My father was in Pacific Theater in WWII. I inherited his war prise, an Arisaka Type 99, manufactured in Toyo Kogyo Arsenal. It is a series 33, Serial number 33747. Do you have any idea of it’s. The arsenal mark on Japanese rifles is generally found to the right of the serial number. Many times there is a series number to the left of the serial number. The series numbers were assigned for blocks of rifles to be produced at the arsenals.

Type38 Carbine

At a gun show in September, 2005 aguy who knew I was into Japanese stuff offered me this Type 38 carbine for agood price. I had never seen one before, but loved it. It’s a really light,handy little package. The barrel length is just 480 mm, or 18.9”. The bolt hadbeen modified into a turned-down configuration, so I replaced the bolt withanother one from a junker Type 38 carbine I bought (see below) and found a dustcover for it.

Here is the right side with the dustcover. You can see it still has the original cleaning rod. The overallcondition is only so-so, but it does still have the original cleaning rod. Ihave read that their handy size and light recoil made these carbines popularcapture weapons among US troops. It sounded a lot different than a Garand,though, so they had to be careful not to be mistaken for the enemy.

The left side with the dust cover. Note thatthe sling swivels are mounted on the left side, not the bottom as with Type 38rifles.

Here’s the right side without the dust cover.

The left side without the dust cover.

All the Type 38 rifles and carbines I have seenhave this notch in the right side of the stock. I have no idea why.

The carbine sights are much shorter and “only”go to 2000 metres.

The mum has been ground off, as isusually the case, and only faint traces remain. Below are the characterssan-pachi-shiki,i.e. Type 38. This is a reference to Meiji 38 (1905), the year of its adoption.The two holes are a safety feature on all Arisakas: they vent gases upwards inthe event of a primer or case head rupture.

The serial number and arsenalmarking are on the left side of the receiver. The serial number of 196610 isfairly late, as the highest known for this arsenal is 211825. The “fourcannonballs” mark, which looks like a cloverleaf, indicates the Koishikawa Arsenal in Tokyo. Later the same symbol was used byKokura Arsenal, which has led to no end of confusion among North Americancollectors. The last two symbols on the right are inspection marks.

In the Honeycutt & Anthony book,p. 15,it says the triangle in a circleindicates 10% overload proof. The plain circle is listed as an indication ofacceptance according to a special wartime inspection standard.

Here is another of the triangles ina circle. The S is supposed to have the same meaning, i.e. 10% overload proof.

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This design on the back of thesafety is similar to the one on the bolt lock/striker spring guide on PapaNambus. As a purely decorative image it seems somewhat extravagant for a militaryrifle. This is the proper small-tang safety for this series of Type 38 carbine.Others used a larger tang or a notch.

The cleaning rod.

A close-up of the interesting end of thecleaning rod. The other end is just threaded.

The most obvious flaw in the gun isone I didn’t even notice until I got it home: this crack in the top of theforestock, which has been rather inexpertly repaired with what looks likeplastic wood.

As noted above, when I got this carbine it hadthe bolt turned down. This is it as I purchased it.

The left side as I got it.

With the bolt replaced with one ofthe original configuration, the only external sign of the former modificationis this notch in the stock to provide clearance for the old turned-down bolt.

Legend of zelda rom. Inside there is one other left-overmodification: the rear of the magazine follower has been rounded off so thatthe bolt does not lock back on it when the magazine is empty.

Arisaka Serial Numbers By Year Wikipedia

I have purchased three other junkerType 38 carbines as parts guns. This photo is to remind me of what I have; it won’tbe of much interest to others. The top gun has a homemade stock, the length ofwhich is better for me than the original. The middle gun has a T38 carbineaction but the stock was cut down from a T38 rifle and the butt plate is fromsomething else, as it has a trapdoor in it. The bottom one is just the metalparts with no stock. Parts are very hard to come by up here and getting harderto import from the USA,so no, I am not interested in selling any of the parts. Please don’t ask.

The serial number from the top carbine with thehome-made stock. It is another Koishikawa (Tokyo) example.

The middle carbine has the seriesmarker ni in a circle at the far left(ni looks like an equal sign), thenthe serial number, then the Nagoya Arsenal mark, which looks like a top-heavy 8in a circle. Ni indicates the fourthseries, as it is the fourth symbol in the Japanese katakana “alphabet”according to the traditional i-ro-hapoetic arrangement. These prefixes were used to keep serial numbers down tofive digits. This series of carbine was made at the Chigusa factory of NagoyaArsenal.

Though the middle carbine has littleelse to recommend it, it does still have an intact mum. Since riflessurrendered to the Americans at the end of the war usually had the mum groundoff, ones that still have it were usually either captured in battle before thewar ended or surrendered to the Chinese and imported after the war.

The bottom carbine action has theseries marker ro (second series), the serial number, and the Kokura arsenalmark formerly used by Tokyo(Koishikawa). The small marks at the far right are inspection marks.

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Arisaka Serial Number Lookup

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Arisaka Type 38 Serial Numbers By Year

Last updated: June 11, 2006. All contents arecopyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in anyform without prior permission.

Arisaka Serial Numbers

Hi guys!
'Tis the season, and the Christmas presents have begun to find their way into my collection! I will start with this little beauty here. Don't mind the cat hair.
My girlfriend bought this for me for Christmas. It's an entirely original and matching Japanese Type 38 Arisaka rifle. It was made by the Kokura Arsenal, I believe sometime in the late 30's. The rings stamped on top of the mum, as well as the extra character on the receiver and extra '0's and '1's that precede the serial number indicate that it