Post by stuka on May 12, 2015 4:00:59 GMT -5
What I have today is a rifle of little fame and little power. Overall it's rather insignificant but nevertheless a cool oddity in my opinion. During the Sino-Japanese war, the Japanese navy was in need of some more rifles so they petitioned Italy to make them some rifles. Italy obliged and began production of at least 60,000 rifles (It is believed that there may have been up 120,000 rifles but there is no actual documentation of that many being made). While they were made to spec and had compatibility with the Type 38(Cartridge, magazine, bayonet) the biggest difference was it's bolt being that it was a Carcano bolt. Unfortunately the following is hear say rather than undeniable proof. These rifles are not known to have seen any active use either due to the bolt being supposedly brittle, or the Japanese people didn't like that their arms were coming from another country. To expand on the second part you could relate it to national pride, imagine if Mexico made some Garands for America during WW2, the populace might not be to accepting which may have been what happened with the Type I rifle.
As I have said, it is very similar to the Type 38 but none of these rifles seem to have much wear. Many of the rifles were found in warehouses which makes one wonder why they weren't used. For those that do not know, towards the end of the war between the allies and Japan, their quality started going downhill(part of the reason behind the infamous"exploding" arisakas) so it makes me wonder why these weren't scrapped? Mine is missing the magazine and spring or what have you either due to putting it in a type 38 or for some other purpose but ultimately it's still all there. You might wonder why it wasn't being issued end war but I feel like that may have to do more with the fact that it was chambered in 6.5 JAP vs 7.7 JAP that was used in type 99's at the time. In the end, I hope to fire this rifle at some point in the near future but I doubt any significant information will be found about this rifle.
The following are pictures of my Type I and the first picture is me, I am a little over 6 foot for reference and the Type I is a similar in length to the Type 38 so as you can imagine, the 5'3" Japanese soldiers were trumped by their rifles for a while. One weird thing about my rifle is the red circle painted on it, not sure if it was made to signify that it was Japanese or something else as I haven't seen other rifles with it. Also, the Italians did the two-piece wood stock thing as well as you can see a split(The rifle is still fine I am sure) in the stock where the pieces meet.
imgur.com/cmZ9qoL,dlKNous,Dp442bs,kQ1ZpCI,W01hhu9,rRAR8QJ,Tjz0gts,hSdoIrp,GLIjnUC#0 You're going to have to copy the whole link as the hyperlink doesn't work right
Some links if you want to read a bit more, see a few more pictures
www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/type-i-carcano/
members.shaw.ca/nambuworld/typeipix.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_I_Rifle
As I have said, it is very similar to the Type 38 but none of these rifles seem to have much wear. Many of the rifles were found in warehouses which makes one wonder why they weren't used. For those that do not know, towards the end of the war between the allies and Japan, their quality started going downhill(part of the reason behind the infamous"exploding" arisakas) so it makes me wonder why these weren't scrapped? Mine is missing the magazine and spring or what have you either due to putting it in a type 38 or for some other purpose but ultimately it's still all there. You might wonder why it wasn't being issued end war but I feel like that may have to do more with the fact that it was chambered in 6.5 JAP vs 7.7 JAP that was used in type 99's at the time. In the end, I hope to fire this rifle at some point in the near future but I doubt any significant information will be found about this rifle.
The following are pictures of my Type I and the first picture is me, I am a little over 6 foot for reference and the Type I is a similar in length to the Type 38 so as you can imagine, the 5'3" Japanese soldiers were trumped by their rifles for a while. One weird thing about my rifle is the red circle painted on it, not sure if it was made to signify that it was Japanese or something else as I haven't seen other rifles with it. Also, the Italians did the two-piece wood stock thing as well as you can see a split(The rifle is still fine I am sure) in the stock where the pieces meet.
imgur.com/cmZ9qoL,dlKNous,Dp442bs,kQ1ZpCI,W01hhu9,rRAR8QJ,Tjz0gts,hSdoIrp,GLIjnUC#0 You're going to have to copy the whole link as the hyperlink doesn't work right
Some links if you want to read a bit more, see a few more pictures
www.forgottenweapons.com/rifles/type-i-carcano/
members.shaw.ca/nambuworld/typeipix.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_I_Rifle