I knew Howa made it, I have a friend who is a dealer and he had a few Howa's and a couple Vanguards in stock. I went to compare them side by side. The Howa stock is terrible, very cheap "feel" and design not to mention ugly IMHO. You could feel and see the cast marks from its manufacturing process and had an ugly design down the side. The Vanguard just "felt" better in my hands no rough edges and felt heavier and stiffer. The trigger pull on all 3 Howa rifles he showed me were terrible. Both Vanguards he had the triggers were noticeably smoother and lighter. It is the same trigger, but the pull was very hard and rough with alot of creep on the Howas, not as much time put into adjustment I guess. He also said yes it is a Howa action but the barrel, trigger and stock have totaly different spec'd levels of quality. As for the barrel, who knows, but the stock and trigger were totally different in quality. The Howas are only $50.00 less than the Vanguard and a new stock and trigger work would be 3 times that.
I guess there is no way to know whats true, but he has been in the gun business his whole life and has yet to steer me wrong.
And handling the guns side by side the "feel" and apparent quality of them were a night and day difference. If you ever have a chance to see them side by side I think you would agree.
When I started out to buy this rifle I was set on a heavy barreled varmint model. My first choise was actually the heavy barreled Howa with the thumbhole laminate stock. Then I realized after borrowing my inlaws heavy barreled rig, that I am going to walk alot with this thing and the standard barrel won me over quick
