Layne’s Superlite rifle with a 20-inch barrel in 308 Winchester weighed four pounds, 13 ounces on a digital postal scale. A Meopta 3-9 X42 scope held in place by a pair of Talley lightweight one-inch aluminum rings put its hunt-ready weight at five pounds, 14.4 ounces.
Howa began making the Model 1500 “Midi” action for the SUperlite rifle in 2022. It is ideal in length for the 243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08 Remington and 308 Winchester.
Howa Precision Rifles & Barreled Actions, the Japanese firm, introduced the Model 1500 rifle in 1979 and through the years several American manufacturers have built rifles around the barreled actions. The Smith and Wesson Model 1500 introduced back in 1983 was chambered for various cartridges ranging from 223 Remington to several magnums. When that rifle was
The Superlite bolt (top) weighs 9.3 ounces versus 12.4 ounces for the bolt of the Remington Model 700 short action (below).
discontinued, Smith & Wesson disposed of hundreds of the barreled actions at attractive prices. A friend of mine who would eventually go on to become famous worldwide for building extremely accurate rifles got his start by buying a truckload of those barreled actions, giving them a tweak or three and fitting them with McMillan stocks. The one I had in 270 Winchester never drove a single tack, but it was accurate enough to take a few deer and more than a few feral pigs.
Legacy Sports International (LSI) of Reno, Nevada began importing Howa Model 1500 barreled actions in 2001 and fitting them with stocks. In the beginning, rifles were available in two action lengths, short for cartridges such as the 22-250, 7mm-08 Remington and 308 Winchester, and long for the 30-06 as well as various magnums including the 7mm Remington and 300 Winchester. Upon request by LSI, Howa began producing the Mini Action for the 223 Remington and 7.62x39mm Russian in 2015. Moving forward to 2021, LSI officials decided the time was ripe for introducing a 5-pound rifle chambered for various short-action cartridges suitable for taking big game and requested a fourth action size from Howa for it. The remarkable Superlite rifle introduced in 2023 is built around that action.
The Superlite has a Winchester Model 70-style bolt release. Holding down the tab shown here at he left-hand side of the receiver frees the bolt for removal.
A two-stage design, the trigger on Layne’s rifle broke crisply at an average weight of 45.6 ounces with only five ounces of variation for 10 pulls. The safety lever is a three-position design.
My Superlite rifle has a 20-inch barrel in 308 Winchester and fresh from its factory box, it nudged a digital postal scale to four pounds, 13 ounces. A Meopta 3-9x 42mm scope held in place by a pair of Talley lightweight aluminum rings put its hunt-ready weight at five pounds 14.4 ounces. No sheep mountain would be too high or too rugged for this rifle. While the ATV seems to have pretty much replaced the hunting of elk, mule deer and other game from horseback in western states, the rifle’s trimness and feathery weight along with an overall length of 39 ounces make the Superlite just the ticket for hunting the old fashioned way. From the back of Old Dobbin will always be my favorite way to hunt the rugged mountains of the West and since the Superlite fits nicely in a saddle scabbard made years ago by the Lawrence Leather Company, I am ready to once again, saddle up and head to the high country.
At 7.5 inches long, the action of the Superlite is shorter than the Howa short action and a bit longer than the Mini Action so let’s call it the “Midi Action”. It is a half inch shorter than the Remington Model 700 short action and yet their interior magazine lengths are close to the same. More specifically, maximum cartridge length for the three-round detachable magazine of the Superlite is 1.820 inches. That leaves a .020-inch space between the nose of a bullet and the front wall of the magazine. Measuring 1.180 inches in diameter, the flat-bottom receiver has a thick integral recoil lug. An ejection port measuring 2.825 inches long offers plenty of space for the plunger-style ejector of the forged bolt to toss spent cases.
The recoil lugs of many rifles of the past, including the 1898 Mauser, 1903 Springfield, Remington Model 30 and Winchester Model 70 were forged as an integral part of the receiver rather than added on. The Superlite, shown here, has that type of recoil lug.
The body diameter of the bolt is .627 inch and while a recessed face encloses .117-inch of the head of a chambered round in a ring of steel, its counterbore wall is notched for passage of an M16-style extractor. The bolt has dual-opposed locking lugs and it rides to and fro in the receiver quite smoothly with no binding whatsoever. Bolt travel is 9.5 inches. Rotating the bolt to full firing pin compression requires about the same amount of force as for the short Remington 700 action. An occasional dab of Shooters Choice High-Tech Grease on the cocking cam surfaces of the bolt is a good idea. The Superlite bolt weighs 9.3 ounces versus 12.4 ounces for the short Remington 700 bolt. Trimming away a half pound here and a half pound there is precisely what the Howa/LSI team did to come up with an extremely light rifle capable of delivering excellent accuracy.
As another way of reducing weight, the bottom assembly and the 3-round magazine are polymer with a combined weight of 2.2 ounces. As is typical for a single-stack magazine, cartridge feeding is both reliable and buttery smooth. A tug on the latch at the front of the magazine releases it to leap into the open hand.
Holding down a steel tab at the left side of the receiver tang frees the bolt for removal.
No tool is required for taking the bolt apart for interior cleaning and it begins by holding its body firmly and using the other hand to grasp the bolt shroud and rotating it clockwise until it is released from the body of the bolt. To reassemble, first align a small lug of the bolt sleeve/firing pin assembly with a corresponding slot in the body of the bolt. Next, push the assembly all the way home, rotate it counter-clockwise about 1⁄3 turn and stop when a click is felt. The firing pin remains in its cocked position where it must be in order for the bolt to slide back into the receiver.
