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japanese type 38 question

2K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  45Auto 
#1 ·
I'm trying to update the guns in the safe. My son is really getting in to shooting, and I could use a couple more modern guns for him to learn to shoot with. I'm looking to get rid of some old pieces that have been handed down to me. Every type 38 I see for sale, it is always mentioned if the emperors symbol has been ground off or not. Mine appears to have never had one as it is marked something else.



It appears to have an original sling with it as well.


Can anybody tell me more about it, and what it's worth?
 
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#4 ·
Generally a type 99 will have one vent hole while a type 30 and 38 will have two. Luckily yours still has the dust cover but if you remove the cover you will find numbers and symbols on either side of the receiver. It will also notate whether or not the caliber has been changed; some were changed to US 30-06 after the war while others were converted to 7.92 by the Chinese during the Korean Conflict.
 
#5 ·
It's the chrysanthemum crest that was ground off of some wartime Japanease rifles :)
Nope. Best info I have received(on another site) so far is that the markings say that it is a training gun sent to a school, not used during warfare, so it would not have the emperors symbol on it, so there was no need to grind it off.

I pulled the bolt out and dust cover off, and there are no other markings or numbers on it that I could find, which going along with it being a training model would not be unheard of.

Anybody able to confirm or disprove this info?:confused:
 
#6 ·
It looks like a training rifle to me. There was alot of variation in training rifles from maker to maker. To confirm that it's a training rifle, look down the bore. Trainers were not rifled and were intended to shoot blanks. That being said, a few trainers were re-manufactured at the end of the war for use as last ditch weapons (these are not safe to fire!)

Best regars,
Greg
 
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