Hinged solid Floorplate for Howa Mini Action now available

16 January 2020, 05:41

Dennis Earl Smith

Oregonsmithing, L.L.C. is now making a solid floorplate with a swing drop floorplate for the Howa Mini Action. Howa has said emphatically they will not make such an animal. Wayne York(owner) says the first prototype has come off the CNC mill. It has a few minor tweeks to be seen too. Good Custom Feature now available.

16 January 2020, 18:12

Labman

quote:
Howa has said emphatically they will not make such an animal.

What a shame. The move to detachable magazines in bolt action rifles has caused me to scratch off several manufacturers from my buy list. I'm guessing it's just cheaper to make them with the detachable mag.

A few years back I bought a mint S&W 1500 with a hinged floor plate at an auction. Of course this gun is nothing but a Howa with a walnut stock that was marketed by S&W. Turned out to be a very good rifle.

16 January 2020, 21:52

richj

I love the look and history of hinged floorplates, that being said I'd switch over all my rifles to Savage 110 DBM if I could.

16 January 2020, 22:38

gunmaker

Be interesting to see a pic.
Here's the prototype floormetal, trigger shoe, 3 position safety, magazine box, bolt handle, & custom stock pattern I built for the 223 mini Howa. My parts were not made to fit the tupperware stock. The 223 action requires different machining to feed cartridges through the rails of the action than the 6.5 Grendel. And the Grendel requires a much wider magazine to stack and feed correctly. I've prototyped the Grendel magazine and machined the feed rails and new follower. Feeds like a hungry teenager. The Grendel will be made like a Mauser floormetal with integral mag box to correctly stack the larger cartridges. Stock is already programmed in my "new" CNC for both inlet and outside shape. I've just been busy building complete customs for clients and nobody has been paying for prototype work, materials, tooling, etc. to make a production run. I suppose if there was a group buy I'd produce a # of them in the 223 and Grendel sizes. They both will require machining on the receiver as well as widening the feed ramp for the staggered magazine.

IMG_3964 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

16 January 2020, 23:40

gunmaker

first operation on the Grendel.

F360Grendel by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

17 January 2020, 00:31

Dennis Earl Smith

James, I was hoping you would chime in! Wayne York is Bob West's (ACGG ) apprentice. Wayne is a very good man. He also uses CNC. You need to look him up and talk. He also does re-boring of barrels. He spent his life before gunsmithing in law enforcement. He knows his stuff and specialized in building accurate SWAT/HRT rifles for WA, OR, CA, and ID offices. He also can shoot! He holds many records for LE Service Revolver and loves S&W actions. I have seen targets of his rifles he shot that were impressive. One in particualar was a 600yrd target using a .338 Lapua (5 shot group) .378"center to center outside holes. He had just shot it for record that day.

21 January 2020, 06:53

Matt Norman

This Howa Mini is a great action except for that plastic stuff hanging off the bottom. I've sent them an email as I'm very interersted. Thanks for turning us on to this.

21 January 2020, 23:12

ZekeShikar

I'm using a couple Howa mini's and up to now the only cure for the plastic junk was one of the aluminum bottom metal units for about $100.

I've been using them, in conjunction with shortened factory mags, in a couple different chamberings.

Cool little actions, as-is, but I can certainly see the "custom" potential.

Zeke

22 January 2020, 23:05

skl1

quote:
Originally posted by gunmaker:
Be interesting to see a pic.
Here's the prototype floormetal, trigger shoe, 3 position safety, magazine box, bolt handle, & custom stock pattern I built for the 223 mini Howa. My parts were not made to fit the tupperware stock. The 223 action requires different machining to feed cartridges through the rails of the action than the 6.5 Grendel. And the Grendel requires a much wider magazine to stack and feed correctly. I've prototyped the Grendel magazine and machined the feed rails and new follower. Feeds like a hungry teenager. The Grendel will be made like a Mauser floormetal with integral mag box to correctly stack the larger cartridges. Stock is already programmed in my "new" CNC for both inlet and outside shape. I've just been busy building complete customs for clients and nobody has been paying for prototype work, materials, tooling, etc. to make a production run. I suppose if there was a group buy I'd produce a # of them in the 223 and Grendel sizes. They both will require machining on the receiver as well as widening the feed ramp for the staggered magazine.

IMG_3964 by JAMES ANDERSON, on Flickr

Boy, I didn't realize how much I need a Mini-Mauser until you posted that picture James.