New Arisakas--Type 38--wierd mum.

I won two Arisakas at an on-line estate sale today. This is one of them, with the following description:

ARISAKA TYPE 38 6.5 X 50MM BOLT ACTION RIFLE 32 inch barrel. Bore is clear, in need of a clean. At about 70% overall with general service wear. sn577689

These are the auction pics (I'll post better when it actually arrives):

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...02/T3811-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../02/T382-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../02/T383-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../02/T384-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo.../02/T381-1.jpg

At first I thought that the mum was not defaced. On closer examination, it appears to be somewhat defaced with small circles. Any idea if this type of defacement is indicative of anything in particular (School rifle, trainer, etc)? I'll post better pictures and matching number info when it arrives.

Thanks, Steve

School rifle

Quote:

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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. The "school" mark looks something like this:

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...2/school-1.gif

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You can see the school mark (mon) between the mum and the "3" character. You also have 2 zeroes added in front of the serial number.

A school rifle is not the same as a trainer. Your school rifle was a regular Type 38 that was transferred to a school, perhaps because it was old or worn. It might or might not be OK to fire, a gunsmith should check it out. A trainer was never meant to fire regular ammo, only blanks at most.