Trying to identify one of my Japanese Arisaka Rifles

[earlwb]

I was hoping that someone might know more about this rifle I have.
I assume it is of 6.5mm caliber, but I haven't done a chamber casting to be sure yet.
What is odd is there is no Mum symbol on the top of the receiver. It does have three characters on the receiver but the symbols don't match anything I have seen so far. The serial number on the side of the receiver is a low number with what appears to be a Koishikawa Arsenal or Kokura Arsenal suffix symbol. But there looks like a character for the number three after the suffix symbol. So it may be a different arsenal then. I haven't taken it apart to look for other markings though.

Thanks for looking.

Information

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[burb1989]

That is a type 30 hook safety arisaka and from the looks of it the rifle is in decent shape. They are harder to come by than your common type 38s and type 99s and it predates the type 38 as the main battle rifle of the Japanese for the pre- Russo Japanese war era. They are indeed a 6.5 caliber and it is from the Koshikawa arsenal as the production changed to Kokura sometime in the mid to late 30s, which is after this rifle design was taken out of service. Also it has what looks like a painted rack number on the stock which is definitely a cool feature. That mark after the arsenal stamp is just an inspector's mark for military acceptance. Great Find.

[earlwb]

Thanks for that information. I had not thought about a Type 30 when I was researching it. Not having a Mum on it confused me to some extent. So as I understand it, without the Mum means it was a export version for some other country. But as you noticed it is is pretty good condition and may not have been used much if any. It wound up being a rack queen so to speak. Since this one was in such nice condition I left it alone as is.

I had bought this rifle many years ago along with several other Japanese rifles. They were selling them for something like 5 for $125 plus shipping at the time. I converted one over to be a .22-250 Ackley Improved varmint gun with new barrel, bluing and stock as well as a scope. But I had not done anything with the others. The Type 30 just happened to be in the lot when I got it. The other rifles aren't in great shape, but at the time I was mostly interested in the actions more than anything. I had plans to make some sporter conversions with the actions. But I only did the one rifle conversion so far.

[gtodan]

Very nice example. Looking forward to some detailed pics. Perhaps using a different colored background would help bring out the best in your rifle. Thanks for sharing.

A link if you dont have it: Nambu World: Type 30 Arisaka Rifle

Thanks for that information. I had not thought about a Type 30 when I was researching it. Not having a Mum on it confused me to some extent. So as I understand it, without the Mum means it was a export version for some other country. But as you noticed it is is pretty good condition and may not have been used much if any. It wound up being a rack queen so to speak. Since this one was in such nice condition I left it alone as is.

I had bought this rifle many years ago along with several other Japanese rifles. They were selling them for something like 5 for $125 plus shipping at the time. I converted one over to be a .22-250 Ackley Improved varmint gun with new barrel, bluing and stock as well as a scope. But I had not done anything with the others. The Type 30 just happened to be in the lot when I got it. The other rifles aren't in great shape, but at the time I was mostly interested in the actions more than anything. I had plans to make some sporter conversions with the actions. But I only did the one rifle conversion so far.

[earlwb]

Thanks for the information. Yes I need to redo the pictures and get more details in the pics.

[Aragorn243]

That is a training rifle, most likely smoothbore. The markings translate roughly, for blanks only.

[earlwb]

Wow! You are correct. It is a Type 30 training rifle designed to fire blanks only.
Thanks for bringing that up. I had totally missed it earlier as I just wasn't looking for a training rifle. I glossed over the information instead.

[Aragorn243]

Not really designed to fire blanks. It originally was a Type 30 but many were converted to blanks only training rifles after they were declared obsolete. They removed the mums, bored out the rifling and stamped them with the three symbols seen on yours. I've been trying to restore one for about a year. Missing the stock.

[earlwb]

Thanks for the information. I do say that on my example, if they ground off the MUM symbol, then they did a really nice job of it as it looks like it was made from the start that way. I can be glad I didn't use it as a conversion rifle for something else. I think it is too nice to convert. I will leave it as is. heck it is probably worth more like it is than if I converted it.