The Firearm thread: Engineering artistry of wood, polymer and steel.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Here's one of mine, an Arisaka Type 99 war trophy. The vet who brought it home did the varnish job and I've been very tempted to restore the original finish, however since these had almost no finish when new, I've just left it as is.

The sling is a reproduction as is the muzzle dust cover. This one is from 1943 most likely and saw very little service. It also was not issued with the bolt dust cover, although it has one added by the vet, nor did it ever have a cleaning rod. The Mum is intact so theoretically it's still the Emporer's property, and there are no import markings. The only real regrets I have are the original rubberized canvas sling went missing, and the vet's certificate is lost.

*spits out the water I was drinking*



Wow...

That's one of my bucket list guns...and it's so beautiful. WW1-WW2 era Bolt Action guns are just downright awesome. Though, I bet finding Arisaka ammo is a PITA.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

*spits out cereal*



Wow...

That's one of my bucket list guns...and it's so beautiful. WW1-WW2 era Bolt Action guns are just downright awesome.

That will set you back anywhere from $100~$900 bucks depending on condition and rarity.

[Cybermat47]

Wait, according to Stealhead Red spat out cereal, but according to Red he spat out water

[Stealhead]

That is a bit odd because I am sure that it said "spits out water" when I quoted it.

It shows no notation of any editing for his original post either. Maybe they do not do that anymore or there is a delay.



Maybe he was drinking water while also eating Rice Krispies and he spat water and Rice Krispies and milk came from his nose and right now he can hear snap.crackle,pop in his nose.

I puked Rice Krispies once and it was at school.They said "Acid coated puked up Rice Krispies clean up in the cafeteria be sure to bring the embarrassing puke absorbing kitty litter".
That was what I like to call a character building moment.Later when I had to puke while running in basic training I just let it fly who needs a war face when you can just barf?

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

That will set you back anywhere from $100~$900 bucks depending on condition and rarity.

The good ol' Mosin Nagant is first on my list...I'm thinking Christmas...

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Wait, according to Stealhead Red spat out cereal, but according to Red he spat out water

Ninja

Originally Posted by Stealhead

That is a bit odd because I am sure that it said "spits out water" when I quoted it.

It shows no notation of any editing for his original post either. Maybe they do not do that anymore or there is a delay.



Maybe he was drinking water while also eating Rice Krispies and he spat water and Rice Krispies and milk came from his nose and right now he can hear snap.crackle,pop in his nose.

Or maybe I just edited it really fast immediately after it was posted to add a sentence and change that one.

If you get to it fast enough, it doesn't say that it was edited.

Water just sounded better than cereal...

I puked Rice Krispies once and it was at school.They said "Acid coated puked up Rice Krispies clean up in the cafeteria be sure to bring the embarrassing puke absorbing kitty litter".

My baseball coach (also verified by his brother) had frosted flakes come out of his nose when he saw his sister run down the stairs flat into the wall when he was little.

He claimed to smell Frosted Flakes for the whole rest of the day.

Me, I did it with Pepsi once. Came out my nose...was easily one of the worst feelings ever. It burns really bad.

Okay...It was completely my fault. I was dumb enough to hang upside down on a playground bar and drink soda upside down.

Oh man...I learned real quick that it was a bad idea. After I fell 3 feet and sneezed soda everywhere with burning eyes...

[Stealhead]

Well that was an interesting segue.

Anyway here we have the old time version of a ruffian weapon.
A pepper box gun,dagger and brass knuckles all in one
Rice Krispies not included.

[Buddahaid]

That yours? Very close quarters crazyness.

[Buddahaid]

One more of mine and this is my favorite. A 1916 DWM P08 with a very rare totenkopf marking. This one has matching numbers save for the magazines and the toggle lock lever. I obtained a correct holster for it dated 1916 and also made in Berlin. Enjoy.











The tool with imperial marking.


Cont.

[Buddahaid]

And the pistol.












And some glam shots. I thought they were chalked but only the photo backdrop is.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Here's one of mine, an Arisaka Type 99 war trophy. The vet who brought it home did the varnish job and I've been very tempted to restore the original finish, however since these had almost no finish when new, I've just left it as is.

The sling is a reproduction as is the muzzle dust cover. This one is from 1943 most likely and saw very little service. It also was not issued with the bolt dust cover, although it has one added by the vet, nor did it ever have a cleaning rod. The Mum is intact so theoretically it's still the Emporer's property, and there are no import markings. The only real regrets I have are the original rubberized canvas sling went missing, and the vet's certificate is lost.

That is one beautiful rifle you have there. Looks like it's in excellent shape. I wonder if "never fired and only dropped once" applies here.

Originally Posted by Stealhead

It still has the Emperors mark those are not as common.

