Howa M300

About the Howa M300

The Howa M300 is a Japanese semi-automatic sporting carbine chambered in .30 Carbine, developed by Howa Machinery in 1960 as a sportized commercial derivative of the American M1 Carbine. Widely regarded as the first mass-produced hunting rifle in Japan, it retained the M1 Carbine's short-stroke gas-piston action and rotating bolt while adding a French walnut stock, adjustable peep sights, a hooded ramp front sight and a muzzle brake tailored to Japanese sportsmen.

Only about 15 prototypes were hand-built in 1960 before Howa put the M300 on sale to Japanese hunters the following year, making it the first mass-produced sporting rifle in postwar Japan even though it was essentially a refined M1 Carbine dressed in French walnut.

Howa M300 specifications

American distributors including contacts at Klein's and Ithaca Gun Company evaluated the Model 300 for U.S. import in the early 1960s but declined, deeming it too expensive to compete with cheap surplus WWII M1 Carbines. A refined 'New Model 300' with a checkered stock followed in the 1970s; some examples reached the U.S. through servicemen stationed in the Far East.