Howa carbines

[coneten]

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

Information

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[Harlan (Deceased)]

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.

[coneten]

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.

[Tired Retired]

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

[campperrykid]

Wonder who imported them and when ?
Obviously the excellent m1carbinesinc.com info offers some very strong leads , but...
Mo' info , mo' better.

[macgunner01]

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.

[coneten]

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.

[Tired Retired]

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.

[macgunner01]

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".

[RDS]

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.