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In the fall of 1914 it became apparent that the minor fracas in Serbia was going to stretch a lot longer than anyone had expected, and governments began scrambling to secure weapons production. Japan was one source of small arms for the Entente powers, and Britain purchased about 150,000 Arisaka rifles and carbines from the Japanese in late 1914 and early 1915. These were used to equip Royal Navy crews and Army raining and reserve units, but by late 1915 Enfield production had caught up and the guns were no longer needed.
In the fall of 1915, the British sent most of their Arisakas (about 128,000) to Russia, which had also been purchasing large numbers from Japan. There they were again used to arm second-line units, including troops occupying the Grand Duchy of Finland. When Finland declared its independence in December 1917, most of the Russian soldiers went home and left their weapons in Finland. As a result, the Arisaka was the second most common type of rifle available at Finland’s independence, and was used by the Civil Guard until about 1927.
This particular Type 38 Carbine was made at the Tokyo Army Arsenal in 1910, then sold tot he British where it was given a set of unit marks on the stock. It was subsequently transferred to Russia, where a metal clip was added to prevent accidental magazine release. It stayed in Finland through the Finnish Civil War and afterwards, only being imported into the US recently by Postrock of Garden City Kansas.
V.G.Fyodorov was involved in securing Arisaka rifles for Russian Empire from Empire of Japan during WW1 and described that in В поисках оружия https://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/fedorov_vg/index.html
He claims that rifle pattern 1897 Arisaka system was roughly equal to 1891 rifle (Mosin rifle) with former having superior 2-column magazine and bolt featuring many fine details, which were problematic for servicing said fire-arm in field conditions and that this disadvantage was removed in rifle pattern 1905 Arisaka system. When comparing Russian and Japanese systems notice difference in bayonet: Russian is always ON, whilst Japanese is fixed whilst needed. Fyodorov also informs about disdain towards 6,5 mm bullet as lacking stopping power and explains that reason for that is that surgeons compared wounds from older jacket-less bullet used during Russo-Turkish War (1877..1878) which deformed easily.
V.G.Fyodorov report that they waiting over 2 months to get response w.r.t. rifles for Russian Empire, what he found later was that Empire of Japan did provided such rifles to Great Britain and France first. Nonetheless after some time 300000 examples of rifle pattern 1897 Arisaka system were secured, but with no more than 100 cartridge for each and including also old cartridge. Meanwhile Russian Empire instructed to not buy any rifles, unless it can come with 1000 cartridges, which was ignored.
After some time said rifles were delivered to units of Russian Empire. Some time later Fyodorov was dispatched to find reasons for Japanese rifles failing during combat near river Pilica. Members of certain unit though that Japanese intentionally provided faulty rifles, which lead to great losses, as Russians soldiers were unable to return fire. This was mind-boggling as these rifles were tested in Japan with Russian witnesses watching. Further investigation showed that due in hot situation soldiers were given rifles without any prior clearing or armourer’s oversight, therefore rifles which were full of anti-corrosion agent applied before they were sent from Japan and preventing reliable correct working. After proper cleaning was applied said rifles started to work as intended.
I really enjoyed this video. I like how you can follow the history of the firearm.
I have an Arasaka 99 that still has the Chrosanthemum on it. Unfortunately, it had the stock given the “duffle bag” cut and the front of the stock and the end cap is missing. Any ideas how I could get those parts?
You do amazing work. Keep it up.
Too bad Google won’t let me on. Never had this problem before.
Obscure fact #1: A number of British-owned Arisakas were sent to the Middle East where they were issued to (among others) Lawrence of Arabia’s native forces for fighting against the Ottomans.
Obscure fact #2: Enough of the Finnish Arisakas filtered out into civilian hands and were used for hunting that for a while there the main source of 6.5 Japanese ammo in the West was Norma of Sweden (who still make it), though Steinel and Bannerman (Graf) are also offering it now.
Obscure fact #3;
Any Arisaka in 6.5 x 50SR can be converted to 7.62 x 51 (.308 Winchester) by simply boring the barrel out and re-rifling it to .308, then running a .308/ 7.62 NATO chamber reamer into the chamber.
The 6.5mm bore and the 6.5 x 50SR chamber are just enough smaller than .308 Winchester spec that the process simply “cleans up” the barrel and chamber to exact .308 Winchester dimensions.
As for the bolt head, extractor, and ejector, the difference between the Arisaka and .308 case head diameters is .471in (Arisaka) vs .470in (.308) with identical rim thickness. this falls into the “not enough to matter” range.
And since the Type 38 Arisaka is one of the strongest Mauser-pattern actions, it is very unlikely that anyone could cause it to fail with either factory .308 loads or reasonable handloads.
clear ether
eon
I’ve seen one that was rechambered for 6.5 Swedish, which I can’t imagine was too difficult either
A bunch of these rifles also ended in Polish service, mostly via Russia, though through a few different pathways.
The first ones were trophies taken from Russians by Pilsudski’s Legionnaires in 1015, though the “leguns” tended to ditch these funny-calibre rifles, while keeping the substantial Arisaka bayonets which they somehow managed to get affixed to their Manlichers. Further stock came with the remnants of the Polish 5th Rifle Division (tactically under the Czechoslovak Corps) via the Far East. Finally quite a few were taken – and not returned – during the subsequent Bolshevik invasion of Poland.
They apparently ended up mostly with the Polish Custom Guard, who did not have to do a lot of shooting. What happened to them later, I do not know. An odd one is in a Polish museum, here and there:
https://muzeum.skarzysko.pl/encyklopedia/item/516-arisaka-type-38-kal-6-5-mm.html
…ooops, I first put the date of Legionnaires glory as 2015, then “corrected” it to 1015; the real one was somewhere between.