Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[gwsiii]

I picked up a pretty neat Type 44 carbine the other week. The condition and wear on the stock indicate heavy use in the China campaign. I've been cleaning on it a little at a time, and something about it has been bothering me. I realized the other night, its the bayonet release button. It is slotted, not knurled, and the wedge that attaches to it is crudely made. The rifle is a first variation Tokyo, serial number is O 10683. All numbers match except for bayonet housing and bolt. Bolt release spring is blue, so that, coupled with preceding 'O' in the serial number lead me to believe it is an early rework.

Here are pictures of the housing.







The main difference in this and an original locking mechanism is that an original wedge includes the post for the thumb button to screw on to. Once permanently attached and staked, the button is knurled. This one, as you can see, is quite simplified, and used a screw and crudely hand tooled wedge instead of an intricately machined wedge with post.








struck mum, (almost looks gouged out with a chisel) indicative of a post war souvenir, not a captured chinese import.


note fuller on left side almost completely smooth, and how far below receiver line (serial number area) stock is worn.

All in all, probably my worst conditioned Type 44, but quite interesting. If this one could only talk!
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Bushido101]

That is a neat T44, unusual repair, I have a T44 that has a lot of stock wear also, the left finger groove on mine is almost worn flat, also on the area just below the serial number and the number is worn a little also, these old rifles saw a lot of use and have a lot of history, also mine has been handled so much the mum even looks a little worn all in all very interesting rifles.

[gwsiii]

I expect that the weakness of the mum, numbers, and markings may be a result of the hard use in the elements coupled with quasi-reworks somewhere close by that involved buffing, rebluing only, and half-assed replacement of broken/missing parts. There is just too much blue left on these for the metal to be so worn without more affecting the finish. These rifles saw hard use! The stocks are worn from true Cavalry use, with rifle slung over the shoulder and the stock rubbing against various pieces of field equipment and the soldiers back. While I like my fine condition 1st variations, they probably sat in a warehouse throughout the war, whereas this little jewel was right in the thick of things for 30 years, 'defending the Empire from outside aggression and conquest' (for lack of a better, more politically correct term) and I think that adds a lot of character. I don't think you find many other military weapons from anywhere but Asia that saw this much use. Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Bushido101]

I really do not like beat up rifles, you might say I like them when they have that well used look, I think the stock on mine with the wear along the left side of the stock really looks good, by the way the stock on mine is worn in just about the same places as yours and worn about the same ammount

[gwsiii]

If you haven't, please fill out a Type 44 datasheet on yours and send it to Frank Allan, he is currently working on a book on the 6.5 family. Are ours very close in serial numbers? Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Bushido101]

Mine is a five digit number with three zero's before the number, I can't get over it the wear pattern on the left side of the stock is almost exactly the same as mine.

[Bushido101]

My dad picked this one up at Iwo Jima

[gwsiii]

That is a great piece of history! Thanks for sharing it. Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[arisakadogs]

Seems I've heard of a fair number of T-44s being picked up on Iwo Jima. I don't have my books handy, but I seem to recall that some cavalry troops were there.

[gwsiii]

I don't have any books on the makeup of the fighting forces on the various islands. The wear would indicate that the rifle would have been from a unit involved in the china campaign. Or at least that's where the weapon had started out. Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Bushido101]

I've seen at least three T44's that came from Iwo Jima, wonder if they were reissue to japanese troops or what ?

[arisakadogs]

I'll have to dig for my Iwo books. I believe there were some seasoned cav. troops that went to Iwo from China. This would explain the worn stocks.