Japanese Arisaka Type 99 (pictured below Russian Mosin-Nagant M-44 for size comparison)
These characters, “kyuu-kyuu, shiki”, or “Type 99″ which means that it takes the larger 7.7×58mm round as opposed to the Type 38’s smaller 6.5×50mm round. The Type99 is noted as being one of the most powerful bolt-action rifles ever made. This rifle has the ground-off Chrysanthemum on the receiver but you can still see the faint outline of it. The “mum” was the symbol of the Japanese Imperial Army and most of the mums were ground off so that the symbol of the empire would not be made to suffer falling into enemy hands. Intact mums are somewhat rare and usually imply that it was a captured rifle taken from a dead Japanese combatant. According to the serial number on the left side of the receiver, this gun was made in the Nagoya arsenal (which dates it between 1923 and 1945 and is a Series 6 (which refines the date down to between 1939 to 1945). One interesting thing is that it is missing the top and bottom wood on the barrel but I’m not certain if that was a “last ditch” (late-war production) exception or a later customization. If anyone out there has more information about this rifle, or can help me date it a little more accurately, I’d love to hear your input.
Thanks,
-~D~-
May 3rd, 2010 - 10:53 am
Thanks to one of my Twitter followers, yama_0_0, here are some “last-ditch” Arisakas.
http://taka25th.cathand.com/newpage53.htm
Notice that most have very obvious tooling marks in the wood and metal, and the swoops and curves in the receiver (like the tapered shell ejection channel on the left side of the receiver) are very jagged and unfinished (see 3rd page, middle photo). Most last-ditch guns also have a wooden butt-plate and are often missing the flip-up anti-aircraft sights.
Haha, you have to respect any rifle that comes with “anti-aircraft” sights on it by default.
-~D~-
June 16th, 2010 - 2:54 pm
My father had one of these, back in the 1960’s. I spent several days smoothing up the steel with crocus cloth, before he shortened the barrel and had it re-blued. He fitted a new stock, and reworked the bolt handle, to make a nice hunting rifle. The ‘mum’ was still intact. I fired it a few times, before the conversion. Japanese military rifles were not pretty, but they were rugged and reasonably accurate.
They had to produce them quickly, so any machine work that wasn’t essential was skipped.
They did get a bad reputation, because there were also cast iron training rifles, which fired only blanks. A standard round would cause a training rifle to explode.
The German Mauser rifles were nicely finished and had much closer tolerances. I think my all-time favorite WWII military rifle is still the M1 Garand, semi-automatic.
June 16th, 2010 - 4:27 pm
Yeah I heard somewhere that one of the large gun magazines ran an article where they destructively tested all the major military bolt-action rifles by loading heavier and heavier grain self-loads into them until failure. The Arisaka came out on top as the most rugged rifles (the T38, followed by the T99, if I recall correctly). You’re right about the training rifles, plus I think the “last ditch” Arisakas give the rest of them a bad rap. My next purchase will probably be a K98 Mauser, then I’ll definitely be getting an M1. I’m actually in the process of getting my C & R FFL so I can automatically qualify for the CMP and their excellent pricing.
$500 Garand, here I come!
-~D~-