Although initially its focus was on military firearms, a deal with Sako allowed Howa to produce a copy of its soon-to-be-legendary L61 and L579 series, better known as the Finnbear and Forrester. Although hard to confirm, it is thought that the contract hadn’t allowed for an exact copy of Sako’s rifle, which indeed is what Howa had done with their Golden Bear model. Contract and patent infringements then forced Howa to stop producing the rifle, and today they are very hard to come by. Today’s model 1500 has changed somewhat from the Golden Bear of the 1960s, but it is still based on the great old Sako action, albeit with some design alterations.
Turning Japanese | Sporting Rifle magazine
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