The stock is hollow and that makes the balance point fall right in front of the magazine so it caries just fine with 22 inch #2 barrel like I have. The heavy barrel version is probably GTG in that regard too. The 20" lightweight barrel will probably not though. Once I took the Fordam to the mag release inadvertent mag drops are not much of a worry now. In online reviews magazine feed was an issue, I couldn't get it to feed poorly no matter how hard I tried, and I tried and tried.
It was cold today at the range and I was shooting ten shot groups, so I am pretty happy with it so far. I spoke with the importer last week and they are going to be meeting with Howa folks at the SHOT Show to discuss a redesigned trigger guard assy that will shroud the magazine release.