The trigger is a two-stage design and I like that on a big-game rifle. It broke crisply at an average weight of 45.6 ounces with only five ounces of variation for 10 pulls. While the trigger is adjustable, doing so voids Howa’s Lifetime Warranty on the rifle. The trigger guard is roomy enough to allow the rifle to be fired when wearing gloves. The safety lever at the right-hand side of the receiver tang is a three-position design. When in its rear position, the trigger is blocked from movement and the bolt handle cannot be rotated. Pushing the lever to its middle position allows the bolt to be rotated for loading or unloading the chamber with trigger movement still blocked. Push the lever all the way forward and a tug on the trigger fires the rifle. A strong ball detent holds the safety lever in each of its three positions with a great deal of pressure required to move it from one position to another. Quite important on a big-game rifle, with the tab pinched between thumb and finger along with downward pressure applied, the safety can be pushed off rather quietly.
When hunting elk and other game in the mountains of the West, horseback has been Layne’s favorite mode of transportation for about 50 years. He carries a rifle in this saddle scabbard made during the early 1970s by the Lawrence Leather Company. Its thinness, short overall length and feathery weight make the Howa 1500 Superlite shown here in the scabbard ideal for that method of carry.
The slender, cold hammer-forged barrel measured 1.100 inches just forward of the receiver and .580 inch at the muzzle where it is nicely crowned. Such a small muzzle diameter rules out the use of 5⁄8x24 threads usually seen on 30-caliber barrels so the Superlite barrel is threaded ½x28 which is more commonly seen on rifles chambered for 223 Remington and smaller. Going with a threaded shank of that diameter leaves sufficient shoulder area for a brake or suppressor to rest against when tightened. A 1⁄2x28 to 5⁄8x24 adaptor used for attaching a Nosler SR-30ALTi suppressor to a Ruger American Predator in 223 Remington was in my collection, so I was good to go for shooting the Superlite rifle suppressed. A slow tour through the bore of the barrel with a Lyman Borecam 2.0 revealed extremely smooth lands and grooves.
Moving on to another way LSI managed to build a mosquito-weight rifle, the Stocky’s hand-laid carbon fiber stock weighs just 16.9 ounces and that includes a cushiony half-inch thick Limbsaver recoil pad and steel posts for quick-detach sling swivels. The circumference of the stock at its wrist is 4.825 inches and it measures only 3.625 inches around at the midpoint of the forearm. An extremely trim stock is the way it should be on a rifle designed for climbing tall mountains day after day and LSI has done a great job of delivering just that. Stock width at the center of the action is 1.75 inches for a comfortable one-hand carry. A soft-touch surface texture on the stock offers a no-slip grip during a rainy-day hunt. The finish on the rifle I am shooting is described by LSI as green and gray sponge with black webbing and it is but one of several available color options.
The Howa Model 1500 Superlite barreled action is imported by Legacy Sports International of Reno, Nevada, where it is fitted with a Stocky’s hand-laid, carbon fiber stock.
The barrel free-floats in the stock. I managed to slide a sheet of .004-inch thick paper between the barrel and the forearm without tearing it but the fit was tight. More importantly, the extremely narrow space between the barrel and stock was quite uniform from the front tip of the forearm to the front of the receiver. Extreme rigidity of the forearm virtually guarantees it will stay that way. When placing the barreled action back into the stock I noted that while it is not pillar bedded, the bottom surfaces of the tang and receiver ring rest on uniformly thick and professionally applied pads of synthetic bedding. The rear surface of the integral recoil lug of the receiver seats firmly against the the front pad.
The bottom assembly and the 3-round, magazine are polymer and their combined weight is a mere 2.2 ounces. Two good things about a single-stack magazine are ease of loading and totally reliable feeding. Nothing more than a light push on the bolt handle of the Superlite urges a cartridge from magazine to chamber like it is on roller bearings. Inserting a loaded magazine is smooth and fumble-free. The latch at the front of the magazine is not likely to be accidentally tripped in the field and yet it is quickly and easily accessible for operation with the index finger. Push the latch and the magazine leaps into the open hand. The same magazine works with the 243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08 Remington and 308 Winchester for which the Model 1500 Superlite is presently chambered. Fit, finish, feel, appearance and overall quality are as good as they get in a standard-production rifle.
Claimed Superlite accuracy is three bullets inside an inch at 100 yards with premium-grade factory ammunition and it did just that with four of the six test loads. Five of the eight groups fired with handloads also measured less than an inch. The barrel was cooled to ambient temperature between each group fired. As any experienced big-game hunter should know, the first shot in the field is the most important bullet to be sent so it is important to determine how consistently a rifle places that first round from a cold barrel in the exact same place on the target in relation to point of aim. The first shot in the field can be from a clean barrel but the barrel can also be fouled from a pre-hunt or during-hunt zero check so the Superlite rifle was first-shot tested both ways. Rifles with extremely thin barrels do not always cooperate, but the Superlite passed those tests with flying colors as well.
The Howa Model 1500 Superlite is presently offered with barrel lengths of 16.25 and 20 inches. Available chamberings and rifling twist rates are 243 Winchester (1:10), 6.5 Creedmoor (1:8), 7mm-08 Remington (1:9.5) and 308 Winchester (1:10).