That is my understanding as well. The way i heard it, towards the end of the war the Japanese removed all the Emperor's marks on all weapons before turning them in. Which I think means that, as a war trophy, this particular rifle may have been retrieved from the field.

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

One more of mine and this is my favorite. A 1916 DWM P08 with a very rare totenkopf marking. This one has matching numbers save for the magazines and the toggle lock lever. I obtained a correct holster for it dated 1916 and also made in Berlin. Enjoy.

Also a beautiful piece, and an exquisite (scuse me while i wax flowery words) addition for any collector . Between this and the Type 99, don't be surprised if the History Channel calls wanting their guns back if they ever stop doing stupid reality shows.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

That is one beautiful rifle you have there. Looks like it's in excellent shape. I wonder if "never fired and only dropped once" applies here.

I was told it was taken on Okinawa from Japanese reinforcement landings but it's a third hand story. These guns can't be specifically dated but the experts that looked at it said likely late 1943 or early 1944. I have two bayonets for it but they are not well matched.

Originally Posted by Ducimus

That is my understanding as well. The way i heard it, towards the end of the war the Japanese removed all the Emperor's marks on all weapons before turning them in. Which I think means that, as a war trophy, this particular rifle may have been retrieved from the field.

The mums were ground off, or otherwise defaced on most surrender weapons, by the Japanese to mark them as no longer the Emperor's property and save face.

I had the luger evaluated by Krausewerks. They claimed the totenkopf doubled the guns value over it's conditional value. It's likely a rework mark from the 1930's and not a WW1 unit marking, or WW2 SS marking.
http://krausewerk.com/

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

That yours? Very close quarters crazyness.

Oh no I have no such weapon.I just looked up "pepperboxgun" and that was the coolest looking one.It looks to be from the 18th or early 19th century though.

Your Luger P08 though I read that Luge made the holsters to a very high degree of quality and they have (when new) a very good seal the idea being that in the field the pistol was well protected from dirt and grime.

About the Japanese mum I understand that McArthur at the end of the war ordered that the mums be removed so if you find a Japanese weapon with an intact one it usually means that it taken as a trophy prior to the end of the war or that it was not "officially" a trophy the latter is less likely as they had learned to be weary of this stuff by 1945.They started x-raying large mail items in 1943 because rifles and even machine guns where being mailed home though some stuff always slips through.

My dad told me that it was mostly the rear echelon guys that wanted trophies and the front line guys would collect them and sell or barter them what they usually did was after an ambush they would frisk all the dead bodies and remove the weapons and munitions then they would take the AK's and a small amount of explosives and destroy them now a regular unit they would take them I bet LRRPs sometimes used AK but they had rounds secretly produced in Korea.That is how it was in Vietnam anyway.Having read books like "With the Marines at Peleliu and Okinawa" by E.B. Sledge a Marine and other books their experience about trophy collection seems to match.

But I think it is true to some extent as my great aunt her husbands' brother was an infantry officer in WWII in Europe he only sent home one trophy an SS officers sword that was it and he sent it home and kept only because the previous owner was an SS officer and he wanted to always remember the shame on the guys face.He never got any of that though because he was KIA a few months later which is why my great uncle had it.

A little known secret about Vietnam is Prodigal Son a MAC/SOG program where they secreted into VC/NVA caches in Cambodia and placed faulty rounds for the AK,SKS and RPD all 7.62x39mm and also mortar shells they exploded in the weapons.So using a 100% field Type 56 in Vietnam was a bad idea from 1967 onwards.This is why using enemy weapons from 1967 onwards was highly discouraged all tough the real reason was a closely guarded secret only the ones who planted the Prodigal Son cache rounds knew the true reason.US troops on many occasions found AK(or the remains of) that had fired Prodigal Son rounds to them it seemed like a stroke of bad luck for the former owner which it was but not on the 1 in million chance that it seemed to have been in a Prodigal Son box it was much higher.It was well done not every round was bad because in that case you'd simply not use suspect stocks it was spaced out well to happen often enough to make an NVA solider not fully trust his weapon.It would seem to be the result of poor workmanship causing a lack of faith in your communist factory worker.

[Buddahaid]

Yeah I've heard the MacArthur order story but it's not confirmed. Here's the best web site for Japanese stuff, well one of them.
http://www.castle-thunder.com/index.htm
http://www.castle-thunder.com/rifles.htm

Here's some more about production numbers.
http://www.cruffler.com/trivia-September00.html

And the datsheet for my short rifle.
http://www.castle-thunder.com/datasheets/99ds2010e.pdf

[Stealhead]

That is true it seems more likely that the Japanese removed them themselves.

[Ducimus]

Speaking of the Luger P08,

Here's a 30 minute hickok45 closeup/shooting video on the same that he just posted today:



You don't have to be into guns to appreciate the hands on history there.