Help with history/specs of this rifle?

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dx3

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Guys,

My girlfriend has an old rifle that was her grandfathers. Supposed to be WWI/WWII Japanese rifle. She knows nothing about it and asked if I could find some information for her. It is pretty beat up, and so far all I have to go on are the pictures. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks,

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Any help would be appreciated.
Jonny
 

Perplexed

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It looks to be an Arisaka, beyond that I don't know.

Yes, it's a Type 38 Arisaka, nominally chambered for 6.5x50mm. You can use the references QD posted to get an idea of the rifle's date of manufacture, but based on your pics, I'd guess it's from toward the end of the production run. Unless the rifle is a hodgepodge of mismatched numbers, in which case that guess goes out the window. Let us know what else you find out - I'd be interested!
 

KurtM

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Since the Crysanthimum isn't ground off the receiver, it denotes this is a honest War Trophy. On the ones picked up and imported into the U.S. after the war the "flower on the top front of the receiver was groound off so no one would mistake these for a real war trophy...meaning it was picked up in combat, not bought after the war. This makes it fairly rare, but as for value I couldn't say. KurtM
 

Perplexed

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Since the Crysanthimum isn't ground off the receiver, it denotes this is a honest War Trophy. On the ones picked up and imported into the U.S. after the war the "flower on the top front of the receiver was groound off so no one would mistake these for a real war trophy...meaning it was picked up in combat, not bought after the war. This makes it fairly rare, but as for value I couldn't say. KurtM

Not quite. Take a closer look at the mum - it's been defaced by a pair of slashes, made either by a knife or the edge of a file. A lot of mums were defaced this way when grinding equipment was not available. Also, the presence of an intact mum, while a good indicator of a war trophy, isn't definitive of that status. A fair number of post-war Arisaka acquisitions slipped through the net with intact mums, usually because of rear echelon "connections" or higher rank.

The mums were defaced because the Japanese felt it was an insult to their Emperor for one of his firearms to fall intact into the hands of the enemy, since the chrysanthemum was a symbol of his divinity. Once the war ended, General MacArthur, wishing to keep the peace during the Allied occupation of Japan, acceded to the Emperor's request for the wholesale defacing of the mums on all Japanese arms. It really wasn't meant to distinguish between wartime and post-war trophies - it was simply a face-saving measure on the part of the Japanese.
 

Old Fart

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I recently came into ownership of a small part of family history.
It was the Type 38 my father brought back from WWII.
It was missing the internals of the bolt which I was lucky to find right here on our board. Thanks Donald.
I haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet, but did mange to get it cleaned up.
That was quite a chore in itself as it didn't appear to have been cleaned since coming back to Oklahoma.
Knowing the history of it, it will become a family heirloom.

The Arisaka actions are considered one of the strongest milsurp action out there.
As a result many were used to build custom rifle as they were quite inexpensive to buy for many years.
To find one in complete and correct condition is getting harder and harder to do.
As a result they are fetching nice prices.

Many are still used in their original condition as sporting rifles to this day.
Nice find enjoy it.
 

dennishoddy

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Looking at yours, it looks like the wood is in pretty good shape from what can be seen from the pics. It might be worth a refinishing job to dress it up. It time consuming, but it a fun project.

I recently acquired this Arisaka. It borrowed a lot of technology from the German Mauser.(some designs like the claw extractor for the German Mauser) P.O. Ackley did many tests with the Arisaka action. He was hired by the factories to do tests on actions to see what it took to make them destruct. The Arisaka action was the only one that he could not blow up.

Mine has been re-barreled with a Douglas barrel in .300 Savage. Identical ballistics to the .308 Win. Custom Bishop stock and it will shoot a 1 1/2 group at 100yds with the old K2 4X Weaver scope. Took a couple of does with it this year. :D

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