Really abused Type 99

[Aragorn243]

No photos for a couple of days, just got it today and have a funeral to attend tomorrow.

I have almost nothing invested in it, $25.

No time to really give information out on it other than it is a Kokura, probably series 20. The stock is chopped and further broken near the front. Bolt is bent, sadly matching. Bore is chrome and beautiful. Converted to 30-06, fair amount of pitting on exterior. Missing the slide on the rear sight. It is however functional as is.

My two options I guess are restoring it to look correct or use it for parts. Leaning towards restoring it as usual.

Information

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[Aragorn243]

Got back earlier than expected.

Note the missing chunk of stock on top of forestock.
.
"Nice" Bubba carving on this side.

Pitting looks a lot worse in the photo, will probably polish out without too much effort.

Ground mum, bent bolt, missing slide and anti-aircraft wings.

30-06 marking, sorry series number isn't clear. I can never decipher these but best fit looks like 20.

Appears that some polishing was done for the 30-06 rounds to cycle. Rear of lifter also ground so bolt cycles on empty.

So it needs a new stock to start, new bolt body, barrel bands, rear sight parts and bayonet lug. I took the sling off it because it made it look 10 times worse.

[cipherk98]

When you get the bands make sure you get them with the screws, no one seems to be selling just the screws right now and I'm not fond of the repros I got from Numrich (namely they don't fit right). Also get the end cap with the front lug, as they are a right fit and I found out the hard way there is enough variation that getting a mismatched end cap/band together is really tough. A guy on eBay typically sells stocks complete with hardware but they always bring way too much money imo, you could easily get a parts rifle for the cost some of those are going for right now.

Someone else can chime in but I wonder if that was converted to .30-06 over here or if it was done by a foreign military before making it's way to the US. I have a neighbor who swore Type 99s were originally .30-06 ... I didn't say anything but initially didn't believe him until I read more later and confirmed such guns exist. I can't recall what the stamp looked like though, leaning towards saying that wasn't it. Wonder how they shoot since they originally used a .311, have you slugged the bore to see where it's at?

[Aragorn243]

I haven't really done anything to it yet other than swab out the bore. Just haven't had the time. I've known about this rifle for a couple of months so I was able to research it a little. The 30-06 conversion does not appear to be military but civilian here although for the life of me I don't know why someone would bother with a stock in such bad shape. This assumption is based on seeing the military marks somewhere in the earlier research. These don't match. Previous owner did apparently hunt with it as he had the ammo and half the cartridges were fired. He passed away however so can't ask him any questions.

[Eaglelord17]

A fair bit of them were converted simply because 7.7 Japanese was never a common round in the USA.

Having done a restoration on a Arisaka I honestly wouldn't bother with this example. The caliber has been converted, and the mum has been ground. I would save the parts (as there is only so many originals out there) for a better example in the original caliber with the mum. If you want to do it for fun go ahead, however I would just leave it be at this point in time.

[Aragorn243]

I don't need it for my collection, and I realize it won't be worth much in the end which is why I want to keep costs down. Just seems a shame to let a functional rifle go.

[Doco overboard]

Hard to get a 30/06 chamber reamer to follow the 7.7 chamber by hand, look at the brass carefully to tell if it has not ballooned at the head. It may not though. Feeding rails may also give you trouble also if they were adjusted out to eagerly. Theirs some good gunsmiths in the woods of Pa. though. And if that fellow carried it after first day of buck morning, you may be surprised! Bore diameter is a little harder to tackle but you never know. Have fun.

[Aragorn243]

The cases I was able to check. They looked fine. She told me her husband had three guns and ammo for each of them. She didn't know exactly where the other two were. I was curious to see if the others might also be military so I asked to see the ammo. The other two were handgun rounds and not military. I saw no bulges, no cracks, no excessive expansion. She was hoping I'd buy the rifle and I was looking for every excuse not too. I figure if worse comes to worse I'll have a back-up 30-06.

[cipherk98]

Well the gun wasn't tapped for scope mounts which is a plus so with the right parts you can get it reasonably correct. If it is safe to shoot and usable I'd say fix it. It would be kind of nice to have one you could shoot cheaply/easily with .30-06 brass as I think difficulty finding 7.7 (complete ammo or brass) means Type 99s aren't nearly as common out on the range as their contemporaries and you can probably get it together for a couple hundred bucks, and I've heard mixed opinions on reforming .30-06 for 7.7, plus it's extra time and extra step. I'm not advocating seeking out .30-06 Type 99 rifles to rebuild but in your case the price was right.

Also in checking my one source it said Series 30s did not have AA wings on it so if true one less (expensive) part to track down.

[Sentryduty]

If it feeds, cycles, and goes bang I don't think you did badly at all.

Low buck projects are fun, and if you find a full length beater stock you have a place to put it.