American Designed, Japanese Made, Thai Issue, the SEA M1 Carbine

[Nickbau5]

Recently got a rare example of an M1 Carbine, it was made by Howa in the 70s and sold to Thailand for use in the Royal Thai Police. Howa Manufacturing only knows that they produced around 10,000 of this specific variant, but other than that they don't have much record. The only markings on these rifles is the Emblem of the Royal Thai Police on the receiver, but no Howa stamping or markings.

The funny part about these is that they were initially not allowed to import since the ATF at the time didn't allow them as "military arms", but since these were "police" arms, they could be entered.

[jmaurer]

Great catch, Nickbau, and congrats! Some time ago at the Knob Creek shoot/gun show, a dealer had TWO of these (at least that's what I thought they were), but I thought them too spendy at the time. Do you know when these were imported, and by whom?

[Cz315]

This is very cool, awesome find! I did not know they existed, another variant to look for, I guess

[Phosphorus32]

Very cool  The grooved charging handle and rear sight are different on these.

I wanted one of those after I had completed the US manufacturers but time ran out (WA resident) before our version of an “AWB” went into effect

[Nickbau5]

Do you know when these were imported, and by whom?

There's not that much info on them, best you can find is a website that mentions they were imported in the 1990s by a company in Sacramento, California. The biggest issue is that there's almost no markings on the gun, I couldn't find the import marks, so it must be really hidden or through some loophole.

Here's the website that goes over them more, even Howa in their response barely had any info on them.
http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_howa3.html

[running-man]

Good info. 'Fast Eddy' Faust is notorious in the old import documents I've seen.  Wuite a character!

Those old NHM import stamps are *really* tough to find sometimes. It's funny, look for an NHM import mark on a Russian SKS from the 90's and they are impossible to miss!!!