Howa Mini 22 ARC

Preface

Howa has been making firearms for longer than most of us have been alive, but that isn’t the only thing the company shares with other big names in the gun industry. The Howa brand has become well known for quality and affordability, and because of that solid record, Howa rifles have become a dependable option for hunters and shooters of all kinds. Today we are taking a look at one of Howa’s newest models in their M1500 Mini action line. That rifle is the Howa Mini 22 ARC, the 22 ARC is a new cartridge offering from Hornady. And a perfect fit for the very popular Howa Mini action that already has a variety of micro-action cartridges. The model we tested here today is the HS-Precision version of the Howa Mini, with a fiberglass stock and detachable box magazine.

The Howa Mini Action

Howa has been making the Model 1500 action for decades, with popular models in nearly every common caliber and even some that weren’t. In much more recent years, Howa release the Model 1500 Mini. A scaled down version of the action, made specifically for smaller cartridges. The Howa Mini is currently available with chamberings in .223Rem, 6mm ARC, 6.5 Grendel, 350 Legend, 7.62×39, and of course now in the 22 ARC.

The Mini action uses a two-stage match trigger, and a three-position thumb safety. It is a push-feed action that utilizes a one-piece two-lug bolt. The bolthead houses an M16 style claw extractor, and a single plunger style ejector. These features are popular and have become the standard for quality rifle actions.

Feeding the Mini action is done by a detachable polymer box magazine. The trigger-guard and floorplate are comprised of a single piece of polymer, with a magazine release at the front of the magwell. The magazine itself holds five rounds of the 22 ARC cartridge.

Adding to the quality feel of this rifle by housing it all in the HS -Precision fiberglass stock was a nice touch. The lightweight stock has a beautiful finish and an aluminum bedding block built into it for rigid support and accurate shooting.

Additional Features

Stock: HTI® synthetic, pillar-bedded stock & recoil pad
Mag: 5 or 10-round detachable magazine (Depending on Caliber)
Forged, lightened, one-piece bolt w/ two locking lugs
Tool-less Firing Pin Removal
Machined Receiver and Forged Bolt
Large Internal Bolt handle and pressure vent holes
One of the safest actions on the market
Reliable M-16 Style Extractor/Ejector
Stringent and Exacting Headspace specs
Bolt Faces are True and Square to Chamber
Two Stage Match Trigger
3 Position Safety
SUB MOA – 3 Shot Group @ 100 yds with premium factory ammo
Sling Swivel Studs

Range Preparation

With its twenty-inch barrel, the Howa Mini in 22 ARC would be an excellent varmint rifle. With that in mind, I figured I would set the rifle up for that kind of activity. I do quite a bit of varmint hunting here in the intermountain west, mainly hunting Marmots and prairie dogs, with the occasional coyote or badger tossed in.

Riflescope

First off, I would need a good rifle scope. For a good match and application, I decided to use the Lucid Optics MLX 4.5-18X44, I’ve used it on a variety of rifles and therefore knew it would work well on the Mini. The rifle had come with a 30mm set of Nikko Stirling scope rings that bolt directly to the receiver, and with a touch of thread-locker I torqued them down. After setting the eye-relief and level, I torqued the ring-caps down as well. Before leaving to the range, I would boresight the combo on my kitchen table using my toolless boresighting meth o d.

Suppressor

With the threaded muzzle of the Mini, I was absolutely going to take advantage of adding a suppressor. The petite thread protector comes off easily and was barely noticeable until you did. I threaded on my Yankee Hill Machine Turbo T3, having first installed a 1/2-28 direct thread at the breech of the can for a simple connection.

Ammunition

I have to give a huge thanks to Hornady, who provided ammunition for this review. Several boxes of their three different ammo lines. The Hornady Match line features the new 88 grain ELDM bullet, the Hornady Black line uses a 75 grain ELDM, and lastly the V-Match line uses the 62 grain ELD-VT. With this great variety I expected I would have some great results

On the Range with the Howa Mini 22 ARC

This wasn’t my first time shooting a Howa Mini, as I also have a different model in 6mm ARC. I’ve had great experiences with that rifle, so I was expecting this one to go as well. Running the short cartridges through the rifle felt fantastic, and watching the bullets impact on target was extremely satisfying.

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Accuracy

Modern bolt-action rifles don’t need much to shoot well. Mostly all it takes is trying a variety of ammunition types to see what the barrel shoots best. Of course with newer cartridges like the 22 ARC there are fewer options to test, that said we had some great results from the three Hornady options.