Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[black670]

I just recently acquired a type 38 carbine, it is all matching with the dustcover the only thing not matching, and cleaning rod which is in the white. The mum is completely intact, and the receiver shows it to be a 2nd series by the Nagoya arsenal, #57933. under the receiver there is a production number of #211 which is stamped on the bolt release, extractor, both upper and lower tang and the trigger guard. The floor plate, bolt and safety knob of course have the #933 stamped on them. This carbine is the nicest I have ever seen, the wood has the Nagoya stamp about mid way up the buttstock. The blue is about 98%, except for the pieces which are still in the white. The upper handguard and lower stock are also stamped with the #211. The wood appears to have never been touched other then come minor handling dings, the bore is like brand new, and the real kicker is that the weapon was still covered in cosmoline, after taking it apart and examining it, the bluing underneath is 100 percent, with not one iota of pitting anywhere. It would appear that this weapon was stored and if it was even used, would appear to have been very little. If anyone has any feedback on this please let me know, I will post lots of good close up photo's of it.....

[gwsiii]

Welcome to the forum, sounds like a fine rifle. Just an observation, Kokura (4 stacked cannonballs) produced the 2nd series carbines, and Nagoya (2 circles atop each other inside a larger circle) produced series' 4,5,6. Koishikawa (Tokyo, same mark as Kokura) produced 38 carbines without a series mark. 38 carbines in good or better condition are getting harder and harder to find, matching ones are even harder. A word of caution: If there is no wear on the receiver, and the dust cover does not match, I would remove it before it scuffs up the blue on the top of the receiver, just my 2% of that dollar though. Thanks for posting. Look forward to the pictures! Trey Stancil
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!

[black670]

Thanks I will do that, also any idea what the value is on something this clean? Also there is that weird cartouche type mark under the buttstock, is that true for this being an acceptance stamp of some sort? Thanks again and I will get the pics soon...

[gwsiii]

Hard to say what the stamp would be if its not a normal final inspection/acceptance stamp. I have an early Tokyo 38 carbine that has 7 inspection marks down the bottom of the stock. See Frank Allan's 38 datasheet here for a little more information. He has most of the inspection marks on the 'small stamp' section. You'll need adobe acrobat or foxit reader to open the .pdf files. I'd say a matching mummed 38 carbine would run an easy $350 complete, most likely a bit more. If it is a Kokura 2nd series, add another little bit for rarity. Trey
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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!

[black670]

Thanks..... I will keep checking in, and will get pics posted soon.....