Howa Golden Bear

Howa Industries established their firearms manufacturing plant in 1960 after World War II. In the same year, Howa released the M300[lower-alpha 1] as a hunting gun for domestic markets. Soon after releasing the Howa M300, the company began working on a new type of a hunting rifle in order to meet the demand for large-caliber bolt-action rifles in Japan. During the development, the designers used the Finnish SAKO L61R "Finnbear" as basis of the design.

In 1967, Howa introduced the Howa Golden Bear large-caliber rifle at the US Open rifle exhibition in Chicago, USA. At the time, it was the only large caliber hunting rifle available domestically in Japan.[lower-alpha 2]

The Golden Bear was launched in Japan and the United States in 1967, and the export specification grades were three types: deluxe, presentation, and medallion. In Japan, only the deluxe model was sold.

In United States, the Howa rifles were sold by Dickson Roses company as "Dickson-Howa Golden Bear". Also in the US Market, Weatherby, which had a business connections with Howa, also sold Howa rifles (OEM) under the name of Weatherby Vanguard.[lower-alpha 3]

In 1979, an updated design/model of the Howa Golden Bear, the M1500 was introduced, with the older Golden Bear model becoming discontinued in same year.[1]

Howa Golden Bear is very similar to its parent weapon, the Sako L61R "Finnbear".[2][3]

Despite being designed for hunting first, the Golden Bear was adopted by elements within Japanese law-enforcement.

Based on the lessons learned from the Kin Kiro Incident in 1968, the National Police Agency deployed a Golden Bear rifles to the prefectural police as equipment for taking down criminals and rescuing hostages. Additionally, all police Golden Bear rifles came with a scope.

When the Setouchi Seajacking incident occurred in 1970, the Osaka Prefectural Police Special Gun Corps (currently the Anti-Firearms Squadron) sniper took down the criminal with a Golden Bear rifle, allowing other officers to rescue the hostages.

The Golden Bear is also said to have used the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Special Squadron (now the SAT).[4]

According to Megumi Tsukiji of Far East Gun Sales, the Golden Bear used by the Japanese police was chambered in .30-06 Springfield and equipped with an Bushnell Corporation 3-9 scope with magnification.[5]