Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[3500]

I own a model 99 that I believe could be one of the earliest production guns from that model. Mum intact. matching serial numbers. no preceding letter serial # 787. Anyone know of an earlier one?

[DEFUC]

Several...including the host here has Serial # 5 ...and then theres all the 99 longs that predate the short rifles. 3 digit serials are pretty cool, but theres quite a few double digit and single digit guns known. not much changed in the "no series" ,as it progressed,The height of the front sight ears changed after a few thousand guns, and some of the early ,early stuff had strawed parts,otherwise they are the same gun .

[gwsiii]

3500 welcome to the forum, you've got a very early one, please take the time to fill out a Type 99 datasheet (see my signature) and send it in. I've got #5, 6 has been reported but I don't know that it is in early configuration, 4 in a transition (5th series) configuration has been reported I think. Post some pictures when you get a chance! Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[DEFUC]

I belive, 0 is reported in the 6th series..one of the book guys owns it i think,My memory is good but limitted, and selective,I can recall every tiny detail of the girl I was with the night prior to thanksgiving 1992,but have no clue where i sat my coffee cup 30 seconds ago. I think my only current 3 digit gun is a jinsen education T38,but I am really unsure,I cant remember half my stuff from day to day..however i remember Treys stuff fairly accurately ,very odd,Maybe he just has better stuff than me.................

[gwsiii]

I haven't seen any of my early stuff lately, could there be a connection?
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[DEFUC]

Wanna buy a couple cleaning rods,I belive they wil fit some of your guns perfectly,ILL show them to you the second day Im at your house this May..suspect they'll be a perfect fit for some of your guns missing rods and or D/C's (patina on the rods and numbers on the D/C's will match too,how conveinent is that? )...Dave

[gwsiii]

With friends like that.....I get this feeling of deja vu, have we had this discussion before?
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Kavan]

Just curious as to how the Host came across #5.

Would love to hear the story.


What series of the Type 99 seems to be hardest to come by?
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Remembering the battle of GUAM 1944 and the 3rd Marine Division

[DEFUC]

Whats the hardest to come buy,thats easy,standard series stuff...Mukden 45th series (the host has at least 2,out of maybe 15) ..followed by the Nagoya 12th series. Both are in that realm of "If you find one ,BUY IT, sell a kidney,hock the house ,pimp out the wife and kiddies..whatever just buy the darned thing..also in the excedingly rare are the Navy Special carbines ,the longs arent particularly uncommon,but one of the short barreled ones IS ..and the " Emergency Use only" guns, neither of those is a series gun,but they fit otherwise..and among the you should buy it t99s are any Jin 40th with a serial number under 10,000 and any nagoya 7th under a 1000 or over about 92000 ,tho they arent nearly as rare as the other stuff.....AARRRGGGHHH what am I saying, If you find any of that stuff you shouldnt think of buying it,run away and call me . I know what to do with that BAD,BAD stuff and ILL take care of it ............

[gwsiii]

Buy any pretty, matching, original condition rifle you can afford. Report it, Study it, keep it or trade up. Learn something the old fashioned way with rifle and book in hand.

Rarity can be regional...

For standard production guns (ie normal series production)...without differentiating for variations within series...The short run series' are first (less than 100,000 produced). This is a very unscientific list...
Probably 12th, 45th, I4th, H9th, I9th, 27th, 37th, N4th, 35th, 40th, 25th.

After that, probably 0, 20th, 30th followed by the rest.

Getting in to collecting variations is where some of us are, I'd much rather have a less rare series with super rare variation than a standard variation gun from a rarer series...ie... I'd rather have an early 27th on an H stock with staked screws than a standard transition Izawa 4th. But its all in what you like...
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Subscribe to BANZAI!
Fill out a Japanese Rifle Datasheet.
I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!