Need Help identifying Rifle please

[Greenmtnboy]

Hi, Have an old rifle my uncle gave me and I found a site that makes me believe it is a arisaka rifle. But they dont have all the markings on the site that my gun has which makes me think it could be rare. here is a link to the site that shows markings for these guns.

http://www.radix.net/~bbrown/japanese_markings.html



and here are a few pictures of the markings on mine.

[gold cup abuser]

It is an arisaka....

The emperors chrysanthemum is still intact too

Looks good, but before shooting it have a good gunsmith take a look at it.

[MikePrekopa]

looks very interesting... I would like to know what that mystery symbol means... I'm sure you got the "type ? 10 3" from the translation website.

looking at the site more (actually reading the words I mean) I noticed this:

At various times, rifles were removed from military service and sold to other countries or transferred to Japanese schools as training weapons. Normally, the chrysanthemum on these rifles was overstamped with the Koishikawa (Tokyo) / Kokura Arsenal symbol or a ring of small circles to indicate that the rifle no longer belonged to the Imperial Japanese Army. Rifles given to schools often have an additional character stamped on the top of the receiver between the chrysanthemum and the type designation characters. Most of these "school-marked" rifles also have two or three zeros preceeding the serial number.

I believe you got a rifle that was decommissioned from the army for one reason or another, seemingly to be sold to another country as schools usually put extra "0"s in the serial

[bigdog02]

Yup It is an arisaka.
A type 38 to be exact (from the vertical kanji and the 2 gas ports)

The mum is "sort of" intact, not completely.
See the 3 circle design inside the mum? That means it was training/school marked - it was pulled out of service and put into use for training or something other than front line service.

The aresenal mark after the serial number looks like a standard Kokura arsenal mark to me.
There is some mark in front of the serial number - but i can't make it out because of your flash.

Ohh and as far as shooting it - the Arisaka guns have one of the strongest actions out there. If the bore is clear, barrel is clear, and nothing is cracked - it should be fine to shoot.

[Greenmtnboy]

Yup It is an arisaka.
A type 38 to be exact (from the vertical kanji and the 2 gas ports)

The mum is "sort of" intact, not completely.
See the 3 circle design inside the mum? That means it was training/school marked - it was pulled out of service and put into use for training or something other than front line service.

The aresenal mark after the serial number looks like a standard Kokura arsenal mark to me.
There is some mark in front of the serial number - but i can't make it out because of your flash.

Ohh and as far as shooting it - the Arisaka guns have one of the strongest actions out there. If the bore is clear, barrel is clear, and nothing is cracked - it should be fine to shoot.

Thank you. a few questions though.... The stocks are different from that of every other type 38, i have about 10 inches of barrel past the stock, and it also doesnt have the chunck dug out ( the size of a finger) on the side of the stock. People on the other forum believe it to be a type 30 but they are real certain.
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthre...92#post1382192

[bigdog02]

I am also a member over at gunboards, those guys really know their stuff lol.

I stand corrected - that is a type 30.
These extra pics are verifier.
The safety, and the way the bolt release is matches up with a type 30.
The stock does not.
My best guess - the stock was sporterized or replaced at some point in time.


There is what a full type 30 looks like.

The front sights on that picture are different than yours - but I think, from pics I have seen, some had those sight protectors and others did not.

Overall, I would say that is one interesting piece.

[Mity2]

Correct. thats Sportarized Type 30 Arisaka, not Type 38
Type 38 would have been marked like this

　　
　　　　　三
　　　　　八
　　　　　式

And type 30's marking
　　　　　三
　　　　　十
　　　　　年
　　　　　式

above marking actualy means "Infantry rifle 30th year model".

Standard infantry rifle of the Japanese infantry from 1897 to 1905. Chambered in 6.5x50SR. It superceeded the single shot Murata type 13 rifle, which was in service from 1880~1897. It was the first rifle in the Arisaka family as well as the first to chamber the 6.5x50mm Arisaka round. The designation Type 30 means that it was adopted by the military on the 30th year of the Meiji Restoration, which means equals to 1897. The Type 30 rifle was first saw a action in the Russo-Japanese War. They were replaced by the Type 38 for World War

MikePrekopa is mostly correct.
When Japanese Army decommision its weapons, most were sent to Japanese school(Or paramilitary forces such as the 憲兵隊 - Kempei Tai -Japanese Secret Police, other military police, and guards at prisons, embassies, and other civil instillationsas training rifle. they indicated these by stamping double circle over royal chrysanthemum.
Something similer to this...


One in OP's pic - Royal chrysanthemum with Koishikawa Arsenal marking(Or AKA Kokure arsenal markig. But kokure was called Koishikawa Arsenal from 1870-1935, and Type 30 would have been decommisioned long before 1935) means that it was sold to civilians.
Which would explain as to why Royal chrysanthemum is intact. Since Royal chrysanthemum is already marked over, weapon was no longer considered as imperial property...

[Eagles6]

Yeah, what they said. Type 30 Jap.

[Bender]

to bad its been semi sporterized