Well, I went for one and ended up with a second following me home!
I did some horse trading today for a nicer looking Arisaka Type99 and end up picking up a last ditch Type99 with 180rnds of what appears to be original Japanese ammo (?) to boot. Arisaka's aren't exactly my "thing", but they're one of the last holes I need to fill in my WW2 collection (still need a K98).
The nicer of the two rifles was clearly built at a time where raping, pillaging and world conquest was going relatively easy. It's a 5th series Nagoya and the machining, finish on the metal and wood isn't bad at all. The mum was ground off on this one and the numbers aren't matching, but I'm not letting that distract me from the nice rifle it is. While I know that the mum enhances value, I'm not opposed to it being defaced as it's another historical aspect about the weapon. It's missing the monopod, but still has the AA sights - I'll probably slap a repro monopod on it to complete it.
The last ditch rifle is a 40th series Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda) with an in tact mum and all matching numbers. The machining and finish is night and day between this and the other rifle. No rust, just quickly/shodily put together. The sights are different and unprotected, it has the wood buttplate and lacks a front handguard but it'll have done the job I'm sure. I'm guessing it wasn't a "last, last ditch" rifle since the bolt knob was milled in the distinctive Arisaka shape.
The ammo is in 30rnd boxes - I was initially concerned it was the semi-rimmed MG ammo, but it's not and is loose ammo. No headstamps of any sort and the boxes are devoid of markings other than where someone wrote "7.7 Jap" on it. I really don't intend to shoot these much given how scarce and expensive ammo is, so this will likely last a little while for me.
For what I have into these, I'm absolutely thrilled with what I picked up.
I did some horse trading today for a nicer looking Arisaka Type99 and end up picking up a last ditch Type99 with 180rnds of what appears to be original Japanese ammo (?) to boot. Arisaka's aren't exactly my "thing", but they're one of the last holes I need to fill in my WW2 collection (still need a K98).
The nicer of the two rifles was clearly built at a time where raping, pillaging and world conquest was going relatively easy. It's a 5th series Nagoya and the machining, finish on the metal and wood isn't bad at all. The mum was ground off on this one and the numbers aren't matching, but I'm not letting that distract me from the nice rifle it is. While I know that the mum enhances value, I'm not opposed to it being defaced as it's another historical aspect about the weapon. It's missing the monopod, but still has the AA sights - I'll probably slap a repro monopod on it to complete it.
The last ditch rifle is a 40th series Toyo Kogyo (now Mazda) with an in tact mum and all matching numbers. The machining and finish is night and day between this and the other rifle. No rust, just quickly/shodily put together. The sights are different and unprotected, it has the wood buttplate and lacks a front handguard but it'll have done the job I'm sure. I'm guessing it wasn't a "last, last ditch" rifle since the bolt knob was milled in the distinctive Arisaka shape.
The ammo is in 30rnd boxes - I was initially concerned it was the semi-rimmed MG ammo, but it's not and is loose ammo. No headstamps of any sort and the boxes are devoid of markings other than where someone wrote "7.7 Jap" on it. I really don't intend to shoot these much given how scarce and expensive ammo is, so this will likely last a little while for me.
For what I have into these, I'm absolutely thrilled with what I picked up.