What Model of Rifle Does Randy Newberg Shoot?

Randy Newberg is one of the most popular hunting personalities today. His public land hunting fuels many a new and experienced hunter to push further and find success. One of the unique things about Randy Newberg is advocating that anyone that puts in the work can do be a successful hunter, the best and most expensive equipment, and private hunting areas are not necessary to have success.

Randy Newberg can most often be found hunting with a Howa 1500 model of rifle. Randy Newberg has partnered with Legacy International on his own signature series of Howa rifles. These rifles are feature rich and offer hunters a high quality firearm while maintaining an approachable price tag. While not a cheap rifle, all the features found on these high quality firearms are the features that Randy Newberg feels will help hunters find success.

Lets break down some of the features of these rifles and explore some of the calibers that Randy Newberg himself uses on his hunts.

Howa Randy Newberg Signature Series Rifle Series 1

The first rendition of the Randy Newberg rifle from Howa was built around Howa’s legendary 1500 barreled action. The action is Cerakoted for high durability and to protect the rifle from adverse conditions. The stock is a H-S Precision with a full aluminum bedding block. H-S Precision stocks are some of the best in the industry, extremely rigid and allowing a free floated barrel for maximum accuracy. The barrels are threaded and capped with a protector and come with a muzzle brake. Trigger is the Howa 2 Stage Match Trigger with a 3 position safety

These Randy Newberg Rifles come as a package and include a scope. The rifle is topped with a Leupold VX-3i CDS scope. The magnification is 3.5-10x with a 40mm objective. The Leupold VX-3i is a top of the line hunting scope with amazing features. The CDS elevation dial allows quick dialing for target range for spot on accuracy without the need to hold over. The CDS is customizable for your specific ammo loads.

This full featured rifle with a fantastic optic is offered in the series one comes in three caliber offerings: .308 Winchesters, 6.5 Creedmoor and .300 Win Mag. These calibers represent great offerings that will handle most public land hunts in the contiguous US. Randy Newberg selected these calibers to allow average shooters to have a comfortable shooting experience, emphasizing marksmanship and bullet placement over velocity and energy.

The Howa Randy Newberg Signature Series Rifle Series 1 has an MSRP of $1599.99. These rifles were offered exclusively through Sportsman’s Warehouse. While this price may seem high, the rifle is already topped with a high quality optic. The Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x X40 has a MSRP of $499.99. These rifles are ready to go right out of the box and will last a lifetime.

Howa Randy Newberg Signature Series Rifle Series 2

Following up on the success of his 1st signature series rifle, Randy again partnered with Howa for the Series 2 rifle. This time around the rifle is sold as just the rifle and is not packaged with a scope. Additional caliber selections are also offered.

For the Series 2 rifle a few changes have been made. For this series of rifle the stock has been changed to Stocky’s carbon fiber with its patented “Accublock” lug bed system. With this new stock the rifle weighs only 6.2 lbs. The stock features a hand finished camo design with webbing for excellent grip in any weather.

Like the series one, the series 2 uses Howa’s 2 Stage match trigger. The trigger is housed in a machined receiver and uses an tough and ultra safe forged bolt. The bolt offers tool-less firing pin removal for easy deep cleaning. Howa guarantees sub MOA 3 shot accuracy with premium factory ammo. This is achieved by stringent quality control, and exacting headspacing specifications. Bolt faces are checked and machined to be exactly square to the chamber.

Like the series one the barrel is of high quality in 22″ and 24″ lengths for standard and magnum cartridge offerings. As of the writing of this article Sportsman’s Warehouse has 6 calibers listed on their website. 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, .308 Win, 6.5 PRC, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag are available. Current price is 1129.99 for standard calibers and 1159.99 for the magnum calibers, including 6.5 PRC.

While this rifle doesn’t include a scope as part of the deal the reduced price will allow buyers to purchase a scope that best fits their particular needs. Additional caliber offerings increase will appeal to a wider range of hunters and shooters. The new carbon fiber stock reduces the weight by nearly a pound over the previous series and makes it a great choice for those high alpine and backcountry hunting treks.

Howa Alpine Rifle

If one were to go back about 6-7 years and watch Randy Newberg you might see him using a Howa Alpine rifle. This was his rifle of choice around 2015, and is likely a part of the reason that Howa was his selected partner for his own signature series rifles.

The Howa Alpine Rifle is designed to be a very lightweight mountain hunting rifle. A high tech lightweight bedded fiberglass stock is paired with pencil thin 20″ barrel. This brings the rifle in at around 5.7 lbs. With a quality optic the total weight should be under 7 pounds.

The action and barrel are cerakoted for ultimate durability and corrosion resistance. The rifle was offered in three initial chamberings, .243 Winchester, 7mm-08, .308 Winchester. 6.5 Creedmoor was added to the line up following the initial release in 2015. A Pachmeyer decelerator recoil pad paired with the stock to further tame the felt recoil on this light weight rifle.

The Howa alpine rifle can be outfitted with either a internal box magazine or swapped for a detachable polymer magazine system. Like most current Howa models, the Howa HACT 2 stage match trigger is used with a pull weight of 3lbs. The receiver of this model has been lightened, and the bold handle shaved to further reduce weight. MSRP on this rifle was right around $1200.00 USD

Which one is right for you?

While there are many factors that go into selecting the perfect rifle for you, using what the pros are using is never a bad idea. The Randy Newberg signature series rifles offer great value with premium features at an approachable price. I think if you were to ask Randy which rifle you should get he would tell you that more than all the fancy features you need to select the cartridge that is right for the hunt, but also that you can use most effectively.

Randy frequently uses .308 Winchester and 7mm-08 Remington, for any hunting he is doing. Feeling confident in your shot and shot placement is more important than max velocity and energy at most hunting distances. Watch enough Randy Newberg and you’ll hear him tell hunters not to “over gun” themselves. Find a caliber that you feel comfortable with and can practice with consistently.