Howa Mini Rifles, Builds, and Upgrades

[SUD1988]

New to this thread, but definitely not to the Mini platform.
I fell in love with them when they were first teased years ago and promised myself I'd buy one if they ever chambered it in Grendel.
Instead, I picked up a 6 ARC Mini about three years ago, and it exceeded every expectation.
Since then it's evolved quite a bit, and I recently picked up a second one as a dedicated experiment. I'd still love to find a stainless barreled action.
Right now I'm prototyping a steel magazine system that's essentially a hybrid of the CZ 527 and AICS, paired with matching aluminum bottom metal. The bottom metal is a scaled-down Atlasworxs design, but with the mag release integrated into the trigger guard instead of hanging below the front of it.
Once my action gets back from LRI, it'll wear a 17" 6mm 1:7 PBB Taperless (.810) barrel w/ their helical fluting. Then I'll start final testing to see if the new bottom metal and magazine provide enough room (~2.65" internal length) to feed a 6 GT. If not, it'll become a long-throated Dasher, and I won't complain.

Will these mags and bottom metal be commercially available? That’s what I have been waiting for is a mag system to do a 6 Dasher.

 

[The Guide]

Stocky makes these for the Howa OEM rifles, so I assume they are making a ton of volume and stockys sells all the seconds throwaways on their website

Only for one premium model (Carbon Stalker with steel barrel) and one super premium model (Carbon Elevate with CF barrel). Carbon Stalker has 6 Mini Action cartridges and Carbon Elevate has 1 Mini Action Cartridge. All other CF models have been swapped to HS Precision stocks as their factory offering. I've never seen any of those model rifles (in a mini action) in a gun shop in person. Everyone has to order it if they can or you have to buy it from Gunbroker. If Stockys makes 2000 CF stocks for those specific models plus 400 for their own inventory that's 2400 stocks. If ~200 are blems, that is an 8.3% failure rate if zero failures are trashed.

Regardless, almost 200 being sold as blems is crazy, to me. If Stockys is that busy, it is another potential reason why the RS and RS Lite are slow to market.

Jay

 

[wilkup]

Will these mags and bottom metal be commercially available? That’s what I have been waiting for is a mag system to do a 6 Dasher.

If/when get it figured out, absolutely!