Japanese Type 99 Caliber 7.7

[Siskiyou]

My wife’s father was part of the occupation of Japan after WWII.  He had two of these rifle plated and turned into lamps.  A few years after he passed away my mother-in-law asked if I wanted them.  She advised me that they needed some work.  I put them into lamp cartons and stored them in my garage until yesterday.

After I re-wiring them and getting them polished up we plan on having the mother-in-law, her husband, and the kids and grand kids out her for dinner.  The rifles were a major part of the ambience of my in-laws home.  The first time I walked into their home over 46-years ago I knew years ago and spotted the rifles, the large colonel’s eagle over the fire place that I was in the right house.

[1911crazy]

Thats neat,  they look great. I been thinking of making lamps out of old stocks too.  With the trigger to turn them off and on thru a chain operated bulb socket.  I need them for my Man Cave that i'm building soon.

[GRIMJIM]

I guess the damage was already done before you came along, but I would rather shoot them than turn them into lamps. I enjoy shooting mine.

It's nice of you to keep them up as a rememberance.

I have a restaurant near me that has two mosin nagant m44's as door handles. Again I'd rather shoot mine, but to each his own.

[Siskiyou]

I asked my father-in-law why he did not bring the rifles home as shooters.  He responded that they had collected a lot of late war manufactured rifles they did not consider shooters and they were not allowed to take the rifles out of Japan.  By converting the rifles to lamps he was allowed to take them as household furniture.

The bolt face has been drilled out and the firing pin and spring are missing.  There is a second cut in the bolt body.  I am not sure if this cut was made to disable the bolt.  The safety knob is missing off the back of the bolts.   The wiring for the lamp is routed down the muzzle, into the magazine box (minus spring and carrier) into the bolt cut and out the bolt into the stock exiting the heavy metal base.

The floor plate in the original lamp had a toggle switch which turns on a small lamp in the base.  There was glass between the legs in the base.   You can see the hole in the floor plate that held the toggle for the lower lamp in the base.



 These items were broke in the many moves after Japan to U.S. Army bases in Alaska, Virginia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  When the father-in-law retired the rifles made a few more moves. 

I am thinking one rifle is of early manufacture and not the late war product.  The production of the Type 99 started in 1939.  The rifle shown is serial #49xxx; the second rifle is serial #7xxxxxx
A friend’s dad had one when we were kids.  I think it was a shooter, but his dad always said it was not a safe rifle to shoot.  At one time there was one converted to 257 Roberts in a local shot but it was like trying to sell road kill.  There was a lot of Springfield’s, M96 Swedes, and British Enfield’s to be had.

When my father-in-law returned to the States he bought a 30-06.

The more I polish on the rifles and have them broke down the more respect I have for them.

[GRIMJIM]

They are interesting and after rereading my post, if I came across as disrespectful I really didn't mean it that way.

[Siskiyou]

GRIMJIM:

I had similar thoughts when I spotted the rifles, I thought what a waste, and it would be neat to shot the rifles.  But then my soon to be father-in-law gave me the history.

Made a shopping trip and bought wiring a large shade hoop for the second rifle.  I had the material for the first rifle-lamp so the job went quicker.   GRIMJIM post spurred me to take a closer look at the second rifle as a shooter.  The exterior barrel and receiver appear to be unaltered except for the plating.  The bolt has been bored-out, and cut for the wiring.  It appears that a complete bolt, properly head spaced could turn the rifle into a shooter.

I never looked down the bore of rifle one, but a looked down #2 showed a black hole.  I have no idea if the bore was cleaned before the lamp was created.  It took a lot of passes to get things moderately shinning in the black hole.  It appears that this rifle had seen a lot of rounds.  The first four to six inches of rifling was badly eroded.  Was this erosion caused by a lot of use, corrosive ammunition or a combination of both?  How the light socket is mounted on the barrel there is little opportunity for dust to enter the bore.  I think the bore was not touched when the lamp was created except to put the adapter over the end for the light socket and mounting for the shaded.

I understand the early standard for the Type 99 bore was chrome lining.  The bore appeared to be badly fouled, without any sign of rust.  If somebody has a link to information regarding 7.7 Japanese WWII ammunition I would like to read it.

I have some hunting rifles that have seen a lot of rounds over the years but none of them showed the erosion the #2 barrel shows.

The #2 rifle will make an appearance in the living room in the next couple of days.