Olld rusty barreled action estate sale find

[Jeff L]

I picked this up at an estate sale today. The lady gave it to me since I knew what it was. Looks like Japanese WW2 with an X'd out mum. I have no clue what this is. Thanks for the help.

[psteinmayer]

Looks like an Arisaka Type 99 (possibly last ditch?) that spent some time lying in the ground. With the receiver right-side-up, the arsenal, series and serial marks should be on the left side of the receiver. With some work, you should be able to remove some of the crud and reveal the markings.

[Jeff L]

Thanks. I'll see what I can do. It's pretty well pitted though.

[Guamsst]

It IS a Type99 Square front sight block and single gas port. It is LATE, or Last Ditch due to the fixed peep sight.

[joem]

Cleaned up it could be made into paper weights.

[Allen]

It lived out it's life in the last ditch.

[psteinmayer]

That's what I was thinking also Guamsst...

Question is - where did it reside in the dirt? Was it dug up on Guadalcanal or Iwo Jima? Oh the stories it would tell if it could talk!

[Guamsst]

Somehow I doubt the mum was cancelled while it was in the dirt on Guadalcanal or Iwo. Also, late war shouldn't have been in Guadalcanal and probably is too late to have made it to Iwo. Okinawa would be the most likely place. I'd bet good money it got stripped and trashed years ago and was just never thrown away because they didn't see where it fell into the dirt in the barn/garage/shed....etc.

[Allen]

Yep, the mums got ground off after the war or when the Japs saw defeat.

[DRAGONFLYDF]

use the electric rust removal method, will take a while, but no scrubbing and should be able to make out the markings if there are any left.

otherwise you have a great stake to hold up a plant.

[us019255]

you have a great stake to hold up a plant.

My first thought was Tomato Stake

[SgtSki]

My father-in-Law & a much older cousin of mine were both on Okinawa for the battle there, I was there in 1970-71. They told me that after the island was secure there were dumps of small arms over much of the southern half of the island and they were allowed to take what they wanted. Any machine guns and left over Nambu pistols & rifles were put on barges and dumped in the ocean. Even when I was there GI's were finding full clips of ammo all corroded and the bomb disposal unit was busy with unexploded bombs and ordnance most of it was our stuff. We used to joke that the stuff we were dropping must not be that good if there that many duds.

[pdawg1911]

Since the mum is still visible, is any of the serial number visible ? It would be on back left side of receiver, near the cut out.

Thanks,
Pat