Howa M1 Carbine

Toolman286

At a gun auction yesterday, I saw a .30 carbine, but it was not the Thailand model. In general, it was a GI copy, but the back of the receiver was smooth & the rear sight was mounted on the rear of the barrel. The upper hand guard was smooth steel without ventilation holes. It did not look like a gunsmith reworked it. I couldn't find any on-line reference. Did Howa made a commercial/civilian version?

rufe-snow

If it doesn't have any manufacturers markings on the receiver, and rear sight has been removed? My WAG it is something that Bubba has worked over. Probably started out as a M2, and he figured as long as all the markings and rear sight was ground/polished off and refinished, nobody would be the wiser.

nmyers

Yes, Howa, a Japanese company, did make a commercial copy of the M1 carbine. If it was marked "Howa", that is likely what you saw. I've never seen one.

Neal

mark christian

Howa produced around 9,000 sporting rifles based on the M1 Carbine. These had walnut stocks and with the exception of the detachable magazine they looked like typical hunting rifles. Their rear sight was mounted to the rear of the barrel but there was no upper hand guard and since all of these rifles were clearly marked HOWA on the rear of their receivers, it would be impossible to miss it. Howa also produced around 5,000 copies of the M1 Carbine for use by the Japanese Self Defence Forces. Japanese Arms export laws prohibited any of these rifles to be exported to the United States but a few are known to exist here in private hands. These are more or less straight-up copies of the M1 Carbine so there is nothing unusual about their features.

Toolman286

Thanks Neal. It sold for $400.

Grasshopper

quote:Originally posted by Toolman286
Thanks Neal. It sold for $400.


I would think that would have been a very good buy-

allamericangunshop

OK,
Yes they ( Howa ) did produce some ( a few ) of these . story has it , as stated , they made some for their military ( national police ?)? ,
Back several years ago a 'used gun' distibutor in Calf. had a batch of apx. 300 of these ( supposed to be the only ones in the US ?)?
I bought one and it has a home in my safe ???
So who really knows ?

Thanks !!!
d.a.stearns .............. a.k.a. ........... SKEEZIX ...............
Gunsmith / LEO
Athens , Tn















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Toolman286

Thanks Skeezix, I'll keep an eye open in case it shows up again.