Pics of 'mummy wrapped' last ditch Arisaka.

[Fred G.]

Maybe you can find a collector who'll pay you three or five times your investment in it if you leave it wrapped. Maybe. However I'll bet that eventually Somebody is going to unwrap it and clean it up. I'll bet they don't even document anything. Information lost to collectors and opportunity lost
To you.

[xa-coupe]

400 bucks is dirt cheap. If I could buy it over here for that I would and I would immediately. It's a tiny piece of history that you won't find again.
I would never unwrap it let alone fire it and I fire everything

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Information lost to collectors and opportunity lost
To you.

I agree. I would encourage everyone to make the time to document everything to the greatest degree possiable. If the original owner had done so there would be no mystery here. Granted ,time changes perspective to a great degree. I just aquired a S&W victory model and holster that "belonged to a WWII navy pilot". Second hand ,now third hand story of no historical value. The history of these items is the real value in the larger/longer view. It is sad to see an item devalued historicly speeking by loss of the storied personal history of the piece. I concider myself a steward of each item I collect and do my best to preserve the item and any historical provedence I can aquire.History lost is lost forever.

[Midmichigun]

Every collector rifle that I pick up, I "bag and tag". I put a tag on each of my rifles with: build date, story, arsenal, purchase price, etc. That way when I am gone, the Wifey has something to go with... or future collectors can conjecture over.
And yes, there is a possibility that some person in the future could "clean" that rifle without documenting it... I know of many collectors who would... with the claim that they are doing it (without documentation) to forestall counterfeiters!

[Aragorn243]

But if you don't know what the history is, it isn't really history, it's simply something you made up.

Chances of this being wrapped by the Japanese are slim to non-existent in my opinion. They weren't taking the time to do that when they were producing last ditch rifles. If they had the time to wrap and preserve it, they had the time to make a better rifle.

There is the possibility of a GI wrapping it to send it home.

There is also the possibility a Jap soldier wrapped it and hid it before he surrendered at the end of the war but I think this possibility is slim because they would have obeyed the Emperors order to surrender without question. Could have been on an island and never gotten the word but doubtful it would have survived long. Does not appear to have rust on it.

I also thought of the ground mum under the wrap possibility. That at least shouldn't be too hard to determine if you have a friend with some sort of scanning device. Or take Fred's recommendation and carefully remove that portion without disturbing the rest.

I've acquired quite a few rifles over the past few years. Only two have any sort of history. My Swiss 1911 and my Swiss K31. Both of these have the name, unit and address of the soldier who used them. Not one of any of the others tells me anything other than a very vague sense of where they were and when.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Not one of any of the others tells me anything other than a very vague sense of where they were and when.

Ah hold them and use your imigination. That is all we can do with most milsurps that have been through countless hands in countless places. That is fun too. You already had me looking for a K31.

[kar66]

Have you put it on the Japanese Forum on Gunboards yet? If not you should, those guys know about everything there is to know about type 99s. I think the wrapping was done post war. The wrap looks like US parts wrapping to me. I don't think US wrapping adds much the value.

[Midmichigun]

Kar66,
Actually, I contacted guys on the "Japanese Collector" forum about this rifle. However, since these are NOT my pictures, I didn't pass them along, just the link here. The initial thought is that it is indeed a post war wrap. The Moderator mentioned that he has seen Arisaka rifles "in the wrap" before, that were actually wrapped by the returning GI.

This was mentioned early on in the thread as a good possibility.

But I agree, cross posting in other forums could yield information.
When it comes to collecting... it never hurts to research... research... research....

[Anzac15]

I'm going to try to get the pics to the Japanese Rifle Forum, get their opinion..you're absolutely correct. Research, research, research. If this turns out to be just a GI wrap job, I'm probably not going to bother. But if it is, someone went to a HELL of a lot of trouble to wrap it like this. I appreciate you putting out the possibility it is GI wrapped..I was all but on my way with cash in hand. It definitely needs more insight.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Unless is is a rusted hulk I cannot imagine not purchasing for the stated price.