MDT Mention - Impact Shooting: Magazine Mod for a Howa Barreled Action

Impact Shooting, owned by Pieter Malan, creates some fantastic content specific to long-range shooting. Pieter, a former Pro Cyclist, got into the shooting sports in 2017 and spends his time creating photos and video, teaching precision rifle, and running the Impact Proshop, which carries high-quality shooting gear and accessories.

Pieter has an extensive catalog of shooting content on his YouTube channel, and one we would like to highlight talks about how to get AICS-style magazines to properly work with the Howa 1500 series of rifles. The Howa 1500 has a small lip that does not allow an AICS style magazine to seat correctly. The fix? Remove a small section of metal from your magazine with a grinder or a file.

The modification requires a small bit of metal to be removed from the magazine. This will not prohibit the magazine from being used with other action types.

Applying some bluing to protect the metal.

THE HOWA 1500

Author's Note: The Howa 1500 rifle, manufactured in Japan, is available in 3 action sizes Mini, Short Action, and Long Action. MDT makes Chassis Systems for all three. "Howa 1500" is synonymous with accuracy, and a barreled action from Brownells paired with an MDT Chassis System is a very accurate rifle system.

Author's personal Howa 1500 in an MDT ESS Chassis System. This rifle is set up for ballistic studies past 1,800 yards.

The Twins. Author’s class rifles. Howa 1500 chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. TRACT optics. MDT ACC Chassis System.

I assembled a fleet of heavy barrel Howa 1500 chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor for all my precision rifle classes. The guns are all mated to an MDT Chassis System and are some of the most accurate rifles I have ever used. Regarding magazines, I have a bucket full of AICS style magazines from Accurate Mag, Accuracy International, Magpul, and MDT, and I had to modify all of the magazines to work in these rifles. I modified most with a grinder or a simple hand file, then covered the bare metal with spray paint. The modification does not affect the structural integrity of the magazine, and we have had zero issues with these rifles or the magazines.

Make sure to check out Impact Shooting and the Impact PROSHOP! Click here to shop our wide selection of AICS magazines.