Arisaka

There’s just a certain mystique (at least for us) around World War II service rifles.  While we normally deal with U.S. weapons from World War II, we do sometimes come across rifles from the other countries.  This Arisaka Type 99 (Type 2 Paratrooper Rifle) comes to us as a consignment sale and it has an interesting story to tell.  This one was manufactured at the Tokyo Juki Kogyo Arsenal and was in Series 37.  That particular series was only 59,000 rifles, so our serial number of 55694 places it late in the series.

By the stage of the war when this rifle was manufactured, Japan was starting to run short on resources (metal, wood, etc.).  You’ll see some of that in the particular features of this rifle.  The buttplate is wood, not metal.  The buttstock is a two piece, dovetailed type.  They did this because they couldn’t source enough large trees to make one piece buttstocks.  The front sight does not have the protective side “wings” from the early model.  The cleaning rod that stored underneath the barrel was eliminated by this time.  Again, that was to save metal.  Later versions of the rifle might have a 3 piece buttstock and only a rear peep sight (no ladder type sight).

This rifle does have a 5 shot internal box magazine.  A hinged floorplate is located underneath the receiver.  The bolt is one-piece construction with a straight bolt handle and the knob style safety on the rear of the bolt.  The rear sight is a peep style ladder sight while the front sight is fixed.  Ladder elevation adjustment on the rear sight moves as it should.  Sling swivels are side mounted.

The wood on this rifle is what we’d expect to see from a military surplus rifle.  It shows signs of use and it’s been dinged up a bit but it’s in good shape overall.  The bore looks to be in good condition.  The metal retains a surprising amount of its original finish and we don’t see any areas of concern.  The bolt is somewhat stiff but a good cleaning and lubricant should smooth that out.  We lightly applied some oil and noticed an immediate improvement.  The mum has been removed from the receiver, as shown in the photo.  This is common on rifles that were surrendered after the end of the war.

Overall, this is a very nice example of a late war Arisaka Type 99 rifle.  If you’re looking to add a Japanese battle rifle to your military surplus collection, this would be a nice looking one to fill that spot.

Purchase is for the rifle only.  No other items or accessories are included.

This is a consignment sale and, like all of our consignments, we have not test fired this rifle.  We have performed our normal function checks and find no issues beyond what is noted above.  We did not engage the “knob” type safety.  As with all pre-owned firearm purchases, please review the photos carefully so that you are fully comfortable with the condition of the rifle.