Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

[gwsiii]

I recently saw one of these go for some big $$$ on one of the auctions, even with a broken/refinished stock. All I know about them, is they were produced in China apparently under Japanese supervision or at least with Japanese influence and had Type 45 markings on the receiver. They come in 2 versions, a version with Mauser features (front/rear sight/stock) and a version with Japanese features (front/rear sight/stock d/c grooves). The rightmost number is the serial number, and the left most series of numbers is a month/date. This one is September 1945 (45.9) serial number 1969, the one that previously sold is dated June 1945 (45.6) with a serial number of 796. The have the kanji on the receiver for 4 5 Type. They were not stamped with mums and are not dated based on the Japanese Calendar year or Showa reign, so apparently they were not intended to be issued to Japanese Army troops or designed and accepted by the Japanese per se. This one is in 6.5 Japanese caliber as far as I can tell, and oh yeah, the parts don't interchange. I've been trying to get an extractor for this one for years. If anyone has anything to add, please do. After more thought, I wonder if the Japanese even knew these were being produced given the low serial numbers, absence of the mum, and model/type designation not being along the lines of the Japanese norm. I don't see the powers that be, splitting the labor force to produce these weapons, when Hoten/Mukden was trying to gear up to supply the troops there. Maybe these were produced earlier, anyone know anything about Chinese dates? Trey


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