Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[gwsiii]

I like late Koishikawa 38s and 20th series Kokura guns. This one is a bit odd. It is a Kokura 20th series rifle, general consensus is the 20th series was tool up for full Kokura production, with some passing inspection for army use (full mum, no bun or SEI, or circles/zeros preceeding serial number) and some not. Most do not match. This one has the SEI (youth) mark that is not normally seen on Kokura 20th series rifles in my limited experience. I have seen it more on 2 million range Nagoya 38s. It has two circles preceeding the series mark. Of interest are the patterns the grind marks made, and and that the bolt was closed while it was being ground and the dust cover received a 'bang' from the grinder. Bolt/DC match receiver, extractor matches bolt release (assembly#) pin and knob do not match either. At one angle it appears the mum was overstruck with possibly the Kokura Arsenal mark.

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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[Francis C. Allan]

Great find. These are indeed one of the more interesting series.

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

(386) 445-4225

[seinen]

This example is a winner. Not many of these 20th Series school and reserve use Type 38s around.

C/