sometime. Never really did anything with it. Don’t have a scope. But one on the way. I want to rebarrel it with a kreiger or maybe a bartlein 26”.
What am I getting myself into? I go to their sites and honestly I can’t make heads or tales on what to do to order a barrel.
I’m ignorant on the rebarreling except for watching several YT videos.
Can anyone give me some advice on what I should do to get the process going?
Ok, I'm going to offer up the advice you probably don't want to hear... Sell it and use the money to buy a rifle in the cartridge you want.
There isn't anything wrong with a Howa 1500, or it's cousin the Weatherby Vanguard. It is a well made Mauser clone from a Japanese company that once upon a time made Arisaka rifles for the Emperor's army.
Rebarreling one is just a real pain in the xxx. First, the barrel is torqued on like you wouldn't believe. With the right action wrench (Brownell's) and barrel vise (also Brownell's) you can get the original barrel off without damaging the receiver. At which point you will see the barrel is threaded in metric dimensions (M24 1.50) and the firm belief the Showa Heavy Industries never intended anyone to take the barrel off their rifles.
Now you can go shop for a threaded, shouldered, and short chambered barrel in the cartridge you want that is compatible with the 300 WSM bolt face. You are not going to find many people selling them simply because it isn't a rifle that people rebarrel. If you have access to a lathe that can cut metric threads, life get a whole lot easier. But you will still need to buy a finishing reamer for the cartridge you want and a set of headspace gauges.
So, you need about $500-ish worth of tools to rebarrel the rifle, plus the cost of the barrel. You can start to see why not many people choose to do this. There are other bolt actions that are much easier to work with.
Or, get to like the 300 WSM and appreciate that the Howa is what it is... a pretty well made hunting rifle.
