Near mint Koishikawa Type 38.

[Anzac15]

Found this seriously nice Koishikawa T38 today....it is an ALL matching example, has not been refinished in any way, not a speck of rust on it, beautiful bluing and wood. I doubt it was used hardly at all, as the chamber and bore is immaculate as well. Barrel is marked 'B', and serial is 819798. I'm guessing that this a pretty early example, and if anyone could give an idea as to DOM, that would be great. Anyway, have a look at the pics, and Happy New Year to everyone!

Information

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[vintage hunter]

A guestimated production date would be around 1917-18 assuming fairly consistent yearly production rates. Koishikawa made T38 rifle from 1906 to 1935, yours was made roughly 11-12 years after production began so it's not an early example. Nice find

[Anzac15]

Gotcha. It actually would satisfy me if this was a WW1 era rifle. Good to know..thanks!

[rayg]

Nice rifle, Ray

[Eaglelord17]

Very nice find, are you going to get it up and shooting?

[Anzac15]

You bet. Taking it to the range this weekend.

[Eaglelord17]

Excellent I love when milsurps get up and running again.

[PROJECT 2501]

Does anybody have an idea of what the deal is with the change from the B stamped barrels to the S stamped barrels? Ive read that the switch was made around the 800,000 serial number mark but ive seen examples on the contrary such as a S stamped barrel on a serial number in the high 700,000 area in addition to the rifle shown here by the OP.

[vintage hunter]

the switch was made around the 800,000 serial number

I think the key word here is ''around''. Nobody knows for sure and certain when the change over was exactly so it's a best guess thing based purely on observation.
It's not uncommon to see a mix of parts types/markings variations in and around a transitional period. When a revision came about the ''old'' parts left over weren't simply tossed on the scrap heap they continued to be used until the supply ran out in most all cases.