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military carbine

53hawkeye
As short as this is it has to be a carbine, overall length is only 38".
From what I can find out it is an Arisaka and has the 16 petal 'mum indicating imperial Japanese.
I had a good time learning to field strip this piece this afternoon, but I still don't know what caliber I'm dealing with.
Anyone have the poop on this?


DSC01004.jpg

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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    It appears to be a heavily sportized Model 1905 carbine,( 6.5 X 50 Jap military cartridge). To bad, the receiver markings and finish appear to be original and in excellent condition. The bubba who butchered that one committed a major fail.
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  • dcs shooters
    It should be a 6.5mm Jap. Can't tell from your pictures what model.
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  • 53hawkeye
    Rufe-snow,

    From what I can gather, the forearm, both top and bottom are missing. What else is butchered? Was this a collectible piece?
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  • the yooper
    ANY Japanese war rifle with the Mum intact is quite rare. It's a shame that somebody altered this one (butchered would be a better word) and GREATLY reduced its value.
    yooper
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  • rufe-snow
    quote:Originally posted by 53hawkeye
    Rufe-snow,

    From what I can gather, the forearm, both top and bottom are missing. What else is butchered? Was this a collectible piece?


    Here is a small photo I got off the net. In very good to excellent, original condition, it would be a big buck collectors item, with a intact mum.

    type38.jpg
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  • gary wray
    53hawkeye.......looks like you have, from your description, and what my rather poor eyes tell me, a rather rare Japanese Type 38 Carbine that has been sporterized. That it has its mum intact and not defaced indicates that it most probably was a vet bringback or mailback. The Japanese characters under the mum indicate "Type 38." The Type 38 carbine was much rarer than the 38 rifle, shorter and handier but still firing the 6.5 round. What you have is probably a 1950's sporterized hunting rifle which was popular to do in the day as the WWII Japanese weapons were very available and very cheap. Since @500,000 or so were made at three different Japanese arsenal's, they were much rarer than the millions of Type 99 and Type 38 rifles. US deerhunters in the late 40's and 50's scooped them up as they make great lightweight hunting rifles, super good in the woods (US hunters actually did the same thing to French MAS 36 rifles). I have a couple just like what you have here. The good news is that by looking around you might be able to find a correct stock and get it back to what it looked like in the day...the bad news is it looks as if the bolt as been turned down which was also popular to do but pretty much shoots the restoring idea in the head. Anyway, you have an interesting piece of WWII that has some history to it. Hope this helps! Good shooting!
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  • jonk
    As for what it is that has pretty much been covered.

    As for caliber, it started out as 6.5 Jap, but a lot were re-chambered with one common one being to 6.5X.257 Roberts, allowing use of the (then) more common .257 Roberts brass.

    I'd make a chamber casting before I loaded it up.
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  • 11echo
    .Yup, a Type 38, you can tell by the two vent holes on top of the receiver ring. FYI Type 99's only had one vent hole. And as indicated here, it is a 6.5mm, the Type 99 was a 7.7mm. The intact "Mum" indicates this is a "captured" weapon, when the Mum is defaced it means it's a "surrendered" weapon ...this was done right at the end of the war by the Japanese soldiers. And as indicated, "captured" weapons have a higher retail price. From what I can see from your pictures, it looks like only the stock and bolt handle have been modified. You could probably find replacements and greatly increase the value of this weapon. The "carbine" version of the Type 38 is highly valued! Good Luck!
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  • 53hawkeye
    Thanks to all for the help.
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  • v35
    If you go the restoration route, the bolt hasn't been bent much and can be straightened hot. If you do it strip the bolt and see that heat doesn't affect the locking lugs.
    It looks as the barrel wasn't cut so a good restoration is possible
    if you can find the wood and metal fittings.
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