boo586
Member
Got the 7.7 Jap this weekend from my dad's house and brought it back with me. I haven't had a chance to realy give a good cleaning yet, but my dad had cleaned it up some and had lubed the bolt and oiled the metal parts recently.
It is defenitely an early production 7.7 Jap. It has the mum intact, the anti-aircraft sights, cleaning rod, bayonet and sheath, leather sling and five original rounds on a stripper clip. The bore looks really good at first glance. The rifling runs the entire length of the barrel all the way to the chamber, no smooth reduced area near the chamber. I was told by a gunsmith to look at this area because the primers of the time were corrosive and this would be the area where the damage would be done if the bore was bad. But there was none!!
I also talked with my grandma this weekend (it was my grandfather that brought the gun back from WWII) and she told me that he did indeed farm on one of the islands during the war growing food for the troops. She told me that even though he wasn't in any big gun battleshe was in some and that they mostly worried about Japanese snipers. So it definitely sounds like the gun was a battlefield pickup and why the gun has an intact mum. My dad also told me that he remember dry firing the gun when he was a kid. He said that he and his brother had to clean some of the grease off of it just to handle it. My dad said that the grease was everywhere in the action just like the bayonet was still packed in grease. I am thinking that my grandfather cleaned the gun and packed it in cosmoline for the trip home. I am defenitely going to be shooting this gun, hopefully soon.
BY the way, I measured the bullets in the original rounds and my calipers read 0.308 to 0.310 on all of them.
I will try and figure out how to post pics soon and get some loaded up here for all to see.
Boo586
It is defenitely an early production 7.7 Jap. It has the mum intact, the anti-aircraft sights, cleaning rod, bayonet and sheath, leather sling and five original rounds on a stripper clip. The bore looks really good at first glance. The rifling runs the entire length of the barrel all the way to the chamber, no smooth reduced area near the chamber. I was told by a gunsmith to look at this area because the primers of the time were corrosive and this would be the area where the damage would be done if the bore was bad. But there was none!!
I also talked with my grandma this weekend (it was my grandfather that brought the gun back from WWII) and she told me that he did indeed farm on one of the islands during the war growing food for the troops. She told me that even though he wasn't in any big gun battleshe was in some and that they mostly worried about Japanese snipers. So it definitely sounds like the gun was a battlefield pickup and why the gun has an intact mum. My dad also told me that he remember dry firing the gun when he was a kid. He said that he and his brother had to clean some of the grease off of it just to handle it. My dad said that the grease was everywhere in the action just like the bayonet was still packed in grease. I am thinking that my grandfather cleaned the gun and packed it in cosmoline for the trip home. I am defenitely going to be shooting this gun, hopefully soon.
BY the way, I measured the bullets in the original rounds and my calipers read 0.308 to 0.310 on all of them.
I will try and figure out how to post pics soon and get some loaded up here for all to see.
Boo586
I'm full Japanese and I had an Uncle who was an interrogator for the M.I.S. for the American Army. And a cousin who was in the Japanese Army during the war!
