Arisaka Model 99 Trainer

This site has been most useful so thanks in advance.

My Father in Law had an Arisaka WW2 rifle in the basement for years and after he passed I put it in the closet with my shotguns and mostly ignored it. In the past couple of weeks while cleaning my gun I decided to clean up the old rifle. In doing so I had many questions and have learned a great deal in my research.

It appears to be a Model 99 smoothbore training rifle. What really threw me off was the forum's all give the markings and numbers to help identify Japanese rifles. This just didn't work with this example. There was not a Mum on it and no evidence that it was ground off. No markings for a manufacturer and the only number on the body was '48' which did not look anything like all the pictures I found on the web.

The bolt and working parts all seem to be good and gave no indication of a blank shooter but the loose barrel and the smooth bore just didn't add up.

Finally searching for a non rifled barrel and smoothbore the history started to come together.

So now that I know what it is and that there is not much to do with it, as in shoot it, any suggestions?

It has no sentimental value, looks ok but no show piece. So back to the closet? Trade for something fun? Donate to organization that might want it?

I would hang on to it and let it be the start of your collection.

Ditto what 303Nut stated.