Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[Francis C. Allan]

The second of four rifles that I can not ID from the 1929 booklet displaying the reference collection of the Tokyo Arsenal is the following. Can anyone ID this one? It is not a Portuguese Guedes-Castro as several people had thought, as that is on another page.

This page appears in the "Imported Weapons" section rather than the "Captured Weapons" section.

Page 68:
マルチ二ー類似銃
ma-ru-chi-ni-i RUI-JI-JŪ
“Martini Resembled Rifle”

Notes:
1) I have not been able to identify this rifle. It is apparently a lever-action single shot rifle. The text says that it is basically a Martini mechanism copy with some minor differences such as the firing position indi-cator.
2) The country of origin is not known, as a notation within the text point out that the origin is “a certain country” - 某國 – BŌ-KOKU. It appears that another country manufactured this Martini-type rifle, but the ar-senal workers were not able to identify the country. The text says the barrel has a serial number 6451 and comments that therefore it may not be a prototype or test gun, but must have been manufactured in quantity and actually used by “a certain country”.


_________________
Francis C. Allan
20Courtney Place
Palm Coast, FL 32137

(386) 445-4225

[DEFUC]

looks a lot like the guedes minus the tringle cocked piece...maybe a wessley improved internal cock peabody?

[Francis C. Allan]

Dear DEFUC;

It does apper to look or function like a Guedes, but those rifles have either a brass or steel actions. The lack of a hammer/cocking piece is important I think.

Thanks for the suggestion on the Wessley Improved Internal Cock Peabody. I'll follow up on that lead and possibly check with a friend in the UK.

Thanks for the help!!!

Frank
_________________
Francis C. Allan
20Courtney Place
Palm Coast, FL 32137

(386) 445-4225