Finely Got it Arisaka Type 99 carbine

[usabaker]

After a long wait, my friend finally sold me his Arisaka Type 99 carbine. It needs a good cleaning, and I have to fix something that's going on in the bolt release, looks like he may have tried to mess with it, and not the spring is "not springy," and it looks like he didn't use the right screwdriver to remove it so I will have to deal with that as well. But the rifle is complete less the dust cover, cleaning rod, and bi-pod.

[J-ROD]

Nice looking rifle, it’s a series 23, Kokura arsenal. This rifles clean up well with brass wool and a decent oil to remove any rust. Clean the stock with hot soapy water…anything else will decrease the value and collectability.

[browningautorifle]

Nice little piece Bill, good catch.

[Singer B]

And it comes with an intact Mum! Congrats!

[Low & Slow]

Nice one! Sometimes, patience will pay off handsomely.

[usabaker]

I was just corrected that this is not a Carbine, it's a Short Rifle SO I guess I will need to keep that in mind. Its sort of like using the proper pro-noun I guess;

carbine
noun
car·?bine ?kär-?b?n -?b?n
Synonyms of carbine
1
: a short-barreled lightweight firearm originally used by cavalry
2
: a light short-barreled repeating rifle that is used as a supplementary military arm or for hunting in dense brush

[usabaker]

I've been looking around for a replacement cleaning rod. 72 USMC had told me how to identify a reproduction from a real one a while back. But what I've been trying to determine is the length of the cleaning rod I should be looking for. .... Something interesting, from the prices I have been seeing, is that an original cleaning rod will cost almost as much as I paid for the rifle!

[jangle]

Congratulations on your pick up. Don't sweat the bolt release. It probably has dried grease caked inside and would be sticky.
Your rear sight was not made by the Kokura Arsenal (the AA wings for sure). They are either Nagoya or Toyo-Kogyo production. Would have to see the proofs on the top rear of sight to tell.

[usabaker]

Don't sweat the bolt release. It probably has dried grease caked inside and would be sticky.
Your rear sight was not made by the Kokura Arsenal (the AA wings for sure). They are either Nagoya or Toyo-Kogyo production. Would have to see the proofs on the top rear of sight to tell.

Jangle, it's pretty obvious the bolt release was messed up, it just kind of flops around, But for other reasons as well, back a few months ago I went with my friend to look at this rifle and it was not like this and you can see from the Ejector Screw he tried to remove it and messed it up. But its an easy fix and I'll get to it when I take the rifle down for a thorough cleaning.\

Took a picture of the markings on the top read of the sight. But, it makes me curious; I know where this rifle came from and its history. So I'm pretty sure that nothing has been changed on it since it came to the US in the 40's. Is there a reason why a Nagoya or Toyo-Kogyo production sight would be on this rifle?

[jangle]

One thing about collecting Japanese firearms is, one should never say never, but I have never seen a rear sight on a Kokura manufactured rifle, that wasn't made by Kokura, and visa versa with the other manufacturers as well.
I took a few very quick photos of Kokura, Nagoya and Toyo-Kogyo rear sights, front and back. The most obvious difference is in the font of the numbers. Kokura font has rounded 3's on the AA wings and slightly larger numbers on the ladder. Nagoya and TK font has flat top 3's on the AA wings, with slightly smaller numbers even between these two, on the ladder.
The photos show a Kokura rear sight listed by itself, and the double rear sight photos show TK on the left and Nagoya on the right in both photos.