Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[ROBERT H.]

HI
A friend of mine has a snider rifle that has Japanese marking s on the barrel and on the tang??
I did not know that the Japanese used them
Any history known about it?
Best Regards
Bob

[gwsiii]

I don't have a lot. I think they were used in the Satsuma Rebellion and Boshin Civil War. I don't have a lot of info on them, but some of the folks that wander through here do. Hopefully they'll post some. Got any pictures? Thanks for posting! Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[ROBERT H.]

Hi
I tried to save the two pictures he sent me but for some reason I can not,
If I can later I will send them
Best regards
bob

[gwsiii]

You can email them to me if you want and I'll post them. Email address is below.
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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!

[ROBERT H.]

HI
Here are the pictures of the Japanese snider rifle They are all that I have to post
Best regards
Bob

[Francis C. Allan]

Dear Robert H;

These short rifles were the standard weapons of the Imperial Japanese Army and other Japanese military forces from the late 1870s through the introduction of the Murata Type 13 rifle in 1880 and probably served well into the 1890s and somewhat longer as training weapons. The Japanese purchased Snider conversions that had already been made to Enfield percussion rifles and converted many of their Enfields to the Snider cartridge system at the Tokyo Arsenal. I believe your rifle is of the later category as there are some Tokyo Arsenal inspection marks on the action. In IJA service their nomenclature was "Enfield Snider Rifles". The Japanese even issued a Japanese-language manual for them.

Additional details can be found in Japanese Imported Arms Of The Early Meiji Era, which I co-wrote.

These Japanese versions are very hard to find and are very desirable.
Congrats on a nice find.

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

(386) 445-4225

[gwsiii]

Thanks Frank, I added a link to the book, Japanese Imported Arms Of The Early Meiji Era...
_________________
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!