Type 38 Training Rifle - safe to fire?

[dirtytwo]

I'm a little late on this question, I should ask: "Was it safe to fire!?"

I tested a Type 38 that looked complete in every way: standard sights, dust cover, barrel looked decent with OK riflings (a bit of wear at the muzzle). The 'mum was gone, and I don't mean ground off, it looked like it never had one. With factory Norma ammo, I couldn't get it on paper at 100yds, it looked like it was shooting low, smacking the ground even with the rear sight flipped-up and set at 800 yds. After 17 shots, mostly with pierced primers and the primer sticking out a bit, I ceased fire. It was then that I noticed that it had the two "00" in front of the serial number.

Did I flirt with death? Or are training rifles relatively safe but may have failed some standard for accuracy?

Thanks in advance!

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[kar98k]

i wouldn't have fired it. but the smooth bore trainers are the ones you absolutely cannot fire.

[dirtytwo]

Definitely not a smoothbore and the action wasn't as crude as I've seen some of those training rifles (well, in pics, I've never seen one up close). It had the "38 Type" Japanese characters near the vent holes but it looked from every angle to have never had a 'mum on it. If it was ground off, it was the most professional job I've ever seen! The serial number was in the 5 digits including the two zeros, in the mid 200s (possibly early-1905 production?) The firing pin protruded a fair bit from the bolt face, so I'm assuming it has seen a lot of dry firing which makes a lot of sense if it was a training rifle. All-in-all it was a decent piece but I couldn't shoot the sea if I was on a ship with it!

[sfoster]

Very possibly a Chinese communist rework. Overhauled, fired a bazilliion time, and repaired with a poorly fitting firing pin. From your info, that is just my guess. A fair number of Arisakas came out of China in the 90's.