While this feature was deleted in the late-war “economy” models, it truly was ahead of its time. There were many Japanese soldiers that fought their entire service with a dust cover attached to their rifle. But do what you like! The bolt disassembles easily. Finally, the Type 99 was one of the first rifles ever produced with a chrome-lined bore. Both rifles have the same rifling (metford pattern) and are in 7.7 Japanese, though the early rifle enjoyed the excess (for that timeframe) of a chrome-lined bore. These figures were provided by Don Voigt, author of the excellent book The Japanese Type 99 Arisaka Japanese rifle production serials are set in blocks of 100,000 with numbers from 0 to 99,999 before the count starts over again. Image source: Type 99 production ended with the cessation of hostilities in 1945, when its service life for all intents and purposes ended as well. Its definitely an early war rifle, i just would love to know what year it was made if possible. Well I did a bit more research and discovered that there was indeed a Type 99 0 series model issued. I love the comparison but have to take issue with the condemnation of the aircraft sight wings. The entire bolt assembly had to be simplified vs.
