Type 99 auction rifle

[Aragorn243]

I am working to get a representative rifle for each of the major powers in WWI and WWII and have been missing both Japan and France's battle rifles. I knew from this months auction listing that there were about a dozen Arisaka's available today. Went to look at them yesterday and all of them had the "mum" ground off. It has been my goal to get one with the mum intact but as I've been after one for three years with no luck in my price range I decided to go for one in decent working condition with a good bore. There were five in this condition today. Four had stocks that basically looked bad. The kicker was that there was also a French MAS 36 built prewar and in very good condition. And worse, this rifle was listed after all the Arisaka's. Based on the condition of the rifles and my very limited budget, I figured I could afford the MAS 36 alone.

The first 4 Arisaka's sold for between $90 and $120. Number 5, the last of the decent ones and the one with the nicest stock was coming up and I decided I couldn't let it go for that price as they have not sold for this cheap in the last three auctions when one was available.

It listed as:

Japanese “Type 99 Arisaka”. 7.7mm bolt action military rifle made at the Kokura Arsenal. Receiver “mum” ground off. Missing the cleaning rod and dust cover. Mismatched bolt. Good bore with shine. Excellent action. Dark brown dirty, rusty, metal. Good/very good hand guard and full length stock showing the usual dings and scratches. Correct swivels and metal butt plate. (C&R)

I got it for $90, I'm pretty happy about it. Unfortunately it busted my budget for the MAS and I had to back off at $350 and lost it. I know I can probably get a post WWII built MAS for less than that but prefer the pre WWII type.

Anyway, brought it home, didn't do much with it until this evening. Bore had some grease and dust in it but cleaned out spotless. Action was a bit stiff but that was because of heavy dried grease all over it. Looks like cosmoline but I wouldn't expect that on these. Interior of the action has no rust at all, including inside the magazine and the spring. Rifle has never been disassembled although someone tried as they messed up the rear trigger guard screw trying to break the staked screw. Bolt does not match but after oiling and wiping it down it works perfectly. Light surface rust on some of the exposed barrel and on the receiver. Should come off with fine steel wool and oil. I haven't had a chance to determine if it will accept a cleaning rod or not yet, will do that tomorrow. Magazine plate does not appear to have been blued. Only place with pitting appears to be a small pencil eraser sized spot on the top of the bolt handle. There is a lot of grease on this, seems to be squeezing out from the stock as well so I wouldn't expect rust under there. Hate to take it apart as the screws are still staked. May replace the messed up screw at some point.

These are the before cleaning photos. I don't plan to do much to it other than get the rust off and wipe the stock down. Looks like original finish on the stock.

















Will probably work on cleaning the grease and rust off tomorrow and if I get it done I'll post after photos.

Information

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[Aragorn243]

I spent about 4 hours on this today cleaning it up. Scraped off the hard rust with the flat of a screwdriver to break it loose and used a combination of a wire "toothbrush" and fine steel wool to clean up the metal after getting the grease off it with Rem-oil and a regular toothbrush. Took the bolt apart and clean it out along with the rest of the interior. No rust on the interior mechanism. Stuff definitely looked like cosmoline. Stock was sticky and dirty and I wiped it down with one cleaning of a BLO soaked paper towel and then dried it off. Came out pretty nice.

Bayonet did not come with this rifle sale, I picked it up a year or so ago and it's been waiting for a rifle ever since.























I can't tell what the series marking is for sure. Doesn't look like it matches anything but looks closest to either 21 or 35 of which neither was produced at Kokura Arsenal. Best possible match that I can tell is series 22. Confirmation or correction would be appreciated as well as whether it need the aircraft sights and mono-pod.

[Bill Hollinger]

That cleaned up really nice! Nice catch

[Detroit-1]

Looks like series 21. Kokura made series 20 to 25. It would have had a monopod, dust cover, aircraft sights and long cleaning rod.

[Aragorn243]

Thanks, I rechecked the listing and not sure why I thought 22 was the earliest Kokura. I'll keep my eyes open for the accessories. Doubt I'll find a monopod anytime soon.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Congratulations Aragorn. Yes, series 21, which means early production, with all the trimmings. And it has an urushi finish. Whatever else you do, preserve that finish. No funny stuff with stove cleaners in the bathtub, or any of the other dubious methods I have read for ruining wood surface and stability. In fact, just wiping over it with linseed oil was about the best you could do. A very good purchase for $90.


Patrick

[yoyo2123]

what auction did you get it from

[303Nut]

Have you shot it yet? I reload for mine and they are a great shoot rifle. You got a real good buy and did a great job of cleaning it up. I got my first T-99 at a flea market for $75 that was matching with the AA sights.

[Aragorn243]

I bought it at my local gun auction, they usually have one the first Saturday of the month. I've only ever bought two rifles from them in about 25 years because they tend to bid things up pretty high. Refurbished 91-30's have sold between $250-$300 on several occasions. Arisakas tend to go either real high or real low and it's hard to predict how any will sell. A matching 99 with struck mum sold for $425 last time they had any. This time they all sold low, none had a mum with the exception of a type 38 that had the mum but no bolt, a rusted out bore, many missing parts and a very bad stock which sold for $150. I figure they were paying for the mum. All the rest sold for less than $125 and mine was the nicest of the bunch.

They don't get a lot of milsurps, they probably make up about 5-10% of the sales. They have about 200 guns a month. I usually go for the accessories, bayonets, duck stamps, wildlife prints, odds and ends like that.

I have not shot it yet. I don't have any ammo for it yet. Am planning to head up to Cabela's soon to try to get some. Not positive they have it. They have a lot of privi partisan and I am hoping this is one of the calibers they have. I don't do a lot of shooting, just don't go to the range that often. My daughter and future son-in-law are trying to get me to go more often. I have half a dozen I need to take out and shoot including my ex-sniper 91-30 rebuild.

[yoyo2123]

i was up at the hamburg store last weekend and i remember seeing privi partisan and hornady 7.7 on the shelfs didn't notice the price though