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While at the Knob Creek Shoot I saw two racks of carbines with no bayo lugs. They were all Howa made in Japan, issued to the Royal Thai Police and marked with a crest. The same crest is on a shotgun I snagged a while back. Interesating variation on the M1 carbine.http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_howa2.htm
Hi Conteen,
The link didn't work here. Is this the page you wanted?
HOWA M1 Carbine
They really are nice carbines with a unique history.
Not a lot of them around in the US.
They all were similar in condition. The vendor is U. S. Armament out of PA. I am going back tomorrow and pick one out. There were about 60 of them.
Coneten,
I would recommend a close inspection when picking out one for purchase. I recall reading some background material about the Howa (I do not have the reference at my finger tips). The story goes from a person inspecting them coming into the US observed numerous barrels with bulges, lumps and other warning signs of excessive wear. Now I do not have the reference handy, and I have never personally handled a Howa and I am by no means implying that all of them are bad - I am just pointing out to do a close check of the barrels before you lay your money down.... and I hope you get a great one!
Ed
Wonder who imported them and when ?
Obviously the excellent m1carbinesinc.com info offers some very strong leads , but...
Mo' info , mo' better.
They have them listed on their web page, under "Title 1" weapons, for $725 each.
http://www.usarmamentcorp.com/other_products.html
They also state that they have newly-made bayonet lugs for them, and if you buy 20 carbines, you get a rack for free! They look like they're in good condition.
I really wonder how they got them. Looks like it may be someone's collection.
I checked 10 of the bores with a bore light and they looked good to me. I did not spec them though. They have a couple of consecutive numbers. I passed on one. They had a sign that said "only 250 imported" if you can believe the hype.
One of my curiousities of the Howa carbines is their shooting. I wonder if they are more accurate than USGI and, if so, what little changes may be there would increase their accuracy.
Please let is know how your Howa(s) shoots.
Coneten: i've never heard the number being THAT low, but it's not a lot, that's for sure. I've heard as low as 839, and as high as 4000. That's still just as rare as Irwin-Pedersen original production guns!
Any chance that you can ask them where they got them from?
And also: If you can spare a minute, can you take a look at a few of the rear sights? Most have the "windage-adjustable flip" - style rear sight, and I wonder if these are also set that way, or if they have the distance-and-windage adjustable "ramp-sight".
I drove out to U.S. Armament the other night and picked up one that has the adjustable rear sight. It seems that the ones I looked at it was a 50/ 50 split between flip and adjustable sights. Nice guns and Curt Wolf is a real stand up guy. I am very pleased with my gun.
It would be nice to see some pictures of the slide adjustable sights on them to see if they are USGI replacements or not.
Bruce,
Here are two pictures of the rear "ramp adjustable" sight on my HOWA. As you can see, the ramp is very similar to USGI, but the base is most certainly HOWA: it is milled, has the rounded ears, and the size is identical to the "windage-adjustable flip" sights commonly see on these carbines (both in width, and having the long "rear end").
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo..._sight_1-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo..._sight_2-1.jpg
I picked up a very nice Howa a few months back in a pawnshop for $450. So nice in fact, it looks like it's unissued. Thai crest and M2 stock that looks like birch, kind of light in color, rather fat in comparison to earlier ones. Machine finish is better than GI. T2 barrel band and no bayonet lug (removed). It shoots as well or better than any of my other 10 USGI carbines. It has become my "shooter" so maybe I'll leave the other USGI ones alone.... BTW, the rear sight is exactly like the one in macgunner01's pictures.