Woo hoo! Finally got my "patience test" Arisaka!

[WhoKnowsWho]

No chrysanthemum was ever there to grind off either! Now I have my Type 99, Type 38, and the Italian Type I. Waited for 6 months or so for the price to drop to an agreeable level.

 

[Marnoot]

Very nice! Where did you buy yours from? I've been looking, but have yet to find a good source.

 

[Gordon]

Very clean rifle! I think some clean late 7.7 Arisaka's have just been imported from ?

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

Where did you buy yours from?

It was from a local shop. We have a magazine writer (Holt Bodinson) who does the Surplus Locker articles in Guns magazine, and this shop is where some of his stuff ends up. I have never seen another one locallly or at the shows. I have seen a few online, but usually for outrageous prices. West of the Pecos is the name, I also bought the other Arisakas from there, and the Type 38 was also on consignment from the same writer. For a copy of the article, go here

I have only seen a few Type Is online, I think they were around $400 though, this one was $225, when I originally saw it on the rack, it was around $350, so I waited and waited.

 

[TooTaxed]

If you need ammo, Midway has been selling Norma 6.5 and 7.7 Arisaka brass at a good price...about $15/box, as I remember...

The actions are very strong and both rifles are good shooters. I passed a 7.7 on to my son with a quantity of 168-gr home-cast bullets with brass reformed from .30-06 (don't use high pressure jacketed bullets with this brass!) and it's still his favorite knock-around deer rifle.

 

[TooTaxed]

A side note...bought my lovely 6.5 from a farmer in Northwest Georgia for $10...some time ago!

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

Midway has been selling Norma 6.5 and 7.7 Arisaka brass at a good price...about $15/box

Thanks, but I already bought 100 pieces of each from Grafs for about $25 each 100 pieces.

Though I wouldn't have minded a $10 rifle tip.

They are quite nice to shoot too, haven't benched them though.

 

[Jim K]

Hi, Whoknowswho,

I am confused. The pictured rifle is not an Arisaka, it is the Italian-made "Type I" (not "Type 1") rifle you mentioned. The action is that of the Italian Mannlicher-Carcano but with the Arisaka/Mauser type magazine. They were made in 1938-1939 and were reportedly used by the Japanese Navy.

Yours is a nice gun, much better than the one I have, which is pretty ratty. The Type I rifles never had the chrysanthemum mark; one source speculates that it was omitted because the rifles were not made in the Emperor's domain. A more plausible reason is that placing the mark on an already hardened receiver would have been impractical.

Three Italian factories made the 60,000 rifles, Beretta (15k) and the army arsenals at Gardone (30k) and Brescia (15k). They were part of an Axis industrial exchange program that mostly went nowhere.

Jim

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

The pictured rifle is not an Arisaka, it is the Italian-made "Type I" (not "Type 1

Close enough, I know it isn't Japanese made, but most articles still call it an Arisaka since it has the Arisaka magazine design and was made for Japanese use, I originally read about it in Guns Magazine (or http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_5_50/ai_114283920) or I would have had no clue about it at all. There really isn't that much other information about it other than what you have said.

But if you insist, I'll just call it a Type I, Italian/Carcano/Arisaka/Mauser thingamajig.

I guess Arisaka variation is the closest thing it is.

Didn't even notice I was typing 1 instead of I, I corrected that too.