Type 38 Kokura series 23

[vintage hunter]

Today, as an anniversary gift, my wife gave me a Type 38 rifle. It's a kokura series 23 ser. # 17,760 with ground mum and mismatched bolt,minty bore. Headspace is the tightest I've ever seen on an Arisaka, won't even begin to close on the no-go and closes with a fair bit of resistance on factory ammo. While cleaning it up I made a list of part numbers and I'm a little stumped. The reciever and floorplate are #'d 17,760, bolt group 215, and the rest, stock, handgard, trigger gard, trigger, sear, upper and lower tangs, mag box, follower, bolt stop, ejector and upper band are #'d 268. What has me puzzled is that the # 268 and a couple Japanese characters are stamped on the bottom of the reciever between the recoil lug and mag well. Was this the Japanese method of force matching parts? I've seen this before but never paid it much attention. Comments and opinions much appreciated.

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[jmoore]

Not force matched! Rather #268 is the factory assembly number, which has no correlation to the serial number. Sooo, some Japanese rifles have to be fully disassembled to see if they match. Not very buyer friendly, but I don't think the factory cared. Also check for numbers on the rear sight. (Front side when flipped up- I've seen these with BOTH the assembly and serial number (at least the last few digits.))

The assembly number thing is less prevalent in Type 99's.

I always have to refer to Military Rifles of Japan to figure out how any particular rifle would have been built up.

I reckon your bolt is from a different rifle, otherwise, it's "matching". Odd that the headspace is tight, but as long as the case mouth isn't too far forward, constraining the proper exit of the projectils, it's probably OK.

[vintage hunter]

Yes the tight headspace is odd but not entirely unheard of. I also have an all matching Nagoya series 4 T38 carbine (that would have been in near mint condition had it not spent the last 65+ years stuffed in a closet where it developed a light coat of rust in several spots) and the headspace is unusually tight on it too. The really odd thing about the rifle is it does'nt bulge cases like the other Arisaka's I've owned, including the carbine. The new, unfired PRVI cases I have measure .442'' just ahead of the web where the bulge occures, .410'' at the shoulder and the neck is .287'' after the bullet is seated. After firing the measurements are: Web,.450'', shoulder, .419'' and neck, .296''. What do you think of that? I've owned/seen commercial sporting rifles that showed more case expansion. I looked under the sight ladder, no #'s just 4 identical characters that resemble a lower case ''t'' stamped inline.

[Patrick Chadwick]

... I looked under the sight ladder, no #'s just 4 identical characters that resemble a lower case ''t'' stamped inline.

Very curious! Could you perhaps post a picture?

Patrick

[jmoore]

I'v similar rear sight marking on one. Up towards the top of the leaf. Photos possible, but not before friday.