Type
38 Carbine
At a gun show in September, 2005 a
guy who knew I was into Japanese stuff offered me this Type 38 carbine for a
good 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 had
been modified into a turned-down configuration, so I replaced the bolt with
another one from a junker Type 38 carbine I bought (see below) and found a dust
cover for it.
Here is the right side with the dust
cover. You can see it still has the original cleaning rod. The overall
condition is only so-so, but it does still have the original cleaning rod. I
have read that their handy size and light recoil made these carbines popular
capture 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 that
the sling swivels are mounted on the left side, not the bottom as with Type 38
rifles.
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 seen
have 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 is
usually the case, and only faint traces remain. Below are the characters san-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 in
the event of a primer or case head rupture.
The serial number and arsenal
marking are on the left side of the receiver. The serial number of 196610 is
fairly late, as the highest known for this arsenal is 211825. The “four
cannonballs” mark, which looks like a cloverleaf, indicates the Koishikawa Arsenal in
In the Honeycutt & Anthony book,
p. 15, it says the triangle in a circle
indicates 10% overload proof. The plain circle is listed as an indication of
acceptance according to a special wartime inspection standard.
Here is another of the triangles in
a circle. The S is supposed to have the same meaning, i.e. 10% overload proof.
This design on the back of the
safety is similar to the one on the bolt lock/striker spring guide on Papa
Nambus. As a purely decorative image it seems somewhat extravagant for a military
rifle. 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 the
cleaning rod. The other end is just threaded.
The most obvious flaw in the gun is
one I didn’t even notice until I got it home: this crack in the top of the
forestock, which has been rather inexpertly repaired with what looks like
plastic wood.
As noted above, when I got this carbine it had
the bolt turned down. This is it as I purchased it.
The left side as I got it.
With the bolt replaced with one of
the original configuration, the only external sign of the former modification
is this notch in the stock to provide clearance for the old turned-down bolt.
Inside there is one other left-over
modification: the rear of the magazine follower has been rounded off so that
the bolt does not lock back on it when the magazine is empty.
I have purchased three other junker
Type 38 carbines as parts guns. This photo is to remind me of what I have; it won’t
be of much interest to others. The top gun has a homemade stock, the length of
which is better for me than the original. The middle gun has a T38 carbine
action but the stock was cut down from a T38 rifle and the butt plate is from
something else, as it has a trapdoor in it. The bottom one is just the metal
parts with no stock. Parts are very hard to come by up here and getting harder
to import from the
The serial number from the top carbine with the
home-made stock. It is another Koishikawa (
The middle carbine has the series
marker ni in a circle at the far left
(ni looks like an equal sign), then
the serial number, then the Nagoya Arsenal mark, which looks like a top-heavy 8
in a circle. Ni indicates the fourth
series, as it is the fourth symbol in the Japanese katakana “alphabet”
according to the traditional i-ro-ha
poetic arrangement. These prefixes were used to keep serial numbers down to
five digits. This series of carbine was made at the Chigusa factory of Nagoya
Arsenal.
Though the middle carbine has little
else to recommend it, it does still have an intact mum. Since rifles
surrendered to the Americans at the end of the war usually had the mum ground
off, ones that still have it were usually either captured in battle before the
war ended or surrendered to the Chinese and imported after the war.
The bottom carbine action has the
series marker ro (second series), the serial number, and the Kokura arsenal
mark formerly used by
Click here to go back to the Arisaka Rifle Page: Nambu
World: Arisaka and Other Japanese Rifles
Click here to go back to the Other Militaria
Page: Nambu
World: Other Japanese Militaria
Click here to go back to the main page: Nambu World Home
Page
Last updated: June 11, 2006. All contents are
copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and may not be used elsewhere in any
form without prior permission.